8 a.m. classes

[Xavier434]

If I went back to college right now I would still have trouble with 8am classes even though my work day starts at 8am everyday and I do just fine at work. My mind just doesn't take in academic instruction that early very well. For people like me, it is unwise to take classes that early. Taking them later is a more strategic and wise move.

Isn't this also part of the reason why many places do not hold meetings until later in the morning or even afternoon?

 

[skace]

I used to bitch about getting up for 10am classes. Then I entered the real world and now I get up at 4:10 am to be at work by 5:30am. Sometimes it just takes a nice smack from reality.

 

[jai6638]

Man, I'm gonna be taking Multivariable Calculus at 9:15 am this fall and not looking forward to it.. I hear its a hard class at my school and I'm not very good at visualizing in 3d anyways so lets see how it goes!!

Going to work at 8 am is not as bad as going to class at 8!!! At my internship this summer, even thoug I'd walk in at 8, I'd start becoming productive around 9! Before 9, I'd just make coffee, check email and talk to my colleagues! On the other hand, I remember my AP Physics class from 8 - 10 am junior year of high school.. I found it hard to concentrate during the whole class and used to finally feel energetic right when the class would get over.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Xavier434

Originally posted by: Leros
That's when we got out. All the other high schools in the city got out at 3. We had 2 hour classes, which were excellent compared to the standard 50 minutes classes most schools have.

We also had harder teachers than the other high schools. For example, I was ranked #41/~550, but at the second best high school in town I would've been ranked in the top 5.

I just went to an academically excellent school, which brought all the smart kids to it, which in turn brought better and harder teachers.

What did you gain out of it that students such as myself with more typical hours got? Also, understand that what you went through is highly unusual so you can't expect others to have gone through it.

I know is unusual. Although, I figured that if you were college bound, you were going to be taking at least a few advanced classes which equates to at least a few hours of work a night. Apparently I was wrong in that assumption.

As far as what I gained. I'm not quite sure. I tend to be in the top portions of my class and I feel like I work less (ie. more efficient) than most people.

Could I have done this well without my high school experience? I'm not sure.

But I'm happy with the way things turned out. And, I've come to expect myself to work really hard. If I did anything less, I would feel lazy and be unhappy with myself.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

Maybe high school started at 9 or 9:30? Also he maybe had a shorter walk to school.... You don't know the facts here.

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Most jobs will start that early. Man up and take it, it's good for you.

Are you a doctor? Why is it good for him to wake up earlier than he wants and then go to one of his most difficult classes while he is only half awake?

Originally posted by: Oil
Drink coffee. Lots of coffee

This is probably the best and most usefull advice in this thread. Dont waste 2 or 3 dollars buying coffee out. Instead, brew your own. It's much more cost effective, even if you spring for good arabica roasts. Generally cheap robusto coffee has more caffeine, but it's bitter. Arabica coffee is a lot smoother and not so bitter, but it also has less caffeine. The darker the roast, the more caffeine that has been burned out of it.

My personal favorites are usually medium roast Sumatra mixes. They don't have quite the "wake up power" of some of the common robustos (Foldgers, etc), but they are really quite delicious and they have enough oomph to get me going in the morning.



I'm 28 and currently work from 6:30am until 3pm as a C developer. I'm not at all a morning person (ideally, I would wake up around noon and go to sleep at sunrise every day) but some coffee in the early morning helps me make it through the day.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: jai6638
Man, I'm gonna be taking Multivariable Calculus at 9:15 am this fall and not looking forward to it.. I hear its a hard class at my school and I'm not very good at visualizing in 3d anyways so lets see how it goes!!

Going to work at 8 am is not as bad as going to class at 8!!! At my internship this summer, even thoug I'd walk in at 8, I'd start becoming productive around 9! Before 9, I'd just make coffee, check email and talk to my colleagues! On the other hand, I remember my AP Physics class from 8 - 10 am junior year of high school.. I found it hard to concentrate during the whole class and used to finally feel energetic right when the class would get over.

well...the only hard part is actually graphing the 3d plot. The math is really easy though. Mathematically, it's nothing new. It's just integrals and derivatives on the x, y, z axis. And you do it one at a time.

