During the four years of undergraduate study my students are taken through the basic orchestral and operatic repertoire. Not only does this tie in with their history courses, it prepares them for future performing opportunities. Such opportunities tend to occur as last minute needs to cover an illness or sudden unavailabilty of the regular flutist. This is no time to be learning a Beethoven symphony, but there might be a few minutes to pull out an excerpt book and refresh one's memory. At very least one knows which page to turn to, in the few minutes before the rehearsal starts, to run over the solo.
Each work needs to be studied as follows. Find the score and recording in the library. New students can ask the staff for help with this. Listen to the work following the score. Listen again following the excerpt book. Mark into your book the tempos on the recording as well as any things you notice about the solo that will help you remember how it sounded once you return to your practice room. You might note that the solo is in unison or octaves with the oboe or the violins, or that it is accompanied by pizzicato strings, or is a duet with the clarinet, or that the bar of rest is filled by the bassoon. With careful listening you will develop a sense of style for a period - how short is the staccato in a Haydn Symphony - how much vibrato?
The goal then is to develop an aural memory of the music that will be recalled when practicing the notes. When you bring the excerpt to the lesson you will try to reproduce the music as you heard it.
The normal assignment is one symphony or two shorter works each week. If this schedule is maintained a repertoire of some hundred works will be developed over the course of study. For example, the Smith book of classical symphonies can be covered in the first year if a couple of the shorter symphonies are studied in a single week. One freshman has covered the book in a semester!
Much of this music can be sight read. That is clearly not the purpose. On the rare occasion when there has been no opportunity to listen the assignment is postponed.
It is recommended that, if possible, the piccolo excerpts are played on piccolo.