Taking an online class from CC as a HS junior. How much time to study?

Hello,

I’m hoping you can help advise us here. My sons are finishing their junior year. Our local community college is offering a 5 week online session for high school students to earn college credit. The class choices are College Composition, General Psychology, and Introductory Statistics.

The boys will need all of these classes for their degrees. How much time do you think will be involved in class and studying for a 3 credit online course that lasts 5 weeks?

They can take up to two classes, but I’m wondering if that would be biting off too much. Which one in general would be easiest to complete?

My child took introductory statistics online in a 12 week course and spent around 3/4 hours a week, more before midterms and finals. Sorry, don’t have experience with the other courses.

Thanks for chiming in. Had your child taken any statistics at all in school before taking the online class? My son actually has a math learning disability and I’m wondering if we should avoid college statistics until after he has taken an introductory class in high school his senior year.

No, she had not taken any statistics in high school but she has taken other math courses online before(not cc)
It may be a good idea to take a high school statistics course before if he has a math learning disability.

You would be compressing 15 weeks into 5 weeks.

Keep in mind that the government/accreditation assumes that for every academic hour in class, you need to do 2-3 hours of studying/reading/homework.

15 weeks/course x 3 classes/week (1 hours/class + 2-3 study/homework hours/class) = 135-180 hours needed for a course so around 150 hours.

So for a 5 week course that is about 50 hours/week. Your child should treat it like a full time job.

If they took two classes, don’t take them at the same time.

Hi!

I took Statistics at my local community college, and although it was not Introductory, it’s much more difficult than the other two classes. But really, it all depends on their preference.

As far as time, if it’s at a decent community college, quite a bit. But not 50 hours a week. I’m taking THREE this summer, and I’m not expecting it to be this much.

Anyway, good luck.

Thanks everyone! I think we’ve settled on psychology. Hopefully it won’t be as much writing involved as Composition. Also, I’m going to have him do statistics in high school next year so hopefully that will help him with college statistics.