[Azure]

EDIT4: The math discussion section finally opened up 1 seat and I took it, so this is my new schedule:

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EDIT3:They opened up some more math discussion sections, so now my schedule should look like this:

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EDIT2: They cancelled the CS 3 class I was going to take and replaced it with an even worse CS 3L class that has 6 hours of lab per week; as of now, my schedule is going to look like this:

My other choice is this:

One has really long blocks of class, and with the other I have to wake up before 8:00 a.m.

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EDIT: This is what my schedule looks like it's going to be:

But the problem is that dealing with 4-6 hour long stretches of lectures/discussions/labs without breaks might be difficult. The alternative is to have 10:00 a.m. classes every day:

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I have orientation tomorrow, during which I will sign up for my first 10.5 units. To current and past college students, are there any tips or recommendations that you have as far as choosing time slots for courses goes? Are there certain time slots to avoid, certain times to place labs/discussions, etc.?

I have two proposed schedule plans. The first has my computer science & physics labs/discussions at a later time in the day, and the second has them at an earlier time in the day (but consequently my English lectures and math discussions have been moved to later in the day). What do you guys think:

First:

Second:

Red = Lecture
Green = Lab
Blue = Discussion

Here are my available course times:

English R1A:
Lecture:
MWF 11-12P
MWF 12-1P
MWF 1-2P
MWF 3-4P
TuTh 11-1230P
TuTh 1230-2P
TuTh 2-330P
TuTh 330-5P

Math 1B:
Lecture:
MWF 11-12P
Discussion:
TuTh 1230-2P
TuTh 2-330P
TuTh 330-5P


Physics 7A:
Lecture:
TuTh 2-330P
Discussion/Lab:
M/W 12-2P
M/W 2-4P
M/W 4-6P
Tu/Th 12-2P
M/W 2-4P
Tu/Th 4-6P
Tu/Th 10-12P

CS 61A:
Lecture:
MWF 2-3P
Lab/Discussion:
M/W 4-530P
Tu/Th 11-1230P
Tu/Th 1230-2P
Tu/Th 2-330P
Tu/Th 330-5P
Tu/Th 5-630P
W/F 11-1230P
W/F 1230-2P

From what I can tell, the good thing about the first is that I have an easy, short day on Friday that'll blend smoothly into the weekend. The good thing about the second is that my physics and computer science labs/discussions will be earlier in the day so I won't be wiped out later in the day (unless that's usually not a problem for most students?). I'm not a morning person and I plan to wake up around 10 a.m. or so everyday (Which is still quite early, but it's the latest I could get while still being able to schedule all of my classes). I have 10 minutes to get from class to class, but that shouldn't be a problem. It may only be a problem for schedule 2 on Mondays going from math to physics (Valley Life Sciences Building to LeConte; for those that know the Berkeley campus, is this farther than a 10 minute walk?).

 

[jun41]

I would say go for the first one. Everything isn't as packed and then you won't be as drained when you get back from class. Even short breaks can help conserve your energy. Last quarter I had three lectures packed back to back (writing, physics 7A and calc) I ended up not going to them too much

. But the schedule shouldn't matter much anyway since you'll be studying all the time.

 

[Azure]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jun41 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would say go for the first one. Everything isn't as packed and then you won't be as drained when you get back from class. Even short breaks can help conserve your energy. Last quarter I had three lectures packed back to back (writing, physics 7A and calc) I ended up not going to them too much . But the schedule shouldn't matter much anyway since you'll be studying all the time.

But wouldn't it be bad having my computer science and physics labs & discussions late in the day? Somebody on another forum advised against labs/discussions very early or very late in the day.

 

[Goh]

For me, having classes one after the other was helpful. I'm the kind of person who likes to have a large block of time to devote to studying, so on the semesters when I had small breaks between classes, I usually ended up wasting time.
It depends on your personality and study habits, really. If you're the type who procrastinates (as I did, and still do), maybe breaks between classes might be helpful to rush those last-minute assignments.
The most important thing is to attend class, finish everything on time, and keep up with the material. It's really not that hard. Be sure not to overload yourself during your Freshman year, either with extracurricular activities or too many hard classes. Good luck!

