A question for history students.

How much reading do you have each week? as in how many pages on average and generally speaking would you say it's a lot of work? What does your workload consist of?

I'm at UEA, I've only done a few modules of History as opposed to the whole degree but having spoken to others who do straight History I have a good idea. You aren't told exactly how many pages to read, its up to you, your told what the seminar topic will be and its up to you to determine how much reading is necessary to be able to speak about it- the reading list for each week is really long but really you only need to select two or three books or journals. In the case of books use the index to find the pages relevant. As far as coursework goes in the first two years its 3 modules per semester and 2 essays/and or source analysis/commentary per module, so 6 essays per semester, there may be presentations on top of that. Last year is a bit different, you do 3 modules or 2 plus a dissertation (its optional), for the module I'm doing its 2 source analysis & an essay.

Thanks for the reply
How much time would you have to spend on reading a week though? I hear some courses require around 6 hours per module so about 24 hours a week of independent work. How would you say history compares?

How much reading do you have each week? as in how many pages on average and generally speaking would you say it's a lot of work? What does your workload consist of?

At Warwick University here and our reading list is pretty strict in terms of we have 2-4 sections of books or articles to read that then do get discussed in seminars (though some tutors are much more lenient than others). The amount of pages change every week but I would say I spend about 6-12 hours doing reading depending on whether the texts are interesting or not. That being said, I only have 10 hours of contact time so in reality that adds up to 20 hours which isn't much. Obviously, essay time is much different. Any more questions, feel free to ask

How much reading do you have each week? as in how many pages on average and generally speaking would you say it's a lot of work? What does your workload consist of?

For history at Kent I do 2-4 hours a week. Typically 4 30 page extracts a week. Doesn't sound a lot but it does take it's time. My work load is reading and essays and in summer revision for exams.


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So on average how many hours of independent work are you doing each week? (all modules combined)

I try to read as much as I possibly can.

If you want to get a good 2.1 or especially a first, you really do have to put the hours in and read as widely about the subject as time allows. But then if you are not that bothered and a low 2.1 is all you want, you can quite easily just read what you are required for the seminars and have a comfortable three years.

When I am writing a essay I can easily read for about 6 hours a day as I have found writing essays are a breeze if I have done a large amount of reading and note making,

What I do, is, I pin all my notes to my wall, it just makes it easier to quickly find the quote I want instead of going through all of my notes which can be up to 20 pages.