How many hours of study?

keane155

Hi,

This is probably going to sound like a really stupid question, but how many hours of home study (excluding college) would you recommend doing a week at tecnician level? I have the limited companies exam in about nine weeks and then personal tax a few weeks after that - so far we have done two lessons on each - I am trying to learn stuff at the weekend and after work (when I don't have college). I was thinking about using my lunch hour to revise too.

I was just wondering how much we should be doing.

Thanks,

Emma

Rinske

It's not so much about how many hours you do, but more how to study efficiently.

I know there is some recommended guidelines, but I got no clue how much they are.

Try and make sure you understand what you are doing, rather than staring at the text for 3 hours and not understanding what you are doing. If you feel very tired, usually there is not much use to trying to study either.

jewels.p

I am taking two exams in Nov/Dec MAC and BTC and I am Distance Learning. I am trying to aim for 15 hours a week (not this week though too much going on) and that is on two subjects. I have heard people say they are studying 15 hours a week on one subject but 30 hrs a week is totally impossible for me.

My advice is like Rinske says dont spend hour after hour studying as it all starts to merge into one and nothing sticks try to do a couple of hours a day if possible and you will find things will click.

I used to panic and think I should be on Past Papers at least a couple of months before the exams but am now only looking to be at that stage around the end of October begin of Nov (a few weeks before the exams)

Everyone is different in the way that they study but that is how it works for me.

Good Luck :001_smile:

PGM

Rinske wrote: »

It's not so much about how many hours you do, but more how to study efficiently.

I know there is some recommended guidelines, but I got no clue how much they are.

Try and make sure you understand what you are doing, rather than staring at the text for 3 hours and not understanding what you are doing. If you feel very tired, usually there is not much use to trying to study either.

Thats good advice. Needs to be quality revision time. I often get up early at weekend and do 3 or 4 hours of solid work and then still have the rest of the day pain free!

keane155

Thanks for the advice jewels.p, PGM and Rinske - Its useful to know how other people are studying. I'll try and do at least 15 hours if that is what other people are doing. PGM - your idea of getting up early at the weekend and doing three or four hours seems quite good - I like my lie ins, but getting it all out of the way in the morning sounds quite good. I've not even started on past papers yet, I'm not sure when I'll be doing those.

Thanks again.

Emma

Rinske

I'm not sure how many I did. But I used to do two or three evenings a week and a full day on Saturday, so 15-18 hours per week. Saturday's I started around 8 or 9 and would study till about 6 in the evenings, with some breaks of course.

However I still stick to the point, don't pin yourself on the number of hours, but on the quality of the hours. My Saturday's seem long, but I took quite a few breaks and if I really got too tired, I would easily take an hour break and instead go on longer or do it on another day or evening.

keane155

Thanks Rinske, I think I'm going to have to do most of mine at the weekend, I've only managed an hour tonight, and that was with a couple of breaks!! - Not a great start but I probably should have started it a bit earlier tonight. I'll probably have to start drinking a lot more coffee in the evenings, I'm finding it really hard to concentrate on the stuff when learning it at home and also at college - probably should give up when I start getting tired.

Lou1234

I can often only manage 1 hour each night (maybe 1.5 hours some evenings if I really get into it!). I don't get home from work until 7 and am normally tired from my commute! I have dinner and chill out until 8 and study until 9.

I try and do more at the weekend if I'm home. Do around 2 hours at a time with a break. My breaks consist of having a walk outside, having a relaxing lunch and things like that.

I've been away and need to get back into it. I will study this week!

exam panic

Difficult to say but you have to put the hour in until you understand the subject.

Rinske

I am quite lucky, as I get home from work around 5 o'clock, so I just do a workout on my crosstrainer (very boring, but healthy) and then have a quick shower and start studying around six. My boyfriend does the cooking, so I don't have to worry about dinner.

I usually stop somewhere between eight and nine, because otherwise I go to bed and just keep thinking and dreaming about study stuff and wake up tired the next morning.

