Quarter System

[Blarghgarg]

I'm starting a program at a university that uses the quarter system. I have always attended schools on the semester system. Does anybody have insight on adapting to quarters?

[comp12]

Don't fall behind! Don't get sick. Don't procrastinate grading midterms and finals if you're a TA! Don't get ambitious planning your "spring break."

[michigan girl]

Like the previous poster, time management will be more important than ever. The courses will fly by very fast, and you won't have to wonder when will a course end. I went to college on a quarter system, so it's important not to fall behind and procrastinate on assignments. Quarter systems can be good because a bad or boring course will end more quickly and you can take a greater variety of courses that intrigue you, but it also means that you must stay on task with your assignments.

[mandarin.orange]

I'm starting a program at a university that uses the quarter system. I have always attended schools on the semester system. Does anybody have insight on adapting to quarters?

 

Get ready for a 10-week flat-out sprint. 

 

I was used to teaching on a semester system (high school) where there were natural "lulls," so we had time to take 3 and 4-day weekends on occasion, travel to conferences and out-of-town locales for fun. I could show "Planet Earth" eps to my Earth Science kids, or time to do an easy project or lab after testing. 

There is no such time in the quarter system. My first term, I planned a 4-day weekend to visit the long-distance BF. I was grading constantly on the plane, during the visit, felt it took me almost 2 weeks to feel some modicum of "caught-up." I also worked all day, every day during Thanksgiving break.

 

Make friends and study groups in your more difficult classes so that you can jigsaw the material and help each other. Spend a good chunk of most weekends working, esp. if you throw conference presentations and travel in the mix. 

 

Otherwise I really enjoy having about 3-4 weeks off for the holidays, and starting the academic year end-of-Sept. 

[crossedfingerscrossedeyes]

Figure out your paper topics for classes ASAP, although I think that's a general piece of advice for everyone. With quarters, though, it's even more imperative to start earlier because you have less time. In one of my classes, the instructor wanted to space out final presentations (one a class), which means we started giving presentations 6 weeks into the quarter. Almost all of my instructors did emphasize during the first year that they know the quarter system's different, though, and that the type of paper one can produce in that timeframe is different than a semester paper.

Everyone where I am always knows which week it is and measures time as such (As in, conversations go "How's your week 4 going?" "I can't believe it's week 8!" etc.). It takes a bit to get used to, but quarter systems have a distinct rhythm to them that I never felt in semesters, and together create a different sense of larger academic-year rhythm.

[mandarin.orange]

Figure out your paper topics for classes ASAP, although I think that's a general piece of advice for everyone. 

 

This is a great point I forgot. After a couple quarters, I got super selective re. classes and wouldn't really take any where I didn't already have a topic in mind that I wanted to research either as part of my dissertation, or one of my secondary research interests.