How Much Time Should My Child Spend Studying?

The general rule espoused by most colleges is that students should expect to spend two to three hours outside of class to prepare for each hour spent in class. Therefore, a student enrolled in 15 credit hours should expect to spend 30 to 45 additional hours completing assignments, reading, studying and working on papers outside of class. Of course this isn’t always the case for every class and students may spend only one or two hours outside of class for one course and four hours for another. In fact, the most recent report published by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) found that most students actually spent much less time preparing for class.

“Results from 2013 show that in a typical week, first-year students averaged 14 hours and seniors averaged 15 hours preparing for class (studying, reading, writing, doing homework or lab work, etc.).”

http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2013_Results/index.cfm

Any way they slice it though, students should consider college to be their full time job and expect to spend between 45-60 hours each week in class, and preparing for class. My experience with students indicates that those who spend this amount of time and effort will thrive instead of struggle.