LucyN

Ive just passed the Technician papers DFS, BTC and PCR. I didnt really do any additional studying other than the work in class, i think i did half a day per topic revision of reading through notes and a couple of practice exams papers just before the exams. So thats prob about 10 hrs per subject overall.

What sort of things do people do when they spend so many hours revising, per week, it it because people dont work in practice etc? or should i be doing something else?

steveJ

Rinske wrote: »

I usually stop somewhere between eight and nine, because otherwise I go to bed and just keep thinking and dreaming about study stuff and wake up tired the next morning.

Ive done this loads of times. Got home from work about 6. Have some dinner and get on with the studying, but the longer it goes on with me trying to understand the subject i find that i get to bed at around 10 and am laying there thinking about it !!!!
I think you can study tooooo much...lol

Jacalina

I think it totally depends on the person really.

My experience was similar to LucyN in that I didn't need to do much studying outside of college. Our tutor was brilliant and structured the classes by teaching for the first half and then setting us away doing LOADS of practice examples for the second half. If we didn't finish them in class it was our homework. When it got to about a month before the exams our classes were all past paper/revision focused anyway and it was only really then that I spent time studying outside of college. I used to do a few hours each weekend for a month before the exams, just going over areas I was having any problems with. I passed all my exams first time so clearly that worked for me. However there were other people in my class who did much more studying at home than me and there were times when that made me panic and wonder if I was doing it the best way.

Just do what you feel is right for you.

PGM

I'm starting to get obsessive compulsive over these exams.

Its Monday morning and I badly need a weekend....

Marga

PGM wrote: »

I'm starting to get obsessive compulsive over these exams.

Its Monday morning and I badly need a weekend....

i am glad i have two days off Monday and Tuesday , didnt do much during the weekend

i studied only Saturday morning and then spent the rest of saturday and sunday at a birthday party .....


how sad of me, my friend did his own birthday cake and here i was asking him how much flour had he used and how much time he spent and then i was comparing it with the ingredients on the cake box.....in a way i felt better....i was revising variances!

A-Vic

Marga wrote: »

i am glad i have two days off Monday and Tuesday , didnt do much during the weekend

i studied only Saturday morning and then spent the rest of saturday and sunday at a birthday party .....

wow now thats what i call a party

keane155

Really panicking about these exams now!! Was looking forward to the christmas holiday but seems like I'll be spending most of it doing limited companies accounts revision - already spending most of my time studying, personal tax next week - exam has come round so quickly!! So much work - just wish there were a few more hours in the day!!

jewels.p

I just want them over now so I can start thinking about the Holidays................saying that now but when I open the paper I will probably wish I had another month to revise. What a feeling that is when you open the paper and get stuck on the first question it makes you really panic and think you know nothing! :ohmy:

keane155

jewels.p wrote: »

I just want them over now so I can start thinking about the Holidays................saying that now but when I open the paper I will probably wish I had another month to revise. What a feeling that is when you open the paper and get stuck on the first question it makes you really panic and think you know nothing! :ohmy:

That happened with the ECR paper last year, I just wanted to cry when I looked at the paper, I was so convinced that I had failed it!! I think most people thought the same, hopefully we will get nice papers lol.

Lou1234

In a few exams I've actually started on section 2 as I felt happier with it! Then by the time I've completed it I'm ready for section 1!! I'm just a bit odd like that!

keane155

Lou1234 wrote: »

In a few exams I've actually started on section 2 as I felt happier with it! Then by the time I've completed it I'm ready for section 1!! I'm just a bit odd like that!

I've not really thought about that - I'm doing personal tax and don't really understand the deemed occupation bit of PPRs so section 2 is a bit rubbish for me. I don't really want to do a computer based exam anymore, would prefer it if they give instant results but a 6 weeks wait I will be so glad to get the exam out of the way, seems like never ending study and work lol. Hopefully it'll be worth it in the end though.