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[dr_prephd]

Unfortunately, this is the time to learn to streamline, cut corners, hold the line, and bluff.

You learn what's important to read fully, what's important to skim, and what can be blown off.

This and this.

Sleeping less doesn't necessarily increase the amount you can read... If you read from beginning to end, you're in "leisure reading" mode, which isn't optimal for academic reading. Instead, you want to read introduction, conclusion, and chapter headings first. That is, you want to know where the book is going before you actually read the book.

And, on preview, this.

Yes, some professors are "out of touch."

And, some grad. students don't know how to prioritize.

[bigghostdini_tha_don]

I think there have been structural changes in the political economy of education over the last five years or so that many professors are not fully aware of... actually it isn't that they aren't aware, but that they don't necessarily understand the implications for students.

And I think a lot of professors have their priorities out of wack, but that is largely a function of the structure of the academic system.

The workload isn't the problem though imo.

[bigghostdini_tha_don]

You know though, sometimes I do think about whether I would learn more if I had less reading to do.  Because I do sometimes have to skim through articles or books instead of really taking my time to ingest them fully.

[tee_bee]

Geez, these grad students today. Has anyone called 911 and sent them the Waaambulance? For cryin' out loud.

You have good advice here. Organize your time. Read when you can, skim when you must. Grad school is not a series of To Dos that you check off. It should be transformative, in a good way. It should be immersive. And it's going to be Hard Work. If you're whining about the workload now, when you have a hell of a lot more unstructured time than any prof similarly situated, you're going to find grad school a struggle. Fortunately, our nation does not have compulsory grad school attendance laws.

[tinyzombie]

And, some grad. students don't know how to prioritize.

Some grad students don't know how to use punctuation. I'm looking at you, OP.

TZ, playing the world's tiniest violin

[wet_blanket]

In my program, the compulsory theory classes have a near impossible reading load.  Mostly, it's because there is a certain amount of ground that *must* be covered either to pass comps (for those in need of the extrinsic motivation) or to have the PhD mean anything (for the more intrinsically motivated).  So what's the alternative to these monster classes?  Another semester or another year?  No thanks.

The other factor that I've seen is the deliberate attempt to assign an overwhelming amount of work.  A kind of hazing, but less mean spirited.  Not every prof does this, but a few certainly do.  The justification is along the lines of the old walking to school barefoot in the snow line - when they were in grad school, they had to read  10 books in the original languages each week for each class, so stop whining.

I think it's not uncommon for professors to assign an unreasonable workload and for students to whine about a perfectly reasonable workload.  I wouldn't say that either of these scenarios suggest the professor is out of touch.

[larryc]

OK, here is what we never tell our students, but assume they have the sense to figure out.

We don't expect you to read everything. We don't expect you to do everything in our graduate classes. We also expect you to do far more than complete your coursework. We expect you to present at conferences, make professional connections, develop skills and knowledge beyond your coursework, study for you comps, and learn to fly without a plane.

Yes, it is about time management but also work management. You need to redefine "read," for example, which no longer means literally reading every page. It means figuring out the main points, where the book fits into the field, and the common criticisms. Read two reviews, read the intro, turn strait to the conclusion, and backtrack for one key chapter. Done--one hour. When it comes time to write, scribble and outline, find a colorful anecdote for the opening paragraph, and fill in the blank spaces. Then go off and have a beer with your grad school buddies and find out what they know.

This is not cutting corners, it is learning how to be a professional. How do you think we professors survive with 4/4 loads and a book to get out and spouses who have made it clear that we are not to work through every weekend?

[sciencegrad]

I'm only in my second semester but so far I haven't had any professors with grossly unreasonable homework loads.  I have definitely felt distressed each week, but trips to every office hours session saw me through the semester.  It looks like I'll have much less homework this semester.  I was told that there are two weed out courses in my program and I took them both last semester.  

[sciencegrad]

This is not cutting corners, it is learning how to be a professional. How do you think we professors survive with 4/4 loads and a book to get out and spouses who have made it clear that we are not to work through every weekend?

I thought this was pretty obvious.  You guys are robots powered by coffee and the tears of your graduate students.

[canuckois]

This is not cutting corners, it is learning how to be a professional. How do you think we professors survive with 4/4 loads and a book to get out and spouses who have made it clear that we are not to work through every weekend?

I thought this was pretty obvious.  You guys are robots powered by coffee and the tears of your graduate students.

Actually, we don't need coffee; that's just an affectation.  The tears of our graduate students provide all the sweet, sweet sustenance we require.

[lohai0]

This is not cutting corners, it is learning how to be a professional. How do you think we professors survive with 4/4 loads and a book to get out and spouses who have made it clear that we are not to work through every weekend?

I thought this was pretty obvious.  You guys are robots powered by coffee and the tears of your graduate students.

Does cursing your very name make you stronger too? We do that sometimes when we are too tired to cry.

Actually, we don't need coffee; that's just an affectation.  The tears of our graduate students provide all the sweet, sweet sustenance we require.

Does cursing your very name make you stronger too? We do that sometimes when we are too tired to cry.

[samspade]

I am thinking that the OP is lucky he didn't go to medical school if he is complaining of overwork.

[punchnpie]

I am thinking that the OP is lucky he didn't go to medical school if he is complaining of overwork.

I went to law school years before the masters and PhD. While in the masters, I took some MBA courses and those b-school people would just bi$ch and moan over reading two 'cases' (ha! they have the nerve to call them 'cases.') And 40 pages for a class? Puhleeze. You'll do 140 and like it. We didn't have teaching responsibilities in law school, but we took more classes at a time than in other grad programs, so there was a ton of reading with 4 classes twice a week.

I admit to cutting readings from my syllabi, thinking that it might be too much for my little darlings, but when I do, it bothers the heck out of me - it's grad school. If you don't want to read, go get a job.

Too much work? If you've got time to complain about it, you're probably not getting enough work.

[cranefly]

OP you seem to forget one thing: We have been students. You, on the other hand, have never been a professor.

I agree with the others: You need to figure out how to be more efficient. I currently have a brilliant post-doc who has the brains to make it, but not the efficiency. He's a perfectionist and takes 10x as long as I expect to do anything: which means he gets almost no publications out and despite his brilliance he will never find a job in a university.  You can't be a perfectionist in this career. You have to learn to do everything in half the time you think it should take you, then half again.

[bigghostdini_tha_don]

lol at all the profs coming in and trolling this thread. 

This is a thread for students to complain about you all, not for professors to tell us how inadequate students are.