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Author Topic: How many hours do you study?  (Read 1786 times)

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Delis101

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How many hours do you study?
« on: July 18, 2020, 06:02:52 pm »
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Hello, I am wondering how many hours do you guys study on weekdays and weekends. Which subjects do you study? Do you study multiple subjects a day? And study tips for QCE thanks.

AngelWings

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Re: How many hours do you study?
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2020, 12:24:39 pm »
+11
Hi Delis101.

I’ll did VCE, not QCE back in the day, but the content and workload is comparable. As unhelpful as this is, the number of study hours someone does varies depending on how much they personally require and it’s very much a personal thing, so what works for you may be completely different to me.

That being said, here’s my answers:
How many hours did you study on weekdays and weekends?
I was a slow person when it came to studying, taking my sweet time to get things right and fluent before moving on. My study hours varied but, not including the time I spent procrastinating mixed in there, I probably would say I studied maybe 3-4 hours in total on each weekday. I didn’t study on a Saturday as I was usually busy. On Sundays, it was probably the same, 3-4 hours once procrastination was taken out.

Which subjects do you study?
I would pick the subjects that need the most urgent care at that point in time. For example, let’s say you have an English essay in 2 days and homework from Methods and History due tomorrow. Then, I’d tackle these three subjects and if I had any spare time, I’d either review my weakest subject or review to what I learnt in class that day/ week.

Do you study multiple subjects a day?
Depends on the amount of stuff you need to do. I wouldn’t put a hard number on the subjects you must study a day and just adapt to what you have to do. If you have one single large assessment
from your weakest subject and you know it’s going to take the whole night, then that’s the most important bit. For me, I usually got somewhere between 1-3 subjects done a night, but if I had lots of homework from all subjects then that number would rise.

Unfortunately I can’t help with QCE-specific tips, so I’ll leave this to someone else.
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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tinglewood

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Re: How many hours do you study?
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2020, 10:31:27 am »
+2
Hi Delis101

As all my internal assessments have been completed and we have started doing revision during our class times I have started making 1 to 2 page summary notes on each of my subjects. I also generally spend 2-3 hours on weekdays studying one subject per day (summary notes, memorising and question practise). On the weekends I spend 4-5 hours on two subjects. I have started looking at past papers on the weekend but not doing them under exam conditions yet. I have also started writing out practise essays for English. Incidentally, I do allow myself time to pursue my interests as well (exercise, gaming, etc).
Good luck with your study

s110820

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Re: How many hours do you study?
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2020, 12:21:29 pm »
+8
Hello, I am wondering how many hours do you guys study on weekdays and weekends. Which subjects do you study? Do you study multiple subjects a day? And study tips for QCE thanks.

Hi Delis101,

I'm so glad that AngelWings could help you with her amazing advice! It's really great to see people from other states contributing to the QCE forums. I can also help you if you would like - I'm a QCE student and I am about to graduate this year, so I have compiled all of my tips and tricks that I used to survive QCE this year below. The subjects that I do are General Maths, English, Biology, Modern History and Literature, so hopefully, some subject-specific advice can help you as well. If not, I would be more than happy to ask around the forums for other subject-specific advice.

How many hours did you study on weekdays and weekends?

Similarly to AngelWings, I am also a bit of a slow learner so I break up my workload into smaller and manageable "chunks" of twenty-five minutes of productivity and five-minute breaks. My hours of productivity also varied as I also get distracted a lot but on weekdays, I usually aim to do one to one and a half hours of homework and then five Pomodoro review sessions (one for each subject). In these "review" sessions, I summarise the content that I learnt in class that day and then, if I have the energy to, I will make revision materials such as mindmaps and flashcards to review on the weekend. My weekdays generally tends to look like this:

Monday - since I have a singing lesson in the evening, I organise my time and "bursts" of productivity around this activity. For example, since my singing lesson starts at 5:15 pm, I work backwards to ensure that I am able to fit in some of my homework and my review sessions before then. However, since I usually get home after school at 4:00 pm, this means that I can only get my homework done before my singing lesson and my review sessions after my singing lesson.

Tuesday - it's a similar situation for Tuesday and Thursday as well. An after school activity my school offers are free "maths help" sessions which are on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, which I aim to go to every week as while maths is one of my weakest subjects, I would really love to improve my grade as for once in my life, I can actually understand the content. These sessions start at 3:30 pm and end at 4:15 pm and it usually takes me around 10-30 minutes to get home (depending on if I take public transport or not), so yet again, I will get home at around 4:00 pm which enables me to repeat my routine from Monday afternoon. 

