When I was in High School I started working at the grill in a local fast-food restaurant. It was pretty popular among my friends and the money was decent so I thought it was a pretty good gig.
As you know, the first day on any job is a bit anxiety producing. I got my polyester uniform, name badge, and a 30 minute whirlwind orientation to dozens of burger-building processes that would take months to really figure out.
The moment finally came when I got to begin working at the burger station. It was the place where the burger patties and warmed buns came off the grill. We’d pile-on the lettuce, cheese, ketchup, etc. before speed-wrapping and tossing our final product onto the warmer.
The one thing nobody told me about was the mayo sprayer. It was just a little handle on the side of the table. What I didn’t know was that it was pressured by CO2 and had a temperamental trigger. Suffice it to say, I lost my first run-in with the mayo. As did the burger I was working on, my colleague on the other side of the table, most of the grill, fryers, and a fair bit of the nearby walk-in refrigerator. It was one of those moments when you wish someone would have told you how something worked before you started trying it.
Reading in college is much like my mayo incident. It all seems pretty straightforward until you get into your first class and discover that it would have been great if someone had told you a little about how reading in college really works. The next three blog posts will give you a bit of insight into the realities of college reading. Today we’re going to take a look at the syllabus, how much you can expect to read, and how difficult it’s likely to be. The next two posts will explore why professors assign what they do, and how much reading you can really expect to be doing.
Why should I care about the Syllabus?
The class syllabus is the document that the professor posts online or hands out in class that outlines the class, the topics, and the due dates for your tests and assignments.. It usually has a lot of useful information about the class. Sometimes people talk about the syllabus as the contract between you and the teacher. It outlines the terms of what you’re being asked to do in order to receive a certain grade. You need to give the syllabus a very thorough reading so you know what is going on. Don’t be that student who asks a question to which the professor replies “it’s in the syllabus!” (BTW, professors tend to get really annoyed when students ask those questions because it shows they haven’t read the syllabus that they spent their whole summer “vacation” working on! Just saying…)
When it comes to reading, the syllabus is your roadmap. It not only lists the books, articles, online resources, etc. that you’ll be reading, but usually includes the dates for when the particular readings will connect with the class topics. Try to finish the reading assigned in the syllabus before the class that will cover this material. You might not understand it all when you’re reading at first, but in that case, it will become more clear as the professor explains it in class. For now, know that the syllabus is your classroom GPS. It’s job is to help you keep your reading on track. Thoroughly reading the syllabus is the first step in creating a great reading strategy for college.
How much will I read in college?
Before we can figure out how much you’ll be reading in college, let’s look at how university courses work.
College Reading in Theory
A pretty typical class load for a full-time student is around 12-15 credit hours per term or semester (taking maybe 4 or 5 3-hour classes). This means that a full-time student is in class around 12-15 hours per week. Schools also typically say that students should succeed in these classes if they study 3 hours outside of class for every 1 hour in class. So if you’re in class for 12-15 hours a week and study 3 hours for every 1 hour spent in class (36-45 more hours), then a full-time student should plan to spend 48-60 hours a week doing school stuff.
If you are going to school part time and taking fewer credit hours, you can tweak this formula to figure out how much time you can expect to spend in class and and how much time you’ll spend studying and reading. For instance, if you’re taking one 3-hour class, you could expect 3 hours in class (maybe 1 hour on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays or 3 hours all on Tuesday night?) and then 9 hours of time studying outside of class. Total it up and you’re up to 12 hours a week.
College Reading in Reality
So that’s the plan, in theory. Now let’s talk about reality. In reality, these expectations vary a lot. Some introductory-level classes have relatively little reading while some advanced classes have much more. Some programs are reading-heavy, others are not. Some lengthy readings are pretty easy and some readings that are only 5 pages long can be really difficult. Some professors have high expectations for reading and others don’t.
Another taste of reality is that your experience of reading in college will vary depending on how much you’re reading right now. Are you a bookworm? Do you do a lot of reading for work? Do you read for fun? A recent Gallop poll shows that in general, Americans read 12-13 books a year, which is about 2-3 books less today than five years ago. While about 17% of Americans report reading no books over the past year, there is also a small group of folks who are reading a lot. My experience as a college professor suggests that if you are the sort of person who reads a lot, then the college reading load will feel less overwhelming than it would for someone who doesn’t typically read much.
A final taste of reality is that research regularly reveals that students rarely put in as many hours studying as colleges and professors expect. On average in the US, students report that they typically spend about 27 hours toward class and studying. So let’s check the math here. Let’s say you’re a full-time student taking a 12 hour load (four, 3-hour classes). Which means you’re going to class 12 hours a week and then spending 15 hours a week studying (12 hours in class + 15 hours studying = those 27 hours US students are reporting).