 

[Auryg]

I love how nobody has mentioned how your circadian rythm changes the older you get - I'm 20 and I'm the most awake at about 10 PM, and most college students are the same (although maybe not as bad as me). If I just do what my body wants to do, it menas going to sleep at 3 or 4 AM, and waking up at about 11 AM or so. This is *normal* for people my age, and as you get older it shifts until when you're really old and go to sleep at 8 PM. I don't have any links on hand, but high schools that have delayed the start by an hour have seen grades increase.

So yes, 8 AM classes are absolutely retarded. All of you old fogies are so convinced that the kids just want to stay out late and party, but you try waking up at 3 AM every day, it'd be about the same for you as waking up at 6-7 is for us; we can then yell at you that there's something wrong with you if you can't get to sleep by 7 PM. Schools should go off of the kid's natural sleep schedules, not the teacher's - but everyone needs the daycare that are public schools now, so I doubt we'll see that happen.

By the way, here's one link talking about what I'm talking about: Link

I did a lot of research into this due to my own problems (although not really related, I learned a hell of a lot about sleep schedules, phases of sleep, etc).

 

[0roo0roo]

i wonder if theres a study on the fail rate of such early classes.

 

[acheron]

I usually show up at work by 9:30. Sometimes I miss, though, and don't get in until 10.

I would not work somewhere that doesn't have flex time.

 

[ViviTheMage]

love 8 am classes, wish they had them earlier!

 

[zylander]

Thats why I register early and get classes no early than 10am.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: queenrobot
Having to be at work at 7:30 everyday sucks also.

i open at 630. quit yet bitchin

/but classes arent until 11

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: zylander
Thats why I register early and get classes no early than 10am.

My school doesn't even do registration by how fast you sign up. It's set a week before, you bid for classes and then they are assigned based on seniority, number of available slots, and how you ranked your classes in the order of which was most important for you to least important.

 

[ric1287]

Originally posted by: Gulzakar
You want to know the sick part? Once you leave school and bask in the glory of the real world, you'll crave to be sitting in an 8AM calc class rather than show up to work.

having done both, I'd much rather get paid to be up at 8am than sit in a boring classroom falling asleep.

 

[bonkers325]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

Because you don't need to absorb much information in higschool or at your job. Try following multi varible calculus (or any other difficult subject) at 8am in top-10 program...

I had Grad macroeconomics last semester at 8am... never made it on time.

I spent more time working in high school.

High school:
School 8:00am - 4:30pm
Get home, eat
Homework from 6:00pm - 2:30am (average night)

college:
School 10:00am - 2:00pm
Work for about 6 hours
I actually have time to relax in college.

6pm to 2:30am for homework? i call absolute shens on that. even if you took all AP classes it wouldnt have been that much, unless you were taking additional classes for shits and giggles.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: bonkers325

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

Because you don't need to absorb much information in higschool or at your job. Try following multi varible calculus (or any other difficult subject) at 8am in top-10 program...

I had Grad macroeconomics last semester at 8am... never made it on time.

I spent more time working in high school.

High school:
School 8:00am - 4:30pm
Get home, eat
Homework from 6:00pm - 2:30am (average night)

college:
School 10:00am - 2:00pm
Work for about 6 hours
I actually have time to relax in college.

6pm to 2:30am for homework? i call absolute shens on that. even if you took all AP classes it wouldnt have been that much, unless you were taking additional classes for shits and giggles.

I took all AP classes (6) my senior year - never had more than a half hour of homework between all my classes. Though, if he went to a serious hs, I could see having a few hours (tops) of work. 6-230 seems a little extreme.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: bonkers325

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

Because you don't need to absorb much information in higschool or at your job. Try following multi varible calculus (or any other difficult subject) at 8am in top-10 program...

