r/GradSchool • u/WiseWomanCroneFl • 1d ago

Normal?

I’m curious if this is normal in a doctoral program. I’m in my first quarter and have 3 classes, that last 10 weeks. One of the classes demands a lot of work. We have normal discussion posts, must read 2 books in addition to our text book reading, read multiple journal articles each week, watch videos, do multiple skills assessments (not told till the week of that it’s pass/fail and failing the skills assessments results in failure of the course no matter what grades we have on everything else), and some discussion post requirements are more that of a 1-2 page paper, quizzes and more. The other 2 classes have what I would see as a normal work load. This question has been cross posted.

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u/LeChatDeLaNuit 1d ago

Yes, that's normal. Some classes are heavy loads and some are light.

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u/Budget-Goose8947 1d ago

I had one course in my program where the weekly reading list alone was like 15 journal articles plus a book chapter, and the prof would cold-call on specific studies to make sure you actually read them. that class consumed me for 3 months

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u/PraiseHelmaroc 1d ago

Yes my first quarter of grad school was kind of a crazy amount of work, and I felt like it was kind of “sink or swim” on purpose.

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u/ExpiredOnionz 18h ago

yes, unfortunately normal for doctoral programs, especially first quarter when they're sorting who can handle the volume. the one class with 2 extra books plus journal articles on top of textbook reading is a lot, but the pass/fail skills assessments being revealed week-of is the part that would stress me out most. are the books and articles ones you need to read cover to cover, or can you get away with strategic reading of key chapters?

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u/WiseWomanCroneFl 11h ago

Same, the pass/fail thing is the most stressful. Yep, gotta read the whole book. 😵‍💫🤓. At least now I know it’s normal and just gotta push through. Thank you! 📚📚📚📚📚