After deciding which school you are attending and what you want to study over there, choosing your classes is the next big decision on your student’s schedule. A big decision that occurs every single semester, unless you are too late!
For now, finals are over and vacation time is being enjoyed by most of us. You might want to kick back, relax and forget everything about school; or you might be one of those that can’t wait for classes to start again. Regardless of the group of people you belong to, you will have to choose your classes pretty soon if it’s not already done. You might know that if you want the “perfect schedule” and the definition varies from students to students, you might have to wake up early to register as soon as classes are open.
Choosing your classes can only take a few minutes or it can take days depending on your methodology. When I was listening to my friends’ methodologies, I realize that not everybody has the same goal in mind when selecting their classes. Here are some of the methodologies I came across:
- Scheduling hard to party harder
- First things first
- Try to make it easy
- Getting into a specific school or program
- A mix of everything
Let me explain each one of them with more details.
Scheduling hard to party harder:
Some of my friends were trying to maximize their week-ends so they would only register for classes held consecutively in the week. They will try to only have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays or Wednesdays and Thursdays. They would have two or nearly three full days of class and enjoy sometimes 4 days of week-end which could sound pretty awesome. It is a great way of choosing your classes, especially if you have a job on the side or of if you like to party a lot. The first obstacle I observed regarding this way of choosing was that after that long of a week-end, it might be hard for some people to start working intensively and efficiently for 3 full days right away. The second issue that comes to my mind would be the exams. In the schools I’ve attended, most exams had to be taken during class time. If you have 5 classes in 2 or 3 days, it might also mean that you will have 5 exams in 2 or 3 days. Do you think that you can handle that?
Other students reached the same objectives but in another way. In order to be able to party all week, some students would only register for lectures held in the afternoon during the whole week. It allowed them to party at night, sleep in the morning, and study the afternoon. They could reproduce this cycle all week long for a full semester.
First things first:
Other people start by the requirement classes first. Once they get all the requirements out of the way, they are free to take any elective classes later in their academic career. The issue with that system is that requirement classes or gateway classes are often hard classes too. If you focus on taking them during the first semesters, you might also commit to work harder the few first semesters to maintain good grades. Gateway classes are essential because they allow students to take some higher level classes but since they are harder, focusing on taking only these sounds a bit overwhelming to me.
Try to make it easy:
I also heard of student regrouping classes by subject. They would take all their biology classes the same semester for example and all their English classes the next one. That system doesn’t seem bad as it allows you to mainly focus on one subject. It might also be easier that way because some Economic classes for example, have several parts of the course in common. If you learn it in one class, you actually did the work for two or more classes. The downside is boredom… Having a semester full of History classes might be fatal to some us!
Other students pay close attention to the lengths of classes. In fact, some students would rather see their “favorite teacher” once a week for three hours than three times a week for an hour. The classes’ lengths never affected my choices but now that I think about it would have helped me get through my most boring courses. The three hours lecture of history held would almost feel like a decade to me; making it harder to stay focus the entire class. I wish I thought about that earlier!
Getting into a specific school or program:
Some of my friends applying to graduate school found themselves not able to get in the program they wanted because they did not choose the right classes as undergraduate students. Some schools or some programs require specific classes to be admitted. If you did not take these classes as an undergraduate student, your chances to get in are really slim. Some of us keep that in mind when selecting their classes. However, to apply this methodology, you would have to be sure of what you want to do in the next four of 5 years. Which is not a given to every students.
A mix of everything:
For some us, it might be a little bit more complicated. In fact, some students love to party a lot during the week-end but cannot afford to party as hard during the week. They might also have a part-time job which implies that they would have to synchronize both schedules. And they might also think that grouping subject would make life a lot easier for them. For these students, a mix of some of the previous methodologies might be the best fit. They can take classes from two different subjects and arrange their schedule to avoid classes on Mondays or Fridays for instance. Depending on their work schedule, they might want to make some more adjustments or even some compromises. How many students have you seen taking classes against their will on a Saturday mornings because it was the only available lecture time matching their schedule?
All of these were not the only ways of selecting classes that I’ve seen. Some of my friends were only taking night classes because they would work from 9 to 5. Others, working in retails for example, selected only classes the days they would not work. Other students wanted to minimize their overall time spent in school so they would take the maximum amount of classes each and every semester to make sure to graduate early. . I even saw students selecting classes depending on the traffic on campus. The morning classes are often the most popular so that means that more students would be on campus before noon. They would choose their classes in the morning so they can socialize easily with other students. With all that being said, how do you choose your classes?
