Weigh a Part-Time Semester Against the Job You Are Keeping — Free
Nobody fails a part-time degree in week one. It fails in week six, when three modules are each asking for ten hours and the shift pattern changed. This receipt adds up the weekly hours each module actually needs — contact time, reading, assignments — against the hours you genuinely have beside work and childcare, and marks the module that crosses the line.
The proof surface
Free path: the receipt computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A credit value is an institution's estimate of total workload, not a weekly figure you can plan around, and a timetable shows contact hours only. Adding reading and assignment time per module and comparing the total with the hours you actually have turns 'it will be tight' into a number with one named module over the line.
How to use the semester workload receipt in four passes
A timetable says three hours; a 20-credit module says something closer to nine once the reading and the coursework are in. Departments often publish an hours-per-credit figure — start there and adjust for how fast you read.
Subtract work, commute, sleep, childcare and the evenings that belong to somebody else. A receipt measured against an optimistic figure is a receipt that lies to you in week six.
The receipt sorts by weekly hours and marks the crossing line. Usually one module accounts for the overshoot, and dropping or deferring it is one conversation with a tutor rather than a term of falling behind.
A rota change, a new commute or a child starting school moves the hours you have. Change the figure and re-file — the plan is only useful while the number underneath it is true.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: BSc Natural Sciences, part time · autumn term 2026 · four modules · Cell Biology 9 hours a week · Numerical Methods 8 · Statistics 9 · 22 hours available beside work. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Using credit values as weekly hours
Credits measure total workload across a term. Dividing by the weeks in the term gives a weekly figure; using the credit number directly triples the plan.
Averaging a term with a heavy week in it
Submission weeks are not average weeks. If two assignments land in the same fortnight, that fortnight needs its own figure, and the receipt should be re-run for it.
Assuming the hours will appear
They come from somewhere specific: a shift, a Saturday, a commute, sleep. Naming the source is the part that makes the plan survivable, and it is not something a receipt can do for you.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A study-skills coach for part-time students | They build the same weekly plan with you | a session fee per fortnight |
| Dropping a module in week seven | The withdrawal happens after the fees and the reading | a module fee and a term of catch-up |
| A planner app with a study streak | Motivation mechanics for a problem that is arithmetic | a subscription |
| This page + the free semester workload receipt | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free semester workload receipt
Four modules totalling 31 weekly hours are already weighed against 22, with Statistics for Biologists and Cell Biology sorted to the top and the crossing line flagged. Raise the hours to 32 and every module clears it.
Open the free semester workload receipt →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every module, the weekly total, the crossing flag and the overrun figure, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This adds up the weekly hours you estimate; it is not academic advice, it cannot know a module's real workload, and it does not account for submission weeks, lab bookings or a rota change. Check the department's published hours per credit and talk to your tutor before you change your registration.