CC Summer Semester 1 month classes, any experiences you can share?

[homeschoolally]

My oldest is taking online community college classes for the first time this summer. I was surprised to see that instead of spreading the courses out over the summer, there are two one-month sessions.

 

I'm trying to figure out how you could cram an entire 3 or 4 credit class into 4 weeks, and wondering if we should wait until the more traditional schedule starts back in the fall.

 

Has anyone had experience with this, and would you mind sharing how tough it was? He will be OK with a typical CC workload if he only takes 6 credit hours a semester, but I don't want to overload him if these one-month classes seriously cram an entire semester in one month!

 

Thanks, I appreciate any replies.

[LBS]

but my daughter goes to a pretty rigorous college and they are done for the year, by end of April. The summer school sessions run for five weeks....she got into classes she could not get into during the school year, and was in a half day, each class, Mon-Thurs. She loved it, and seemed to get more out of it than the three-classes-a-week, for 3 1/2 months kind of schedule, and got better grades. She took 6 credits and I don't know if she could have done 9....she needs about 1 1/2 hours outside class per hour in class, according to the dean she meets with.

 

I don't know if the CC has a reason for condensing the classes, but the living situation would not apply, like for a campus college. Maybe it is so that teachers and other ten-month people can take the classes? Or some subjects and people learn better in a more intense, every-day learning situation. Heck, it could just be more convenient to people's schedules, and vacations,etc.

 

Not sure if I helped, at all. I'm not sure how online stuff works at all, either....but my daughter takes a spring or summer extra session each year, thinking she may graduate in four years, which is increasitingly unusual.

 

Yours,

LBS

[Jeannie in NJ]

I once took calculus 2 in a 4 week summer session. The class was Mon -Fri for about 3 hours. I was in a study group that would meet before the class and we would often work together on our homework. Lots of homework every night. I was basically doing nothing but calculus the entire 4 weeks. It was very intense. I barely made a c and I had always made a's in all math classes before . I honestly think that it was too little amount of time to digest a calculus class.

[Jane in NC]

I have not taken any of these compressed summer courses, but I have taught them. Using those experiences, let me give you my take.

 

Many students who despise math (my field) think that they might scrape by in a math course if that is the only course in which they are enrolled. After five weeks, they'll check off the box, right? The reality is that students who are not particularly engaged in a topic find it challenging to live, breathe and eat that subject for five weeks straight. (Or as Jeannie noted they have insufficient time to digest the material!)

 

Summer school can work quite effectively for students who are focused and who have the time to do homework daily. Students who try to work full time in the summers and squeeze in a summer class usually cannot keep up with the work load.

 

I have heard rumors that some profs trim work loads in summer classes. Not in my experience. One young lady I know took a physics class in summer school. When she was not reading her text or studying, she was performing labs or writing lab reports. The prof had office hours at 7 AM! The few students who survived the class did nothing else for five weeks. When it was over, our friend was glad to have it behind her, but I don't think she had anticipated the intensity of the experience when she enrolled.

 

A young man I know was enrolled in a summer class that required a great deal of reading. As a slow reader, he found keeping up with assignments to be problematic--and exhausting.

 

Knowing your students interests and limitations can guide them to a successful summer school experience. Readers might enjoy spending the afternoons with novels. Science geeks might enjoy living and breathing physics.

 

Summer school is intense! Students in academic difficulties are often required to take summer classes. What a challenge!

 

Jane

[DarlaS]

My son is taking online CC classes right now. They are 8 weeks during the regular year, but some of the summer ones they offer are accelerated (or should I say more accelerated). They DO cram an entire semester into one month or they would not award the same credits.

 

Choose those classes wisely. This is a good time to take something like golf, tennis or health/nutrition and get that PHED requirement out of the way--if you have one, or maybe a non math intensive science (Environmental Science comes to mind.).

 

The plan for our summer is to keep it light. He is looking at Astronomy and maybe an Econ class. One he will attend and one will be online. We are saving French and Trig for fall when he can attend both, and take the full 16 weeks. Seems like a good plan...

[homeschoolally]

I appreciate you guys taking the time to share this.

 

My son isn't ready for that level of intensity, so it was very helpful in making the decision to only try one 'light' class this time.

 

I needed that reality check! Thanks!

[Brindee]

Yes, I know I wouldn't have been ready for that intensity when I was in highschool, though I know some could do fine at that age.

 

However, once I was in college, I often took the intense summer classes for my major field. I LOVED them! I have a hard time staying focused over a whole quarter. I can't imagine a semester! My performance level would drop nearer the end of the quarter. So, those summer classes were perfect for me, cuz I could last 2-4 weeks with a couple of intense classes. Then I'd veg for a week or so then take a couple more, and I always got A's in them. It worked for me then, once I had gotten used to the college level of academics, but, as I said, at ages 15 to 18 I don't think I could have done it.

[K-FL]

My kids haven't taken any summer intensives, but I took 1 yr of German in 10 weeks of summer school while in college. I hadn't had German before so it was super intense, and like an immersion experience. I found by the end I was dreaming in German! It would have been better to take a language I'd studied before, but it worked for me.

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest took her first cc class as a half-summer session that was just 5 weeks. We were going to be out of the state for two weeks during the 1st summer session, so the only way she could take a class during the summer was to take one that was just 2nd session.

 

She chose to do psychology. While it wasn't awful, it was pretty rough. The class had no grades other than 4 multiple-choice tests. My dd had a low-medium B on each of the first three tests and then got a low D on the last one to bring her score down to a C.

 

She did like the class, but it would have been a better class for her to take over the entire summer. The reading was hard for her to keep up with.

 

I don't want my other kids to take a class during a 5-week session.

[Photo Ninja]

My dd took Psychology at the cc in summer, a 5 week session. It was the summer between her 10th and 11th grade. She loved it, and got an A. She said she wished I had allowed her to take 2 courses that summer. I only let her take 1 thinking it might be too much work to take two. Evidently I was wrong. She liked that there was time to focus the topics because class was longer, unlike the shorter classes that meet 2x/week during the regular semester classes. She did have reading and assignments to do every day, but also liked that there was a test each week. Even though it was a lot to cover in one week, she thought it was easier because the tests were also weekly instead of approx. monthly.

 

I think whether a student is successful or not will depend on the student's strengths and the subject. I don't think my dd would like a math class at the summer pace. Since she likes social studies/history, those are good choices for her.

 

She plans to take 2 classes this summer because her experience was so positive last summer.

[kiana]

I took a few summer classes. IMO:

 

Summer classes should definitely be taken in an area of strength and interest.

 

Skill-based subjects such as math, quantitative science, or languages can be especially difficult over the summer. A student who is both strongly interested and has a talent in the subject area may do very well.

[unsinkable]

I took many summer school classes.

 

Most of mine were 3 weeks long, 3 hours a day (so 15 days.)

 

The way I thought of it was that each day in summer school was like a week in a semester length class.

 

If I felt like I'd enjoy doing a week's worth of work every night, I'd take the class. If not, I wouldn't. Most weekends, the teacher assigned bigger works like reseaarch papers or take home essay tests.

 

I took classes like:

 

Intro to Psych

Intro to Anthropology

American Lit I

The Short Story

 

 

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the sense of accomplishment, though. It was such an awesome feeling to get done with a whole class so quickly.

 

Good luck!