Quarter Vs.Semester

tookewlandy · Jan 3, 2007

Can you explain how the quarter system works, i have often wondered cause i her so many students talk about quarters( my school goes by semesters)

thanks

S.T.A.C.E.Y, LPN · Jan 3, 2007

My school operates on a semester system. Three 4-month semesters a year. 3 months of class, then one month for exams. Personally, I really don't like it. Ya, I've got lots of time to study, but sometimes I feel like it's too much. Nursing school has just seemed to drag on forever. Six months of classes a year (b/c no classes offered during the summer). Six months! Personally, I think that's sad. If each semester could be compacted into a quarter, then it would have gone by that much quicker, and this student would have been much happier. Just my take on the subject......

shock-me-sane · Jan 4, 2007

I am on a quarter system. Before I got into my current school I was on semesters. I love the quarter system.

We have 10 week +1 one week of finals per quarter.

I feel like I have better retention in quarters and don't get "bored" like I did in 16 week classes. My BSN program is a total of 9 quarters and broken up strictly one subject (i.e., psych, med-surg, OB, peds, etc). I think it would be a lot harder to change to combining the subjects into a semester.

So if I was at your school, I would fight changing to semesters tooth and nail!

Anne_N · Jan 4, 2007

well, our quarter system is weird but basically, each quarter is about ten weeks. Fall quarter from sept-november, winter is december-febuary and spring quarter is march-may. Something like that. And most people take around 9-13 hours per quarter. If you get into our nursing program, they only allow you to take 2 nursing classes + clinicals a quarter but you could take more electives, just no more nursing classes.