College and University Blog
New Research Shows that Today鈥檚 College Students Are Studying Less
Wondering how much time you should spend studying for your college classes? Some classes will be easier for you than others, but a good rule of thumb is to study two to three hours per credit hour per week. Slightly confusing, I know, so let鈥檚 break it down a bit: if you鈥檙e taking 15 credit hours this semester, you should expect to spend 30 to 45 hours studying each week.
That鈥檚 a lot of time, especially when you add in the time you actually spend sitting in class, but the two-to-three hour suggestion is pretty common. You鈥檒l find it on a lot of websites, in a lot of books, and hear it from a lot of professors. The even suggests that you should 鈥渢hink of college as a full-time job, in which you spend about 40 hours a week on class, labs, section meetings, and study groups, and doing homework.鈥�
How Much do Today鈥檚 College Students Actually Study?
So the Big Question is: do students really spend that much time studying? No way, at least according to new research performed by two California economics professors.
According to a newly released study performed by professors Philip Babcock at the University of California Santa Barbara and Mindy Marks at the University of California Riverside, the average student at a four-year college in 1961 studied about 24 hours a week. Today鈥檚 average student hits the books for just 14 hours.
The explains that Babcock and Marks found that students of all demographics are affected. No matter the student鈥檚 major, gender, or race, no matter the size of the school or the quality of the SAT scores of the people enrolled there, the results are the same: Students of all ability levels are studying less.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just limited to bad schools,鈥� Babcock said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing it at liberal arts colleges, doctoral research colleges, masters鈥� colleges. Every different type, every different size. It鈥檚 just across the spectrum. It鈥檚 very robust. This is just a huge change in every category.鈥�
Babcock and Marks鈥� findings are going to be published in the but many people are wondering if college students ever studied as much as they 鈥渟hould鈥� be studying. If a college student honestly spent 30 to 45 hours a week studying 鈥攁s I mentioned as an example at the beginning of this blog鈥攖hey鈥檇 probably be living at the library.
Don鈥檛 Blame Facebook for a Decline in Studying
Plenty of people are already rushing to the conclusion that this sudden drop in time spent studying is due to the availability of technological gadgets and the mass media, including social media outlets such as Facebook, but Babcock and Marks actually found that study time declined about eight hours per week between 1961 and 1981, about two hours per week between 1988 and 2004鈥攍ong before Facebook came into play.
Back in November 2008, the reported findings from a survey performed by National Survey of Student Engagement. The results back in 2008? About 20% of college students 鈥� the study involved 380,000 randomly selected freshmen and seniors at 722 four-year colleges鈥攕aid they frequently come to class without completing readings or assignments, and many of those students said that they mostly earn A’s.
So Why Are Students Studying Less These Days?
Lynn O’Shaughnessy posted a list of 5 suggested reasons why college students are studying less these days over on and I鈥檓 going to share them with you here.
- Professors fear student evaluations.
- Technology makes it easier to do homework.
- College grades aren鈥檛 as important anymore.
- Schools are dropping language requirements.
- Professors are preoccupied with research.
Babcock and Marks, the professors behind the new study, acknowledge that students are working more and campuses are attracting students who wouldn鈥檛 have bothered attending college a generation ago, but study times are dropping for everyone regardless of employment or personal characteristics.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty shocking,鈥� said Marks.
Melissa Rhone earned her Bachelor of Music in Education from the University of Tampa. She resides in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys writing about college, pop culture, and epilepsy awareness.