How often do studies get in your way?

I would like to know, how often does homework, exams and other school-related things get in your way?

In my case, I get tons of homework that is very time-consuming and exams are the same thing, except harder. Since I study to become a designer it is all about practice, so I get a few theorical exams and loads, and loads of practic exams. To make it worse I have to keep my scholarship...meaning I can't fail any subject and I have to get an outstanding grade every single semester. My schedule does not help, most of my courses are 3 hours a day, so I go to campus from 7am to 4pm. It's kind of far so I get home at 5pm...and still must work on homework. Most of my classmates get at least one completely sleepless night a week! Teachers even tell us we should not be in relationships "other than with our career".

So I think you get the idea, I do not really have time to get a job (meaning I can't pay my own visits to my SO's place) and sometimes we have to skype while still making homework. In order to be able to talk to my SO daily, I've had to learn to work super fast and use my free hours at school to work too. In order to get money I've had to get a few jobs during vacations. Since my SO comes during that time, I can't get a very strict schedule either... so I've worked illustrating children's books and it's worked for me

It's got an advantage though...since I try to get most HW done before 8pm when my SO comes online, by that time hw can't get much longer and by 9:30 or 11 at most I am already done, meaning I won't get a sleepless night like my classmates I think I became organized thanks to my SO. I am used to all of this already and I've found ways to get all work done, talk to my SO and go out on weekends (not ALL weekends, but enough for me). When I have to work on handy stuff (models, drawings, etc) my SO tells me a story while I work it's really cute.

So...as students, how often does work get in your way and how do you handle it? How does your SO take it? Has it ever caused any trouble in your relationship? Share anything related, we might learn one thing or two from each other

[Filly]

School is not an issue now but it will be when he gets here. I thought my semester would have ended the regular time which would cut in our time for two weeks. As it stands now, my semester has extended for two weeks and so it's going to serious affect the time we will spend together.

[Deleted]

I wish you the best of all when your SO arrives... I remember being in partials during one of his visits. I managed to work it out but I ended up absolutely exhausted! It was worth it all though. It's frustrating when semesters become extended...

[Sora1101]

Honestly I hardly ever did my homework at home I made sure I got most if not all of it done in school and I've never studied anything but spelling before in my life soooo but I have yet to start college and I know all hell will break loose in the fall when that happens so we shall see.

Most of the time it's his work that gets in the way, I even manage to text at school while he's unable to talk at all during is 9-10 hour shifts.

[Deleted]

I miss that from highschool! I rarely had work at home and I did not need to study either. I still don't study much! because I have very few theorical courses. I'm studying to become an industrial designer so most of the work is making and making stuff with loads of different materials. Since not all of them can be gotten at school...well there goes my time...

[Haley53]

I feel like the big changes will come in graduate school, when I'm juggling a more demanding (and difficult) courseload in addition to internships and, hopefully, paid work as well.

Currently, in my undergraduate career, homework is not overwhelming given that with our budget, our schools don't currently have the resources or finances to assign homework that involves time-consuming grading. Sometimes it's presentations, sometimes quizzes/exams, sometimes papers, but none of it really eats away at my time. Working with students (I'm a tutor and life coach) proves to be more time consuming than my own studies are, frankly.

[sewbama]

Yea, when I was an undergrad (Over a year ago - AH!), I had SO much more time. I very rarely had homework or studying to do. It was all pretty easy. I actually had time to sew/craft on the side. He is a PhD student, and has been since we met. He also has a research assistantship, which is supposed to be 20hrs a week, but is more like 80. So he's always really busy. When we were LD a year ago, he would work a lot during the week, not sleeping much. We'd talk every night, but usually not for long. But we had visits every weekend. We only lived an hour apart, but he didn't have a car... But for most of the time we were at a distance, he would work himself crazy during the week so we'd have free weekends. Around exam time, that didn't really work, but he still didn't work much during the weekend.

This year, I got my masters. We lived together. I had an hour commute, and a part time job. It was nuts. I was crazy busy. And so was he. We didn't see each other much. I was very rarely home. And my school projects were huge. I don't know how I got through it. I never had time to do any leisure activities. I honestly think we spent more time together when we didn't live together. But knowing that he would be in the same bed at the end of the day was worth all of it.

I'm about to move three hours away for more school. Then we'll both be PhD students... And I'll have my own research assistantship, that will hopefully really be 20 hours. We're planning every other week visits, but we're keeping our minds(schedules) open depending on how busy we are. I really have no idea how busy I'll be. I HOPE not as busy as him. Because if I am, we'll never see each other. I hope we'll still be able to talk every night, and keep our visits relatively free.

[Yaaamiii]

What year are you in? And are you in the United States? I know that sounds weird, but my SO is studying to be an industrial engineer as well, and from your posts, it's kinda scaring me a bit. xD I've heard colleges overseas are different (I don't know how true that is obviously lol) and I'm just curious. I really hope that doesn't happen to that extent to my SO xD. Partially because he can be terrible with his time management skills.

