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In other words, full time job type time consumption (from one of your probably four or five classes) doesn't qualify for call-by-name status. Yowza.

Great post, though I wonder if the call-by-name phenomenon is more about notoriety than actual difficulty. For instance, the only other call-by-name class I can think of is "Orgo" (5.12, Organic Chemistry), which people thought was hard but not comparable to Unified, Junior Lab, or ICE.

There's also the secondary tier of fame, classes whose numbers you can say to nearly anyone without mentioning the course. Notable examples include:

* The "Double-oh's" (6.001, 6.002, 6.003, and 6.004, the four intro Course 6 classes plus 2.007, the Course 2 intro to Design and Manufacturing)

* 170 (6.170 - Software Engineering Lab)

* 100B (18.100B - Analysis, the "more demanding" version "for students with more mathematical maturity")

I don't remember anyone calling 5.12 "Orgo".

Also, for 100B, I think it has something to do with there being a letter after the name. Without checking, I'm willing to guess that there are other courses at MIT numbered X.100 but not any numbered X.100B.

But on the first day of 18.100B, I distinctly remember the professor saying: "some of you are freshmen. this course is too hard for freshmen. it's also too hard for sophomores, juniors, seniors, and maybe some grad students."

Such a distinction is reserved only for classes with a reputation for being especially difficult and time consuming.

I disagree with this. I think the reason why some classes are called by their name are usually because of speed/convenience (faster to say), to group multiple class numbers, and for obscure class numbers than nobody would recognize.

Saying "unified" is way simpler than saying "sixteen double-oh-one". Saying "eight thirteen(?)" or "eight one three" is just weird. Also note that "junior lab" is not even the name of the class, it's just a nickname (just like "ice") that makes it easier to communicate.

Also, note that Unified is actually 4 classes (course numbers). Junior lab is 2.. They're both expected to be taken over the course of a year, not a single semester. Nobody cares if you're taking 8.13 or 8.14; it's really just one thing: junior lab. If you want to know the number, you can tell by knowing the current semester.

Lastly, if you're taking a not well-known class in say, 21F, you'd say the name. Even if it's relatively popular (and easy!), nobody says "21F.302".. They say "French 2".

Sorry for the long post responding to such a minor point; I just thought it was incredibly misleading.

It's fair to point out that classes that aren't widely taken are called by name because the numbers are less useful, and perhaps I should rephrase a bit: how about "such a distinction among well-known classes is usually a sign of respect".

When you say "French 2" rather than "21F.302", you're using a descriptive rather than nominative name for the class because of lack of familiarity.

Saying "eight thirteen(?)" or "eight one three" is just weird.

But somehow calling orgo "five twelve" doesn't seem weird? That's the whole point: most classes are known by their numbers, and the ones that are given a non-numeric nominative label are generally feared.

Anyhow, this isn't just something I made up, it's something that freshmen are widely made aware of: "classes that are known by their names are usually harder." Just like "extra letters good, extra numbers bad,"[1] it's a rule of thumb rather than a law of nature.

[1] This refers to choices in freshman classes; sometimes there are alternative versions of the course offered under a slightly different title, e.g., 8.02, 8.02T, 8.022. The course with the extra letter is "good" (generally easier), whereas the course with the extra number is "bad" (harder). Nowadays I think 8.02 is identically 8.02T, though.

<i>Saying "eight thirteen(?)" or "eight one three" is just weird.</i>

I'm pretty sure it would be "eight thirteen", by analogy with "five thirteen".

How does that work? How many hours a week do you need to spend for 4 courses? Or is one supposed to focus in 1 or 2 courses if studying one of these?

Are there any known people who go to these hard courses without spending as much time as supposedly required?

How many hours a week do you need to spend for 4 courses?

As you'd expect, it varies substantially person to person. Nominally, each course should take up 12 hours per week, including time spent in class (n units means n hours per week spent on the class). In practice, it can be anywhere from 50% to 300% of that or more. Most people at the extreme top end of the range end up dropping the class, so the top side is pretty well bounded.

Are there any known people who go to these hard courses without spending as much time as supposedly required?

Sure. When I was a TA (for an advanced control theory class), there was a huge range of time spent. Some people never showed up for class and did great; others came to every class, recitation, and all of my office hours (that alone constitutes ~10 hours per week) and reported spending another 6 to 10 hours on each problem set, and probably double or triple that on each lab.

Most of my undergrad career I took 5 classes a term, and I did my absolute best never to study from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. As long as I stuck to my schedule, it was completely doable. Of course, I skipped classes and recitations that I found unhelpful in order to reduce wasted time.

Almost everyone registers for atleast 4 courses a term. You need to work on all of them because every course counts. However, when you're going to take the Junior Lab (if you're in Physics) or the digital death lab/ software labs (if you're in EECS), you take classes that are relatively easy. For example, you might take extra humanities classes to work on the HASS requirement and then in a later semester not take the humanities class and replace them with courses in your own major.

I don't know about the junior lab (i'm in eecs), but when I take classes that are difficult (which has been pretty much every semester for the past 2 years :(), I am working overtime on these classes. Besides attending lectures/recitations during the day, I spend every evening, and all of my weekend coding for the projects. Having projects and labs that took over 20-30 hours to complete were the norm, and in a particularly bad semester, I'd have one of those due almost every two weeks.

Initially, there would be people who could get by without putting in as much effort because they already knew the material, but as you go higher and start talking about lab classes (where the work is punishing regardless of your knowledge/experience) or graduate classes (very intensive, almost no one can coast), you don't see people coasting.