 

[SysteX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goh /img/forum/go_quote.gif For me, having classes one after the other was helpful. I'm the kind of person who likes to have a large block of time to devote to studying, so on the semesters when I had small breaks between classes, I usually ended up wasting time. It depends on your personality and study habits, really. If you're the type who procrastinates (as I did, and still do), maybe breaks between classes might be helpful to rush those last-minute assignments. The most important thing is to attend class, finish everything on time, and keep up with the material. It's really not that hard. Be sure not to overload yourself during your Freshman year, either with extracurricular activities or too many hard classes. Good luck!

Well said. It all comes down to your own personality. I'm not a morning person, and I can't stand having short 30-minute breaks in between classes (I end up just wasting the time), so I make sure to have a compact class schedule with no classing starting before noon. It makes the semester much more enjoyable, as the classes fit into my normal circadian rhythm.

 

[Sh0eBoX]

yep agreed, make your schedule according to the type of person you are. if you're not a morning person, don't schedule too early as you're likely to want to skip class.

what i've learned is that scheduling classes back to back is better than leaving a small, say, 1 class period gap between each class. with such a short amount of time, i found that it's not very easy to get anything done. you're likely going to not want to go home as by the time you get home you'll only have 15 minutes before you have to head to your next class. there's no way you'll get anything done. try to block your classes together and then you will have the rest of the day to do any studying or lounging.

while it doesn't sound like a great idea, believe me it is great. it's not like high school where you have 7 or 8 classes back to back all day. you'll find that you have a lot more free time than you would imagine (at least for the first year or two).

and as for labs, if your labs are like ours (3 hrs long once a week or every other week), i suggest not scheduling them on exam days. i did that last semester, and i regretted it. it gives you a lot less time to do some last minute touch-ups before the exam, and you'll likely be in class until about exam time. this means you'll most likely be drained for the test and not do as well (at least this is what i discovered about myself).

 

[lumanogin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goh /img/forum/go_quote.gif For me, having classes one after the other was helpful. I'm the kind of person who likes to have a large block of time to devote to studying, so on the semesters when I had small breaks between classes, I usually ended up wasting time. It depends on your personality and study habits, really. If you're the type who procrastinates (as I did, and still do), maybe breaks between classes might be helpful to rush those last-minute assignments. The most important thing is to attend class, finish everything on time, and keep up with the material. It's really not that hard. Be sure not to overload yourself during your Freshman year, either with extracurricular activities or too many hard classes. Good luck!

Yea I agree also. It depends on your personality. I'm the same way. I liked my classes early and back to back, so I had the afternoons off (at least when I didn't have labs) so I had all that time to study if I needed to.

However, you need to learn to be really flexible after a couple of years. By the time I was a senior, all of the upper level 4000 and 5000 courses were offered only for one time block and I had 1-5 hour gaps between classes, and some days I only had one class and the other days 4 classes for a given day.

Get into the habit of going to class no matter what too in your college career. Always have a fresh mind and have an idea of what's going to be discussed before you walk in. The freshman year makes or breaks most people. If you can't get into the groove the first semester, it's a lot harder to get into it later on. College can be fun, but you should remember the reason you're there.

 

[Lou Erickson]

My experience was that I needed some time between classes, so I'd have gone with the first schedule. Time to clear the mental palette between subjects, time to get from one to the other or ask a question or talk to anothter student between them without being in a rush.

I also was more interested in the computer classes, so having them later wasn't a problem. I needed to schedule the stuff I wasn't good at first thing so I was as fresh as possible. In my case, that was math classes.

I also discovered, much to my shock, that a 6:30am class was wonderful. I had to get myself up and out in the morning, and get to class. Once there, I could actually park within sight of the buildings, and I got off earlier, to do homework and studying before it was late.

Normally, I'm a late person, but early can be really good. Of course, a friend of mine described that as hell, too, so your experiences may be different.

 

[Asr]

Heh, college. Those were good times.

- Make sure you leave enough time for lunch every day. Lunchtime provides a good break and it's always nice to be able to sit down and relax someplace, and watch all the students pass by.