[efish1042]

Not unless it's cram time usually. I know how to balance my work load and he knows how to put it off until the last possible no-way-he-could-do-110%-on-it second. So... exams and big projects crams are really the only issues there. I'm going to be going to his uni this fall tho and I am going to make sure he doesn't procrastinate quite as badly.

[Tooki]

It largely depends on what you study.

In Australia, Engineering/Science/Medicine typically has a class load of 20 hours a week. And with Engineering and Medicine, you have a LOT of homework to go with it. Plus the subjects are hard. My friends in Engineering say how they set the pass mark at 40% for some subjects and others have a notoriously high fail rate.

In Business/Arts though, you get heaps of spare time. You can easily have your weekends free/work part time with no problems if you are efficient with time. I'm not so sure how it is overseas though (but I figure it is similar).

You seem like my friend Aurora. He studies a ridiculous amount, and needs to maintain a 75% average to keep his scholarship. He is also a genius, who usually gets 80% for his subjects.

[Filly]

Due to pushing his coming home time forward, school is going to seriously mess with our time together in a big way. I work full time from 8am - 5pm and I go to school Monday - Friday from 5:30pm - 8pm. On top of that my son waits up for me to put him to bed at nights. I'm going to have to do some serious aerobatics to see him.

Thankfully he has loads of family to look after him while I'm busy but I know he'll still want quality time with me.

[Deleted]

What year are you in? And are you in the United States? I know that sounds weird, but my SO is studying to be an industrial engineer as well, and from your posts, it's kinda scaring me a bit. xD I've heard colleges overseas are different (I don't know how true that is obviously lol) and I'm just curious. I really hope that doesn't happen to that extent to my SO xD. Partially because he can be terrible with his time management skills.

Haha, I just finished only the first year! But I've heard the first year is harder...I want to believe that soooo badly. I study in Mexico and in my university, for that specific career, we are known for having tons of work :P it might be different for your SO. Also well...there's the fact that I must keep my grades up because of my scholarship. I don't know your SO's situation though so I won't go further into that, plus there are many things involved...like my home being far from all the stores where the materials I need are sold, far from school, machines being expensive, etc. And at my city we are said to be workaholics! So maybe not the same for your SO. I wouldn't worry, anyone can eventually get used to it with time and maybe get some time management skills too. In my case, I'm famous for being the only one who "can actually sleep every night" and I'm said to have aliens that help me (my silly classmates have this "theory"); but it's in fact time management and using my free hours wisely.

Good luck for him, industrial design is a great career, with or without the homework.

[Yaaamiii]

Haha, I just finished only the first year! But I've heard the first year is harder...I want to believe that soooo badly. I study in Mexico and in my university, for that specific career, we are known for having tons of work :P it might be different for your SO. Also well...there's the fact that I must keep my grades up because of my scholarship. I don't know your SO's situation though so I won't go further into that, plus there are many things involved...like my home being far from all the stores where the materials I need are sold, far from school, machines being expensive, etc. And at my city we are said to be workaholics! So maybe not the same for your SO. I wouldn't worry, anyone can eventually get used to it with time and maybe get some time management skills too. In my case, I'm famous for being the only one who "can actually sleep every night" and I'm said to have aliens that help me (my silly classmates have this "theory"); but it's in fact time management and using my free hours wisely.

Good luck for him, industrial design is a great career, with or without the homework.

Oh ok, that makes more sense . Thanks! My SO's situation is a little complicated to explain, but the simple answer is, he started as a general engineering major, did two years, and then transferred to a different school. Those first two years were really hard for him. He had to take Physics, Calculus 1-3, Differential Equations, Chemistry, etc. His transferring delayed him a little bit. He finished his 3rd year, but at his school, industrial engineering is a 5 year program, and he's already delayed a semester (I think). He technically just started taking industrial engineering courses. :P So we'll see for the future. It does scare be a bit though. He's a huge procrastinator, as I am, so waiting 'till the last minute for him would mean terrible time management skills. xD I do the same thing, except my classes are easier, so I can afford to wait 'till the last minute. We'll see :P.

Y sos hispana! Igual que yo =).

[MathnSkating]

I know I am a pretty serious student. I get absorbed in my work and I tend to forget about everyone. My friends are used to me disappearing periodically for a week when I'm busy. My SO was not particularly amused. However, what I found was I expanded my awareness to include him. So I fell off the face of the earth for everyone but him. I was still memorizing formulas while we were talking, but eh, it worked.

I guess the answer is that yes, studying sort of gets in the way. Its not a total road blocker though. It just means I don't text as much usually. We still talk every day. Actually what I found worse than studying was my job. I worked evening (after classes) and finding time to talk was hard.