Week total won’t affect student studying habits

In the fast paced, mile-a-minute society that we live in, it
seems we are a culture that embraces a credo: the faster the
better.

Warp speed is the only way we know how to do things. So, it
seems logical we would apply this philosophy to our education.

At UCLA there has been much debate about the 10-week quarter
system versus the 16-week semester system. Being an individual
whose high school was on a quarter system, community college on the
semester system, and then university, UCLA, on the quarter system,
I can honestly say no matter how many weeks you have, you still
screw around for the same amount of time. It’s the
proportional theory of studying most undergrads have learned by the
time they’re in the third quarter.

Allow me to describe a typical quarter for your average,
procrastinating Bruin.

Week one ““ it’s first week, and you are still hung
over from either your New Year’s Eve bash or Rosarito
tequila-filled spring break. You make it to class, but as for
actual studying, it’s not going to happen.

Weeks 2-5 involve some studying, but only if you know it’s
going to be on the midterm.

Week 6 is relaxation time from the all-nighters you pulled.

Weeks 7-9 you finish up all the papers. Week 10 is the odd time
of the quarter where no matter how much you’ve studied, you
still freak out and give yourself an aneurysm trying to cram
everything in your brain for the final.

After the quarter is officially over, as hard as you try to
retain everything you learned, most of the information leaks out as
soon as the final is over. Most kids can’t even remember what
classes they took last quarter, let alone the information they were
supposed to retain.

Although this may not be everyone’s experience at UCLA, we
have all had quarters where we should have studied more, gone to
our professor’s office hours, and done more research on those
papers we barely finished an hour before they were due, but
that’s the way life goes.

Sometimes we have a busy social schedule, or two jobs that we
need to work to pay for the regents’ brand new cars and
exotic vacations. Being on the semester system will not make us
change who we are or the weird things that may happen in our
lives.

No matter how many weeks we have, peoples’ study habits
will not change. The nerdy kid who sits next to you in math class
will still be in his book every night, and that hippie girl you saw
the first day of class, but never again until the final will still
spend the same amount of days at the beach during a 16-week
semester system. You can’t change a person’s personal
habits or time scheduling abilities by giving them more weeks in a
school system.

The quarter system allows us more flexibility with our schedules
in case we feel like experimenting with a class we would not
normally choose. If in one quarter you become completely brain-dead
on a chemistry class and the next you feel like seeing what a world
arts and culture class is like, you have the ability to try
something new ““ and we all know variety is the spice of life.
That’s what college should be all about, trying new things
and seeing what makes you happy without being stuck in some class
you absolutely hate for 16 weeks.

It’s like the old adage, if it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it, and having gone through both systems, I can
personally say the quarter system works best for the fast-paced
life we all live in. The 10-week system lets us have fun, be free,
study when we want, and never miss a quick moment of our young
lives.

We are only young once ““ we can slow down once we’re
dead.