Dealing With Large Course Load

[clipclop]

I am currently in the first year of a 2 year diploma program for mining. It's a full time program with about 8-9 courses per semester which comes out to around 29-31 credit hours.

I felt I struggled quite a bit getting through the first two semesters I got two C's last semester and I felt I did not perform well this semester. This semester I tried to manage my time by putting focus on subjects that I felt would be more difficult such as chemistry, physics,surveying and surface mining. The other subjects I had to take were calculus I, mineralogy and petrology, cad and mining safety. I had taken calculus I in the past and I didn't apply for transfer credit because the next semester would also be 8 courses so I felt it to be important to learn time management.

I am wondering what else I could do to manage my large course load.

 

[Joshy]

I hope I'm not being a jerk by suggesting that you should take less courses, and especially when your courses become more advanced. I'd totally understand if this were dance and art, but you're talking about calculus and chemistry. Honestly: How much information are you absorbing? You're really not doing yourself a favor here and I feel like you are going to burn out even if you can manage it.

 

[clipclop]

I hope I'm not being a jerk by suggesting that you should take less courses, and especially when your courses because more advanced. I'd totally understand if this were dance and art, but you're talking about calculus and chemistry. Honestly: How much information are you absorbing? You're really not doing yourself a favor here and I feel like you are going to burn out even if you can manage it.

The school chooses the amount of courses I have to take so I have no choice in that part of it. But I am currently searching to see if I can drop a course in a full time program because it seems I can only do it for a part time program. I will probably have to ask the department head if I can do that.

 

[Vanadium 50]

This is crazy. They are asking you to complete a bachelor's in two years, with no Gen-Ed classes - you could go "part time" and still take double the load of a four-year BS program.

 

[SteamKing]

In my second year at naval architect school, we were taking 21-22 hours of the regular engineering course work in 7 courses (subjects like thermo, strength of materials, ODEs, etc.) with one elective, which was either a 2 or 3 hour course. All of these engineering hours were course work with 1 lab (metallurgy) so the homework was quite crazy to keep current. If you survived this semester of the course, chances are you could handle whatever else was thrown at you for the rest of the program, which at that time consisted of a lot of project work with minimal class time.

Our school had a fixed curriculum, so everybody took the same courses at the same time. You could not re-arrange your academic schedule to make things easier.

Still, 30 hours in a semester is a bit much, IMO.

 

[clipclop]

In my second year at naval architect school, we were taking 21-22 hours of the regular engineering course work in 7 courses (subjects like thermo, strength of materials, ODEs, etc.) with one elective, which was either a 2 or 3 hour course. All of these engineering hours were course work with 1 lab (metallurgy) so the homework was quite crazy to keep current. If you survived this semester of the course, chances are you could handle whatever else was thrown at you for the rest of the program, which at that time consisted of a lot of project work with minimal class time.

Our school had a fixed curriculum, so everybody took the same courses at the same time. You could not re-arrange your academic schedule to make things easier.

Still, 30 hours in a semester is a bit much, IMO.

This is pretty much how the program is structured. I can't rearrange my schedule and everyone takes the courses at the same time.

This is crazy. They are asking you to complete a bachelor's in two years, with no Gen-Ed classes - you could go "part time" and still take double the load of a four-year BS program.

Is it normal for part time courses to be completely different from full time courses? Some of the part time courses offered don't appear to have an equivalent in the full time program.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Is it normal for part time courses to be completely different from full time courses? Some of the part time courses offered don't appear to have an equivalent in the full time program.

I don't see how this is all that relevant. 31 credit hours is 93-124 hours per week, depending on which rule of thumb you use. That's unrealistic.

 

[Mondayman]

It's a full time program with about 8-9 courses per semester

8-9 courses per semester? That just sounds criminal. Most schools I know of don't even allow students to take more than 7.

 

[axmls]

This is unfathomable. 31 credit hours is a typical year of courses.

 

[clipclop]

8-9 courses per semester? That just sounds criminal. Most schools I know of don't even allow students to take more than 7.

The program requires me to take all of those courses at once. I emailed the department head to see if I can take less courses in the program or not.