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Cristian Aparicio-Diaz

Professor Thomas Suzanne

UWRT 1104

31 October 2018

WID: I believe that the sources and voices that I brought into my thesis are strong. Not only did I

include my voice as a student, but I made sure to also include voices of advisors, professor,

physiotherapist. If I could give my Thesis a grade I would give it a B+.

How much time should students reserve each day for assignments to have a successful year at

college?

At some point of our lives, we all have gone through a time constraining situation.

Furthermore, It is widely known that most college students tend to procrastinate and leave major

assignments for the last minute. For many students attending college this is the first glimpse of

freedom that they are afforded. On top of that this is the first time that students are put to the test

when it comes to balancing their time. On the other hand students in today’s generation are

working a lot more than previous generations of college students. Personally I myself have

struggled in the past, with not leaving enough time to effectively complete all of my

assignments. This is my first semester here at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. And

being that I am attending college while still maintaining a steady part time job at a local body

shop, I have personally seen the struggle,that many others experience when it comes to balancing

our time. More often than not I have assumed that my assignments will not take as long as I

expect, but have been disappointed when I have had to stay up late to complete them. But with Commented [1]: I really like this point and that majority
of your audience can relate to it.
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that being said, the issue seems to be that many other students are also experiencing the same

issues with time management that I have. It was through my own personal experiences and the

experiences from my fellow classmates that eventually sparked the following question, “how

much time do college students need to reserve each day for classwork in order to be successful in

college?”.

As I began on my journey in college this semester almost immediately I had a major

realization. Am I going to have enough time for homework having a job and being a full time

student? It was through my personal experience and the research that I was able to come up with,

that I have learned that this is actually a question that many other students are asking as well. In

the journal article “Understanding the working college student” by Ms. Laura Perna, she states

that “ nearly one in ten full time traditional undergraduates is employed at least 35 hours per

week”. Ms Perna is professor at a higher education campus at the the University of Pennsylvania.

In this particular journal article it is understood that recent change in trends for college students

who are working has increased, while on the other hand graduation rates have lowered. This not

only confirms the need for college students to have a little bit more discipline when it comes to

managing their time, but it also highlights the need to answer the question which I have

proposed. Mr Ross Rosenberg, who is a physiotherapist, professional trainer, author and

entrepreneur provides college students with excellent advice and tips that they can benefit from

in his article “time management tips for college students”. One of the most important tips that he

offers is to “keep a regular routine” (Rosenberg 2017). This has been extremely helpful in my

situation this semester because I planned my daily schedules out and was able to make sure that I

atleast have 2-3 hours left at the end of every day. In addition I try to stick to the same plan day

in and day out. Ms Charlotte Kent who is an assistant professor at Montclair State University, in
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addition to being a published author proclaims in her article “teaching students to manage their

time” that it is recommended that “if a student is in class for three hours, then four and a half

hours of homework per week is acceptable and considers an adequate college education”. Her

recommendation of hours spent per week is very close to the amount of time that I spend on

homework. All of my classes are every other day and they are also in the afternoon and in the

evenings. So that format fits my schedule perfectly. Ms Kent mentions in her article that of the

beginning of the semester she teaches her students time management. She asks her students to

complete a “24 hour schedule” (Kent 2018) and once they realize how much spare time they

have available to add those four hours that she recommends to homework, wherever they may

have an opening. It also also important to note that while students may prefer to set aside the 2-4

hours for homework consecutively, it also acceptable to divide the time into chunks.

In the book entitled The Secrets of college success by Dr Lynn F Jacobs and Mr Jeremy

Hymen it is also explained into a little bit more detail on how the time should be used for

assignments in higher education. Dr Jacobs is a professor at the University of Arkansas , where

as Mr Hymen is a chief architect for a series of professors guide. In their book they mention that

students should use methods such as “divide and conquer” which is when students are suppose to

complete assignments piece by piece as opposed to leaving everything until the last minute. They

also encourage students in higher education to “keep a log”. Keeping a log allow students to

write down everything of which is already completed and everything that still needs to be done.

From experience I can attest that the strategies of which they provide work. I have learned that

breaking down major assignments piece by piece allows me to better organize and gather up my

thoughts more effectively. In addition whenever I am working on assignments I tend to dedicate

every two hours for one assignment per class. Many would argue recommend for students to
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complete every assignment that they have began to its entirety. But everyone has their own way

of doing things, and I have found the advice that is given in the book to be extremely beneficial

to me so far in the semester.