- Even though you say you're not a morning person, IMO you should try to schedule your classes as early as possible, and develop the habit of waking up earlier. Sorry if this sounds harsh, and no offense either, but when you enter the workforce later, it will not be forgiving. You should start waking up earlier and IMO it's a good idea to start training yourself now. I speak from personal experience in saying that the earlier you wake up, the more successful you'll be. When I was in college I wasn't a morning person either, but I set my classes to start at 8 or 9 wherever possible anyway, and that ended up being very helpful.

- Make sure you'll have enough time to get between classes. Sounds obvious of course but you don't want to be racing between buildings and get to class late. There'll probably be lots of foot traffic too.

So you might want to look into a bike if necessary. But in general, it's a good idea to group classes together, for more time structure.

- Afternoon classes are always the most popular so that's when you'll see the most number of students going around. More students = more foot traffic = slower going.

 

[The Actual]

I would strongly recommend trying to schedule classes such that your day is over as early as possible. Ideally around three or so with Fridays earlier.

This may mean that your first class would end up being at nine or something, but at least at Case Western in Cleveland, where I was last year, everyone stays up late enough that everyone is setting an alarm if the class is before three or four.

For me and most of my friends, it didn't really matter if we were waking up "early" for a nine thirty class or for a one fifteen class, it was still a pain to get out of bed.

Additionally, getting done before four or five is really nice since it seems to free up the day a lot, and can make scheduling group work much more flexible.


Hey, have fun. I hope you really enjoy yourself.

 

[granodemostasa]

don't be stressed about getting from one part of campus to another in time... classes can be stacked since the campus is small. I have always liked the idea of large blocks of classes, followed by time off to eat and do work because of the flexibility it allows.

also.. R1a... 7a... 1b??? taking popular freshmen classes like these is how people end up in mammoth lecture halls surrounded by a sea of half-asleep students. Please try to take FSS classes and non-popular options to fulfill your requirements.

 

[Azure]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa /img/forum/go_quote.gif don't be stressed about getting from one part of campus to another in time... classes can be stacked since the campus is small. I have always liked the idea of large blocks of classes, followed by time off to eat and do work because of the flexibility it allows. also.. R1a... 7a... 1b??? taking popular freshmen classes like these is how people end up in mammoth lecture halls surrounded by a sea of half-asleep students. Please try to take FSS classes and non-popular options to fulfill your requirements.

Well, Math 1B is pretty standard, is it not? What am I supposed to take in place of it if I plan to take Math 53 second semester? What's wrong with Physics 7A? Should I be taking H7A instead, the HONORS version of Physics 7A? English R1A classes are like ~30 students. These seem to be customary classes as an EECS major (With a little leeway on fulfilling the Reading & Comprehension requirement, for which I decided to choose English R1A as everything else on the list looked uninteresting). Who doesn't take Math 1B? And I HAVE to take either Physics 7A or Physics H7A, and the obvious choice would be to take the non-honors 7A class. And lastly, English R1A seems like a good way to satisfy the first half of the Reading & Comprehension requirement.

 

[nysulli]

as others have stated, schedual classes based on the type of person you are

fortunitly, my undergrad physics department was small, and we had a sort of student lounge/office, where all the soph. and older students had their own desk, and the freshmen got to share 2, I tried to keep an hour break between all my classes and with the use of the office (less then 5 min from any class) i had a nice quiet place where i could quickly get stuff done, start the assignment just assigned, a last flip through the notes for the exam next class, or just having that time to catch the prof. if i had a question on something, i didn't really mind the long blocks of class either, but 5 hour blocks like your second schedual are a bit much (did it once, never ever did it again)

 

[GSurge]

I have found that having all my classes in succession is preferable to spreading them out. Those breaks are really just wasted time for me. Next semester I am going to leave for Calculus at 9 am and not return to my room until probably 7 pm or so.

Edit: This is partly because I am a student government officer, and have office hours.

 

[uzziah]

imho the worst is: class, then an hour, then a class, then another hour etc.

i prefer a class and then time to go home, or just a block of classes together