That means that students are studying about 75 minutes a week for every hour in class – far less than the 3 hours out for every 1 in that we talked about earlier. And then of course you’ll not be spending all of those 15 weekly study hours reading. Some of it will be spent writing papers, doing lab-work, studying for tests, and completing online-postings. Which means in reality the average full-time student is probably spending 8-10 hours a week reading. If you are going to school half-time or taking one class a term, this reading reality would be even less.
So, how much will you read in college? It will vary a lot depending on your program, the complexity of your classes, and your professor’s preferences. You’ll probably feel it more if you’re not a regular reader than if you already read a lot. And probably a lot less than your professor would like you to.
My recommendation? As you might guess, as a professor at heart, I’d love to see everyone reading a lot. But as a realist and as a former student, I get it. There’s the plan and then there’s real life. Rather than starting with a number of hours, I’d recommend being honest with yourself. What can you realistically take on? If you’re juggling a full-time job and parenting, taking a full-time course-load and helping the kids with homework every night is pretty unrealistic. If you’re a recent high school student without lots of additional commitments, a full load with lots of reading is more manageable. Be honest with yourself. The more thoughtful reading you can do, the better. Take what you’ve learned here and be real with yourself and your family.
How difficult will the reading be?
Your experience of the difficulty of college reading will vary a lot depending on the school’s academic rigor, the type of program you’re in, the complexity of the classes, the professor’s choices, the volume you’re responsible for, and how much reading you’re already doing. Like I mentioned before, if you’re accustomed to reading the Wall Street Journal cover to cover, you’ll probably be better off compared to someone whose reading diet consists of flipping through tweets (hint, hint, if you want to get ready for heading back to college, start reading more)!
Schools, Programs & Professors
Highly-competitive schools will likely have higher expectations for their incoming students than other colleges or universities. Also, different programs will have very different reading expectations. Nursing and medical fields will be heavy on natural sciences and mastering a lot of precise anatomical and biological facts (my spouse is a nurse – we counted and she read about 12,000 pages during her program! Yeesh!) Students aiming for law school, engineering programs, or other advanced degrees will probably be reading more complex texts.
The challenges of individual classes and professors are really hard to predict. The best way to learn is to ask around. Word-of-mouth will reveal the heavy and light reading loads in various classes. Don’t shy away from hard classes. Often the professor with the reputation of being the most “difficult” on campus, is also the one who has the most to teach you, especially if they’re teaching something you’re interested in!
Readability Scales
Before wrapping up, there is another way to think about how difficult reading is going to be in college. A common way to assess the complexity of a reading is by using the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. It’s a pretty simple little formula that judges the difficulty of reading using the average number of words in a sentence and the average number of syllables in each word. More words + more syllables = more difficulty.
In fact, you can cut and paste text into an online form and it will analyze it and give you a reading difficulty score for that piece of writing. For instance, when I entered this paragraph, it scored a 8.1. So in theory, someone reading at an 8th grade level should be able to read and understand this paragraph.
Pretty straightforward huh? So when you’re in 4th grade, you should be reading stuff with a 4.0-4.9 reading level, 8th grade at a 8.0-8.9 reading level, and when you graduate from High School, you should be reading at a 12.0-12.9 reading level. Right? Ideally, yes. But again, let’s talk about reality.
College Reading Research
Research into the reading levels of US students show that the average reading skill of high schoolers is 5.3 on the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. To put it another way…most HS students are reading material that 5th graders should be reading. What sorts of books are at a 5th grade reading level? Some examples include: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
To put this in a little larger context, just over half of the US population between ages 16 and 74 reads below a 6th grade reading level. Which also means that, on average, most Americans don’t improve their reading skills between High School and later in life.
So what about college? Surveys since the mid-2000s have pretty consistently showed that average incoming college freshman read at around a 7th grade reading level, increase only slightly during college and show little difference between public and private schools. Despite professors longing that students entering college could read at a 12th grade reading level, research continues to show that while college students tend to have higher reading scores than the US public, they don’t read THAT much better.
Back to our original question…how difficult will your reading be in college? Simply put, your experience with college reading difficulty will depend on a lot of things: what you’re accustomed to reading right now, the school you go to, the type of academic program you’re in, and the particular classes and professors you’re working with. College reading will probably be more difficult than you’re accustomed to, but not as bad as you might fear. Don’t be afraid to take tough classes and be challenged to improve your reading. You will thank yourself for it later.
Dr. Matt Friesen received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Oregon and has spent most of life as a student, professor, researcher and advisor. Check out www.gutsycollege.com for the free Workbook for Reading in College and Note Taking Template. Don’t forget to check out Dr. Matt’s Gutsy Guide to Reading in College for everything you wish someone would have told you about reading in college!
Noah Friesen’s artwork is featured in these blog posts. Noah has been drawing since 2003 and specializes in caricature and comic art. Connect with Noah, check out his gallery or commission him for your project at www.ko-fi.com/idekdraws.
