So I am aiming to start my final year at uni on the right foot, already time all the academic work I do, and thought I would use the institution's recommended study hours as a guide to make sure I reach my potential: that's (total number of credits * 10) - teaching hours, which for me comes down to... 1070 hours of independent study in final year?? I'm doing languages and linguistics. I can see myself spending, eg, the recommended 300 hours on my diss (it's 30 credits), possibly the total number on my language modules IF I count the general novel reading practice I do outside of uni anyway, and MAYBE somewhere in the region of 130h for a ling course that's supposed to be a long-term group project.
BUT... Has anyone, ever, actually spent a total of 130h in independent study for a standard, non-Oxbridge, humanities module? Like something where you'll have a few papers or chapters to read before the seminar, maybe a lit review, then an essay of like 3000 words, no formal exam? In 2nd year I did all of this plus extra reading in classes where I got a first and still can't imagine how I would have hit 130 hours overall. Are my uni being out of line in granting 15 credits to such a comparatively small workload or am I missing something big?
I think I averaged a high 2:1 last year but I'm not doing this for grades, I don't want to leave uni without feeling like I've actually got the most out of my education... And sometimes I feel that I am leaning very little from some modules. If anyone has input about how much extra work they put in for a humanities degree + what the background reading process is like for them, I'd appreciate it!