Wednesday - On Wednesday afternoons, I used to have a tutoring session with my absolutely amazing but a bit expensive tutor from 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm but at the moment, her schedule is reconfiguring because of dissertation and internship committments so we are working together to arrange a new time to meet. Unfortunately, while I do have enough time in the afternoon (e.g. 4:00 to 5:00 pm) to do my homework, I don't really have the capacity to do all of my review sessions in the afternoon or evenings other than an hour after dinner (I usually aim to finish my homework, study or revision at 7:30 pm so I can unwind before I go to sleep at 8:30 pm). But in this scenario, I use the study sessions that I have at school (since I dropped a subject), which are usually 45 minutes to an hour-long to catch up on the reviews.

Thursday - Pretty much the same as Tuesday. Again, the "maths help" session start at 3:30 pm and end at 4:15 pm and it usually takes me around 10-30 minutes to get home (depending on if I take public transport or not), so yet again, I will get home at around 4:00 pm which enables me to repeat my routine from Monday afternoon. 

Friday - In terms of Friday evenings, it's one of my most productive days at the moment. Before the pandemic, I use to work at a restaurant from 5:00-9:00 pm, which means that I can barely get any of my work done but I have been stood-down because of restrictions. Now, I can get home at 4:00 pm and do a solid three and a half hours of productivity without worrying about if need to portion chicken or not (it just feels and smells really gross so it's probably the least favourite part of my job).

On the weekend, I usually aim to split my productivity in half.

Saturday -  I aim to do at least five of my 25-minute Pomodoro sessions (one for each subject) where I further review my revision materials by creating quizzes for me to answer and see where I need to work on. This enables me to understand what my strongest and weakest topics of a particular subject area so I can further work on (prioritise) these topics more than the topics that I am confident with.

Sunday - my "self-care" day where I prepare and "unwind" for the week ahead so I don't do as much as I usually would.  On this day, I would do about five ten-minute sessions of a review of what I got wrong (I usually summarise what I got wrong in a sentence and then rewrite it as many times as I can to really "stick it" into my brain, which is what works for me - I believe this process is called "retrieval") or I would do the "smaller" tasks of going through my Quizlet sets for quotes I need to remember.

In the weeks leading up to my exam week or "stand down" as we call it, I will tend to study for a little bit longer than usual by using my lunch breaks and the hour before school starts to really get "my head in the game" (sorry for the High School Musical reference but it's pretty much the only way I can explain it).

Disclaimer: Please note that I do also procrastinate so all of these numbers are purely estimates and/or may not be correct as I'm not going to lie, but I kinda suck at maths oops.

Which subjects do you study?

Personally, I prioritise my subjects based on two factors: difficulty and when it's due. If it's an assignment and it's due before my other subjects, I would focus on that so I don't procrastinate and leave it to the last minute. But if it's an exam, I prioritise my subjects based on how difficult I find the content and each individual weighting. For example, my maths and biology exams are both weighed as 50% of my overall grade but my "writing-based" subjects of English, Literature and Modern History are weighed as 25% so I tend to focus on maths and biology more as these subjects are also my university prerequisites.

This is what I am prioritising at the moment (from most to least difficult/weighting):

1. Biology
2. General Maths
3. English
4. Literature
5. Modern History

But the key advice I would give you in terms of what subjects should you study really depends on how you feel about those subjects. Of course, some subjects are going to be easy for some and harder for others, so I would advise you to tune into how you feel about the subject and if you grasp (understand) the content as much as you can. If not, you should prioritise that subject before anything else. For me, I have learnt throughout my QCE journey that prioritisation is the key to academic success!

Do you study multiple subjects a day?

Similarly to AngelWings again, it really depends on my workload and if I am physically and mentally able to study multiple subjects a day. After school, I'm usually drained of energy (as due to being an introvert in an over-stimulated environment and the fact that I'm anaemic) so I sometimes take a quick fifteen-minute nap to regain some energy. I usually try to be as productive as I can, but sometimes, there are days where I can barely pick up a pencil because I'm so drained of energy. But another important thing that I have learnt in my QCE journey is to prioritise yourself before your academics. Yes, it does sound daunting and scary to think about, but in reality, if you don't look after yourself, barely sleep and depend on coffee to get you through the day, your school results are not going to be in your favour. The key to academic success is to look after yourself as your mind and body cannot function if you don't fuel it with the love and attention you deserve.

Other tips and advice

Find a balance between your workload and your health. I struggle with my mental health a lot - mainly social and general anxiety - so I find that doing little chunks of productivity, whether it may be for ten or fifty minutes - works for me, but it may not work for you.

My other advice is to experiment as much as you can - figure out what study methods and Pomodoro times e.g. 1 hour or 25 minutes etc. (if you use this method) work for you. The most important thing to understand is that there isn't a "one fits all" scenario when it comes to studying.

