How much Independent Study should you do at Uni?

When students enter university life they are excited as they are going to start their new chapter of life and we can say independent life. As the student is going away from home and entering the university. The student is excited for the fresher week, social events, etc but with this, they have to balance their academic life also. And thus it is important for you to know how much time you need to give to your independent study.

Quick Takeaways

• The amount of independent study that you need to do will depend upon the subject you have taken. 
• On average you will need to give 30-35 hours per week.  

However, you must read till the end to understand how much independent study should you do at university.

How much Independent Study should you do at Uni?

The student has to give time to study independently by themselves depending on the subjects. If the student has taken a course such as medicine, dentistry, or any science subject the subjects require timetable learning and contact hours. In it, you have to learn by taking the help of a teacher to study the subjects.

When we talk about courses such as English, history, humanities subjects, etc the subjects do require more independent studies. The approximate study a student should do independently and contact time is around 30-35 hours per week which means that around 4 hours per day a student needs to do independent study at University.

What does independent study entail?

There are many students who think that independent study means that they have to just cram the notes before the Night of the exam but this is not done in independent learning. You will learn more effectively when you read the content verbally which can be done by dispersing the lectures with your friends or reading flashcards loudly.

Independent study also involves learning by taking the help of a tutor, they can read and make notes by themselves from the free textbook. They can also plan and review their assignment and study with their friends on the project etc. 

How do first-year students study? 

A student starts the university journey generally when they are of 18 years. The first-year student will be more interested in making a social life so they find a friend by which they can study for the next few years at the universities.

Making a friend at the University will help the student to take less pressure from university life and studies. Meeting with new people and knowing their culture extra will increase the student’s personal growth and also help them in some way in academic growth.

How do first-year international students study? 

Being an international student and coming to another country for studying will be more challenging for you as you have to adapt to the new lifestyle. For foreign international students, it will be very tough and scary to adapt to the new lifestyle and routine of the university. International students studying independently in the first year will be less seen as they will be busy getting similar to the foreign country.

Taking the experience of the people’s lifestyles of different countries can be considered more advantageous than studying. This doesn’t mean that the international student should not study independently as being international students they have to maintain the mark of scoring high grades.

Due to this, they may feel pressure and it will lead to stress and social isolation. To solve this problem the student should plan to study with a group of friends and should study for 4 to 5 hours a day.

Should a student take part in Extracurricular activities?

Going to universities and just focusing on academic activities will cause you stress. So you should take active participation in daily activities such as playing Sports and joining social clubs so that you could distract yourself for some time from your studies.

Doing extracurricular activities will develop many skills in you such as communication skills and teamwork. These skills will be helpful for you in your future careers. As these are the skills that are being looked for by the employer to hire candidates for a job. So you should actively participate in extracurricular activities and should maintain academic activities also. 

Conclusion

The student should do independent study at University for approx 4 to 6 hours per day as just learning in the class will not help the student to score high grades easily unless they spend their time and do hard work. As the academic life at the university is much tougher than the other degrees, students should not waste their whole time enjoying life.

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