A credit hour is an attempt to quantify and more importantly, standardize, work load across colleges.
Basically any class that has 1 hour of class per week and 2 hours of outside class work = 1 credit hour.
Most college classes have 3 lecture hours per week and 6 hours of expected outside class reading/homework.
A standard “full time” student takes at least 12 credit hours of course work for a standard 15 week semester. Which is about 4 classes per semester. With 3 hours of classroom time per class and 6 hours of preparatory reading or post class homework per those 4 classes. Which works out to about 1/3 of your Monday thru Friday time. Leaving 1/3 for sleep and 1/3 for leisure.
Most colleges cap you at 18 credit hours per semester unless you and get a waiver. Most majors require you to take 5-6 classes per semester for 4 years to get enough credits in the right courses to earn a particular degree.
This allows schools to standardize their curriculum and make transfers easier
credit hours are just a way schools measure how much time you’re spending in a class each week. like if a class is 3 credit hours, that usually means you’re in it for 3 hours a week during the semester. they use it to track progress toward your degree, since you need a certain number to graduate.
It’s just the number of hours you spend in class per week (assuming a standard-length semester). You could just use total classroom hours, but that’s a bigger number.
Comments
A credit hour is an attempt to quantify and more importantly, standardize, work load across colleges.
Basically any class that has 1 hour of class per week and 2 hours of outside class work = 1 credit hour.
Most college classes have 3 lecture hours per week and 6 hours of expected outside class reading/homework.
A standard “full time” student takes at least 12 credit hours of course work for a standard 15 week semester. Which is about 4 classes per semester. With 3 hours of classroom time per class and 6 hours of preparatory reading or post class homework per those 4 classes. Which works out to about 1/3 of your Monday thru Friday time. Leaving 1/3 for sleep and 1/3 for leisure.
Most colleges cap you at 18 credit hours per semester unless you and get a waiver. Most majors require you to take 5-6 classes per semester for 4 years to get enough credits in the right courses to earn a particular degree.
This allows schools to standardize their curriculum and make transfers easier
credit hours are just a way schools measure how much time you’re spending in a class each week. like if a class is 3 credit hours, that usually means you’re in it for 3 hours a week during the semester. they use it to track progress toward your degree, since you need a certain number to graduate.
It’s just the number of hours you spend in class per week (assuming a standard-length semester). You could just use total classroom hours, but that’s a bigger number.