In reality, the two main aspects of studying are discipline/mindset and understanding how you learn. If you would like some more advice of how to understand how you learn or how to be disciplined/have the right mindset when studying, please let me know as I would be more than happy to elaborate with more advice.

Also, consistent!! routines!! are!! important!! (I learnt this the hard way - through anxiety attacks, stress and tears). So start now, don't wait until it's too late. Trust me, it's worth it.

Best of luck with your studies and kind regards,

Darcy Dillon.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2020, 02:02:11 pm by s110820 »
QUT 2021 - Bachelor of Education (Primary).

Delis101

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Re: How many hours do you study?
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2020, 04:16:38 pm »
0
Hi Delis101.

I’ll did VCE, not QCE back in the day, but the content and workload is comparable. As unhelpful as this is, the number of study hours someone does varies depending on how much they personally require and it’s very much a personal thing, so what works for you may be completely different to me.

That being said, here’s my answers:
How many hours did you study on weekdays and weekends?
I was a slow person when it came to studying, taking my sweet time to get things right and fluent before moving on. My study hours varied but, not including the time I spent procrastinating mixed in there, I probably would say I studied maybe 3-4 hours in total on each weekday. I didn’t study on a Saturday as I was usually busy. On Sundays, it was probably the same, 3-4 hours once procrastination was taken out.

Which subjects do you study?
I would pick the subjects that need the most urgent care at that point in time. For example, let’s say you have an English essay in 2 days and homework from Methods and History due tomorrow. Then, I’d tackle these three subjects and if I had any spare time, I’d either review my weakest subject or review to what I learnt in class that day/ week.

Do you study multiple subjects a day?
Depends on the amount of stuff you need to do. I wouldn’t put a hard number on the subjects you must study a day and just adapt to what you have to do. If you have one single large assessment
from your weakest subject and you know it’s going to take the whole night, then that’s the most important bit. For me, I usually got somewhere between 1-3 subjects done a night, but if I had lots of homework from all subjects then that number would rise.

Unfortunately I can’t help with QCE-specific tips, so I’ll leave this to someone else.



Thank you so much for replying. Your explanation is going to greatly help me with my studies.  ;D

Delis101

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Re: How many hours do you study?
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2020, 04:17:39 pm »
0
Hi Delis101,

I'm so glad that AngelWings could help you with her amazing advice! It's really great to see people from other states contributing to the QCE forums. I can also help you if you would like - I'm a QCE student and I am about to graduate this year, so I have compiled all of my tips and tricks that I used to survive QCE this year below. The subjects that I do are General Maths, English, Biology, Modern History and Literature, so hopefully, some subject-specific advice can help you as well. If not, I would be more than happy to ask around the forums for other subject-specific advice.

How many hours did you study on weekdays and weekends?

Similarly to AngelWings, I am also a bit of a slow learner so I break up my workload into smaller and manageable "chunks" of twenty-five minutes of productivity and five-minute breaks. My hours of productivity also varied as I also get distracted a lot but on weekdays, I usually aim to do one to one and a half hours of homework and then five Pomodoro review sessions (one for each subject). In these "review" sessions, I summarise the content that I learnt in class that day and then, if I have the energy to, I will make revision materials such as mindmaps and flashcards to review on the weekend. My weekdays generally tends to look like this:

Monday - since I have a singing lesson in the evening, I organise my time and "bursts" of productivity around this activity. For example, since my singing lesson starts at 5:15 pm, I work backwards to ensure that I am able to fit in some of my homework and my review sessions before then. However, since I usually get home after school at 4:00 pm, this means that I can only get my homework done before my singing lesson and my review sessions after my singing lesson.

Tuesday - it's a similar situation for Tuesday and Thursday as well. An after school activity my school offers are free "maths help" sessions which are on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, which I aim to go to every week as while maths is one of my weakest subjects, I would really love to improve my grade as for once in my life, I can actually understand the content. These sessions start at 3:30 pm and end at 4:15 pm and it usually takes me around 10-30 minutes to get home (depending on if I take public transport or not), so yet again, I will get home at around 4:00 pm which enables me to repeat my routine from Monday afternoon. 

Wednesday - On Wednesday afternoons, I used to have a tutoring session with my absolutely amazing but a bit expensive tutor from 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm but at the moment, her schedule is reconfiguring because of dissertation and internship committments so we are working together to arrange a new time to meet. Unfortunately, while I do have enough time in the afternoon (e.g. 4:00 to 5:00 pm) to do my homework, I don't really have the capacity to do all of my review sessions in the afternoon or evenings other than an hour after dinner (I usually aim to finish my homework, study or revision at 7:30 pm so I can unwind before I go to sleep at 8:30 pm). But in this scenario, I use the study sessions that I have at school (since I dropped a subject), which are usually 45 minutes to an hour-long to catch up on the reviews.

