Question for college students

[Airpoaneman]

I am taking off for college in about 5 days and I would like to know how many hours a week you guys are able to get in during the average week.

I figure 25 hours of study for every 5 hours of poker. About 35 hours of study and 7 hours of poker.

Currently I average 10bb/h at .5/1 ( 25bb most hours while once in a while I swing to negative 25-40 bb/h )

I have about 4 hours a day for X-country. Taking 16 credits + chapel. 4 classes a day.

How much should I play poker?
I also dont want to play poker before I am done with all my classes each day( most of which are from 8 am to 2 pm because I dont want my education to be infected by bad sesssions.

Also, do you poker players listen to music or watch the news while you play...it seems to keep me calm when I have background noise or when i am listening to something interesting.

[Schneids]

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I figure 25 hours of study for every 5 hours of poker. About 35 hours of study and 7 hours of poker.

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I wish you good luck in doing that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


It's hard for any one of us to specifically answer your question for you. Some people need a lot of study time, others don't and are expert crammers.

I would say for me last year I ran about 2:1 in favor of poker to studying. This year I hope to flip that around, so, take that for what it's worth.

It sounds like it's going to be your freshman year next year. Do yourself a favor and try to find a happy medium right away, and stick to it. I seem to remember freshman year falling into one of two types for everyone I knew:
1) They either studied with every waking moment of their day and tried too hard; and later wound up hating themselves for it even if they pulled a 4.0 or something close to that.
2) They indulged in their newfound freedom and rarely studied, and skipped plenty of classes.

With most majors at most schools you'll probably be fine if you attend classes often, and put in 1-2 hours a day outside of class. The other option is doing nothing until the night before exams and then cramming; this too is very doable despite what the schools lead you to believe.

[ QUOTE ]
How much should I play poker?
I also dont want to play poker before I am done with all my classes each day( most of which are from 8 am to 2 pm because I dont want my education to be infected by bad sesssions.

[/ QUOTE ]
I liked making an hour of poker being a reward for studying between classes and dinner. If you have breaks between classes in the late-morning/afternoon like it sounds like you might, use the time for working out or some other healthful and productive activity. It'll help you get through the rest of the day too and give you better sleep at night.

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Also, do you poker players listen to music or watch the news while you play...it seems to keep me calm when I have background noise or when i am listening to something interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]
Listening to music is a must. I will either have a movie or the tv on in the background as well and I always have the browser up and AIM running as well. I find I focus better on getting reads on other players when I make it a challenge for myself [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[adamstewart]

The only person who can answer this question is you.

Personally, I am a med student, and last year I liked to play poker (1 table) while I studied... most of the time you're folding anyway. It helped keep studying interesting and also prevented boredom-induced tilt.

Happy studying...

[BaronVonCP]

Definately depends on the difficulty level of your courses.

[unagi]

trying to play poker while i study is largely unsuccessful. adamstewart said he managed it, and i don't doubt it.. but i really like paying attention to the players and the table as a whole, and haven't pulled this off recently. i've done it a few times while playing low limit hold'em, since hands take much longer there anyway.. but when you're looking at a variety of possible hand durations in NL, it's too much trouble (for me, anyway) to bother looking up and down every 15 seconds to see what's going on. gl with your studies, they're definitely more important for the majority of us.

[PITTM]

ill be entering my senior year(read: ill be lazier than normal) so i will probably be playing much more, id say about even ratio studying to playing poker. actually going to class is fairly out of the question at this point.

rj

[PITTM]

your namesake tastes delicious.

rj

[manpower]

I'd say most weeks i spend about 20-25 hours a week studying and in class. But like it's been said, everyone's different. All I can say is get in the habit of studying during the day, between classes, in the afternoon after you get done, whatever. Just get done early and indulge your hobbies afterward.

I'd say I could have gotten in 3 hours of poker a day during the week easy and then have all day on the weekends to play as well. That assuming no other hobbies. But I played sports and spent a lot of time out drinking with the boys. So I probably only got in 5 or so hours most weeks last year.

[Turkish]

As I was recently reminded, class is just something to do between sessions and...maybe drinking. Enjoy..

[mrjim]

If you're taking 16 hrs. you don't need 35 hrs. of study (even if that includes your class time). My advice would be to study after you get out of class (as others have suggested) for an hour or two and then you have your nights to do as you please. If you're out of class by 2 you can EASILY be done with schoolwork by 5 (most days) and then enjoy the evenings.

Don't buy into this "2-3 hrs per class hour studying". That's just not true, unless it's incredibly important to get a 4.0.