Every semester the cries of students are heard across campus. They complain to their friends and fret over the amount of required readings s. Sometimes it doesn’t even get done. Seniors described the number of books required for each class, the average number of pages per reading and how long it takes them to complete each reading assignment.
Spanish and social work double major Rowena Zuercher photo by Lou Westcott
Rowena Zuercher is a senior double major in social work and Spanish. She said for her social work classes she usually only has one or two books per class, usually one textbook and other supplemental reading material.
“However, the social work department is changing that now because we have practice 1, 2 and 3,” said Zuercher. “Instead of having different textbooks for all of those, you’ll get one book and you’ll use it for all three classes.”
Zuercher said the readings done in the social work program require more critical analysis. She said it takes her between 30 minutes and an hour to complete each reading assignment which can be between two pages for articles and up to 20 pages for chapters.
“We do have chapters assigned in the readings, but it’s not like we have to do in-depth reading to get all the material,” said Zuercher. “It’s more like making sure you have a summary of the idea.”
Senior history and bible and theology major Tim Bender, photo by Nathan Heinze
Tim Bender is a senior history and Bible and theology double major, and he said the number of books required per class depends on where one is in the program.
“If it’s a beginning course, it will be one to two, and one will be fairly ‘textbooky,’ ” said Bender. “When you get into the mid- and upper-levels it’s more narrative-based, not so much textbook but one author’s book. For the upper-levels, it will be like seven to 10 books.”
Bender said it used to take him two hours to do his assigned readings, but now it is about an hour per reading. While he reads he is actively taking notes by underlining and summarizing the content.
The average page count for one of his Perry Bush classes is about 30 pages per assigned reading. For his Martina Cucchiara classes, Bender said the page count is between 30 and 40 pages. For his Bible and theology classes, Bender said the page count is less than that.
Senior writing major Dani Easterday photo by Sarah Heydinger
Dani Easterday is a senior writing major with a double minor in English and psychology. She is in Women Writers this semester and will read eight books over the course of the semester, which she said is typical for a literature class.
“We’ve already read ‘Jane Eyre,’ ” said Easterday. “We’ve read ‘The House of Mirth.’ We’ve read a play called ‘Intimate Apparel.’ We just read a speech actually called ‘We Should All Be Feminist,’ and we are currently reading ‘To the Lighthouse.’ So we probably still have a good four or five books left after we finish this one.”
Ethan Zaerr is a senior double major in physics and chemistry with a minor in education studies. He said there is usually only one book per class for his science classes, but he is also required to get a lab notebook and maybe a lab manual. For his education classes, he said usually there is only one as well.
“For science classes, you’re supposed to read through the entire book by the end of class basically,” said Zaerr. “Most people don’t do that. Most people just read the parts that are being gone over in class.”
He said you could spend an hour reading for each class.
“Right now I am in two science classes, and I could easily spend six to seven hours reading, but I would more practically do four each week,” said Zaerr. “With the homework added in, that would be like an additional three to four hours of homework [and] reading each week.”
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of the story the book titles “House of Mirth” and “We Should All Be Feminists” were incorrectly written as “House of Merve” and “We Should Not Be Feminists.” This has been fixed.