Thursday - Pretty much the same as Tuesday. Again, the "maths help" session start at 3:30 pm and end at 4:15 pm and it usually takes me around 10-30 minutes to get home (depending on if I take public transport or not), so yet again, I will get home at around 4:00 pm which enables me to repeat my routine from Monday afternoon. 

Friday - In terms of Friday evenings, it's one of my most productive days at the moment. Before the pandemic, I use to work at a restaurant from 5:00-9:00 pm, which means that I can barely get any of my work done but I have been stood-down because of restrictions. Now, I can get home at 4:00 pm and do a solid three and a half hours of productivity without worrying about if need to portion chicken or not (it just feels and smells really gross so it's probably the least favourite part of my job).

On the weekend, I usually aim to split my productivity in half.

Saturday -  I aim to do at least five of my 25-minute Pomodoro sessions (one for each subject) where I further review my revision materials by creating quizzes for me to answer and see where I need to work on. This enables me to understand what my strongest and weakest topics of a particular subject area so I can further work on (prioritise) these topics more than the topics that I am confident with.

Sunday - my "self-care" day where I prepare and "unwind" for the week ahead so I don't do as much as I usually would.  On this day, I would do about five ten-minute sessions of a review of what I got wrong (I usually summarise what I got wrong in a sentence and then rewrite it as many times as I can to really "stick it" into my brain, which is what works for me - I believe this process is called "retrieval") or I would do the "smaller" tasks of going through my Quizlet sets for quotes I need to remember.

In the weeks leading up to my exam week or "stand down" as we call it, I will tend to study for a little bit longer than usual by using my lunch breaks and the hour before school starts to really get "my head in the game" (sorry for the High School Musical reference but it's pretty much the only way I can explain it).

Disclaimer: Please note that I do also procrastinate so all of these numbers are purely estimates and/or may not be correct as I'm not going to lie, but I kinda suck at maths oops.

Which subjects do you study?

Personally, I prioritise my subjects based on two factors: difficulty and when it's due. If it's an assignment and it's due before my other subjects, I would focus on that so I don't procrastinate and leave it to the last minute. But if it's an exam, I prioritise my subjects based on how difficult I find the content and each individual weighting. For example, my maths and biology exams are both weighed as 50% of my overall grade but my "writing-based" subjects of English, Literature and Modern History are weighed as 25% so I tend to focus on maths and biology more as these subjects are also my university prerequisites.

This is what I am prioritising at the moment (from most to least difficult/weighting):

1. Biology
2. General Maths
3. English
4. Literature
5. Modern History

But the key advice I would give you in terms of what subjects should you study really depends on how you feel about those subjects. Of course, some subjects are going to be easy for some and harder for others, so I would advise you to tune into how you feel about the subject and if you grasp (understand) the content as much as you can. If not, you should prioritise that subject before anything else. For me, I have learnt throughout my QCE journey that prioritisation is the key to academic success!

Do you study multiple subjects a day?

Similarly to AngelWings again, it really depends on my workload and if I am physically and mentally able to study multiple subjects a day. After school, I'm usually drained of energy (as due to being an introvert in an over-stimulated environment and the fact that I'm anaemic) so I sometimes take a quick fifteen-minute nap to regain some energy. I usually try to be as productive as I can, but sometimes, there are days where I can barely pick up a pencil because I'm so drained of energy. But another important thing that I have learnt in my QCE journey is to prioritise yourself before your academics. Yes, it does sound daunting and scary to think about, but in reality, if you don't look after yourself, barely sleep and depend on coffee to get you through the day, your school results are not going to be in your favour. The key to academic success is to look after yourself as your mind and body cannot function if you don't fuel it with the love and attention you deserve.

Other tips and advice

Find a balance between your workload and your health. I struggle with my mental health a lot - mainly social and general anxiety - so I find that doing little chunks of productivity, whether it may be for ten or fifty minutes - works for me, but it may not work for you.

My other advice is to experiment as much as you can - figure out what study methods and Pomodoro times e.g. 1 hour or 25 minutes etc. (if you use this method) work for you. The most important thing to understand is that there isn't a "one fits all" scenario when it comes to studying.

In reality, the two main aspects of studying are discipline/mindset and understanding how you learn. If you would like some more advice of how to understand how you learn or how to be disciplined/have the right mindset when studying, please let me know as I would be more than happy to elaborate with more advice.

Also, consistent!! routines!! are!! important!! (I learnt this the hard way - through anxiety attacks, stress and tears). So start now, don't wait until it's too late. Trust me, it's worth it.

Best of luck with your studies and kind regards,

Darcy Dillon.

Thank you for this in depth explanation. This will greatly impact my studying habits positively  :)