How long should it take?

When I received my tutor's comments on Assignment 2 of DPP he set a target date for him receiving Assignment 3 as the end of May. I was quite surprised at this as I had already done about 80% of the work and was planning to send it before the end of February. Even taking into account his suggestions about broadening the scope of my approach to assignments I still think that I can have it ready for very early March.

I was left wondering whether I am missing something. The time scale given approximates to 16 weeks. If we use the OCA claim that the Courses are set anticipating between 5 - 8 hours of work per week this provides a range of 80 - 128 hours for the period I was given. I assume the difference in the anticipated hours is to allow for the range of students previous experience and aptitude. Lets take a middle figure and say that the task should be completed in 104 hours. I started this part of the Course in late December  and calculate that I will have been working on it for 8 weeks suggesting an average weekly time expenditure of about 13 hours. Does this match with my experience?

The average time is misleading because I tend to work in bursts of activity. On receiving the Course material I take each part in turn and work out how many photographs I will need of a particular type to cover the exercises. I try to get as many as possible in one shoot although in practice I need to refine this initial burst by seeking out shots that I have not got or where I think I could do better. I then do each exercise in turn; with some I will complete two on the same day if I have the necessary material. The material for the assignment I tend to leave towards the end although I always check whether I have unused images that are suitable for inclusion. For example I decided on the theme for Assignment 3 and completed the initial shooting in about 6 hours one day and then spent approximately the same time processing the Raw images and selecting those I thought worthy of inclusion the following day.

Following my tutor's comments in response to Assignment 2 I decided to broaden the theme and spent roughly 4 hours yesterday taking additional images and anticipate spending the same time on processing.
I have calculated that in the last 7 days I have spent close to 35 hours on the Course work including what I think of my 'chosen' time. 'Chosen' time is reading material related to photography such as Michael Freeman's book; writing my blog and thinking. Thinking time is important to me both at the direct level such as planning a shoot or a theme for an assignment but also thinking about photography in general. One of my main interests is in the psychology of photography and how this impacts on the 'intent' of the photographer and the interpretation of the viewer. Having said that some days I do absolutely nothing about photography.

I am confident that I am doing more than the 5 - 8 hours a week. I am retired so that I have very few other demands upon my time. Photography is my main intellectual outlet so am more than happy to spend a disproportionate time on pursuing it. I have been using Photoshop since version 5.5 and am currently using CS5 so I am au fait with the way it works and what tools to use when. This knowledge speeds up the processing of Raw images considerably.  I will use any available software to help me achieve the desired end. I also follow as far as possible the same processes in image enhancement so that I get to where I want to be in the shortest time possible.

However I am still left with the question  whether those who will assess my work at assignment or assessment stage will believe that I have done the work. We shall have to wait and see.