As I was conducting research for my proposal, I created a survey that I shared with my

fellow peers. My sample sizes were small but the results from my fellow peers here at The

University of North Carolina at Charlotte had a very close resemblance to my past experiences

when it comes down to time management. Most of the questions which I presented were all

centered around time management and college students. Take as an example the first question

which I presented to my classmates. I asked them “ On average about how many hours do you

spend on completing homework/classwork?. I did not come to surprise that about 90% of

students who completed the survey, were able to agree that on average they spent around 1-4

hours a day on homework. Those figures seem to support the claim that Ms Kent makes in which

she proclaims that students should dedicate at least “2-4 hours a day” for classwork. In addition I

asked my fellow classmates whether they were aware of the time management workshops that

UNCC has to offer to its students? 60% of students were aware of the workshops while 40%

percent were not. Out of everyone who took the survey, nobody has been able to attend a time

management workshop, including myself. Which makes me wonder whether schools should

incorporate those types of workshop into mandatory the beginning of the school year. Once the

semester has begun many students are on a very tight schedule. Many can't afford to take time

out of their day to attend events like those. Therefore, it would be a good idea to incorporate

those workshops at the very beginning of the year so that students could benefit from them

throughout the semester. Many professors have included time management classes at the very

beginning of the semester for their courses , therefore I believe it to be beneficial for colleges to
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incorporate them into mandatory orientations especially since it appears that students are not able

to attend them. Moreover, In my survey I also wanted to get an idea on how many of my

classmates were also working, such as myself. After gathering up the results I learn that about

66% of my fellow classmates are also working. Some are even taking on more hours than I am

and working about full time hours a week.

That was very surprising to see, to say the least. If many students struggle to manage their time

with no jobs or either part time jobs, I can only imagine the challenges of which they would face

with working a full time job. Lastly, I asked my fellow classmates a question of which I required

them to be very honest about. I asked them “ Have you ever procrastinated to the point where

you have had to rush to complete an assignment? If so how long did it take you to complete the

assignment?. I was glad to have received very open and honest responses from my classmates on

the question of which was presented to them. Everyone who answered my survey admitted that

they have at some point procrastinated on a assignment and left it until the last minute. The time

frames from which they had left to complete the assignment ranged from 10 minutes until about
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3 hours until the assignment was due. Personally I believe that answers that were provided to me

by my classmates highlight severity of the issue that college students face in managing their time

in higher education nowadays.

As I conclude on the findings that I have come across from both my sources and my

surveys, I have also thought about a couple suggestions that would ultimately help students set

aside the proper amount of time for them to complete assignments. One that personally benefited

me, while also helped professors looking to help students improve in their time management

skills was to create and fill out a weekly planner. Not only did that help me visually see were all

my time was going but it also helped me see how much time I had available at the end of each

day. I have come to realize that once the academic year starts it is very hard to pause for a minute

to see where you may be at with time, therefore completing the schedule planner at the beginning

of the year allows to me see what I have in store in the semester. In addition I would also like for

my fellow classmates to know that the time that we should set aside for assignments or study

time, does not necessarily have to be consecutively. Experts have said it is okay if you want to

divide your time up into chunks, or by studying whenever you an opening in your day, then

pausing and continuing later on throughout the day. I believe that students have the idea that you

have complete everything with the 1-4 hours that you have designated at the end of the day.

Lastly after completing a survey I believe that it would be beneficial for students be be required

to attend a time management workshop at the beginning of the year. Large in part, because not a

lot have been able to attend the workshop throughout the semester. But I believe that a lot would

be able to go at the very beginning of the semester. To conclude as demonstrated by my personal

experiences and of those by scholars,I believe it to be imperative for students to know how much

time they need to save for assignments.

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Work Cited:

Charlotte, Kent. “Teaching Students to manage their time”. Inside Higher ED, 2018.

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/09/18/how-teach-students-time-

management-skills-opinion2018

Rosenberg, Ross. “Time management tips for new college students”. HuffPost, 2017.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-a-rosenberg/time-management-tips-for-

_b_12435970.html

Perna, Laura. “ Understanding the Working college student”. American Association of

American Professors, 2010, p.1.

Jacobs,Lynn. Hymen, Jeremy. The Secrets of College Success. Jossey-Bass. 2013