This article reports on a focus group study of student experience in a large humanities and social science faculty in Australia. The study had two purposes: the first was to examine student study/work/life balance issues, and the second purpose was to investigate their experiences of study, workloads and assessment. This article reports on the second aspect of the study--student experiences of study and assessment in the humanities and social science disciplines. Three issues are examined; students experienced a lack of clarity about expected workloads and work practices; they felt they received inadequate guidance on effective strategies for reading and expected amounts of reading; and they were uncertain about their capacities to identify the focus of various assessment tasks and uncertain whether they had the necessary skills to successfully complete the assigned tasks. In each of these three areas, students expressed a desire for clearer information about what to do and how to do it. Although this focus on assignments and outcomes suggests that these current day students approach learning pragmatically, the students revealed willingness to learn how to study better. In addition, they talked of looking for deeper learning experiences than they were currently achieving.