I had Grad macroeconomics last semester at 8am... never made it on time.

I spent more time working in high school.

High school:
School 8:00am - 4:30pm
Get home, eat
Homework from 6:00pm - 2:30am (average night)

college:
School 10:00am - 2:00pm
Work for about 6 hours
I actually have time to relax in college.

6pm to 2:30am for homework? i call absolute shens on that. even if you took all AP classes it wouldnt have been that much, unless you were taking additional classes for shits and giggles.

My high school classes were about the same difficulty as what I took in college.

40-50 or so calculus questions take 3 hours. 10 physics questions take 3-4 hours. An average of 1-1.5 hours of reading for English. Etc, etc.

We sent kids to MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc and they all spent about the same amount I did, so I'm not an idiot. We just had a lot of work.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

I slept in all my classes in HS and still got As. Can't do that with college. Luckily I haven't had an 8am class since I was a Freshman.

 

[Ns1]

8am classes are great if you never want to go to them


10am classes are awesome

2pm classes are better


but now I start my days at 6am =X

 

[trmiv]

Jeez, listen to the e-geezers come out of the wordwork. Do you all walk uphill both ways to these "real world" jobs? I've been in the "real world" for 13 years, and if I had to go back to school right now I'd still avoid taking an 8am class like the frigging plague. At my "real world" job I have an office with a card keyed door, so when I show up at 8am I can grab some coffee, read emails, check voicemail, and avoid doing any work that requires any major thinking until the coffee kicks in. If i had to sit and listen to someone lecture me about multi-variable calculus at that hour it would go in one ear and out the other, and I'd likely end up in a pool of drool on the desk at some point.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: queenrobot
Having to be at work at 7:30 everyday sucks also.

Having to be at work at 7am on EVERY SATURDAY and working till 7pm sucks.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: JohnCU

Originally posted by: queenrobot
Having to be at work at 5:00 everyday sucks also.

fixed.

fixed again

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Auryg
I love how nobody has mentioned how your circadian rythm changes the older you get - I'm 20 and I'm the most awake at about 10 PM, and most college students are the same (although maybe not as bad as me). If I just do what my body wants to do, it menas going to sleep at 3 or 4 AM, and waking up at about 11 AM or so. This is *normal* for people my age, and as you get older it shifts until when you're really old and go to sleep at 8 PM. I don't have any links on hand, but high schools that have delayed the start by an hour have seen grades increase.

So yes, 8 AM classes are absolutely retarded. All of you old fogies are so convinced that the kids just want to stay out late and party, but you try waking up at 3 AM every day, it'd be about the same for you as waking up at 6-7 is for us; we can then yell at you that there's something wrong with you if you can't get to sleep by 7 PM. Schools should go off of the kid's natural sleep schedules, not the teacher's - but everyone needs the daycare that are public schools now, so I doubt we'll see that happen.

By the way, here's one link talking about what I'm talking about: Link

I did a lot of research into this due to my own problems (although not really related, I learned a hell of a lot about sleep schedules, phases of sleep, etc).

Uh, if I just go to bed whenever the hell I please then I will go to bed at 3 or 4am also. That doesn't mean my work is cool with it, and something called responsibility and an alarm clock ultimately rules the decision.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: Leros
You did it during high school, you can do it during college. I don't understand why college kids all of a sudden can't wake up.

because they are too stupid to go to sleep. I have never understood the need for kids to stay up till 4 in the morning and then start whining about how early it is when I go to my 10am class....

Im hoping that one of these days I get some roomates that understand the concept of sleep and why it is important.

I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death.

I figured it all out though. We all know that you will spend roughly one third of your life sleeping, correct? So if you sleep 23 hours a day, you will live to be 200 years old. QED.

Unfortunately, when that math is applied to my own sleep schedule, I'm already dead.

 

[quikah]

All you folks in the "real world" have crappy jobs. I haven't had to get in before 10 since my first job out of college, everything since then has been get your work done on time and come in whenever.