<p>There’s a lot of variability in graduate classes. It depends partly on the type of class: a lecture or a seminar. Most frequently, they are seminars, in which you will typically have 2-4 hours per week of discussion with the prof (this is either done over 3 one-hour classes, 2 hour-and-a-half classes, 2 two-hour classes, or rarely 1 three-hour class). You will have lots of reading to do, and depending on your field of study, some writing; if it’s in a STEM field, then that writing is usually replaced with a problem set or some kind of assignment (say, in CS, where you’d have a programming assignment), and these usually do count toward your grade. You don’t typically have midterm exams in these classes and often you don’t have a final exam; instead you have a final project. Rarely if ever is your grade based on a final exam; it’s much more common for a large portion of your grade (40-60%) of it to be based on a project and/or on assignments. If it’s in the humanities or social sciences, it’s most often a final paper. It’s also very common in a seminar for students to be required to present, either in the form of leading a class session or in presenting some final project.</p>
<p>If it’s a lecture, there’s usually 2-3 hours of lecture each week, 1-2 hours of discussion (in section), sometimes a midterm, and usually a final exam or a final project (I think the latter is more common).</p>
<p>If you’re a grad student, I think the maximum units you can take is 10.</p>