Is this a bad idea considering the classes are Calculus 3 and Introductory Electricity and Magnetism? The classes are back to back three hours long and four days a week for a month. Has anyone else done something similar and do you have any advice? I’d like to think that if there’s a will there’s a way.
I work full-time and I’ve taken (and gotten As in) 2 summer courses at once. I took 2 hybrid courses; Ethics, and Composition II. Got As in both (while working full time).
Oops just realized I put the part about As twice, wasn’t trying to rub it in I promise. My point being if you don’t work and you’re only taking 2 classes you should be able to do at least reasonably well in it.
If you took a regular class, it would be 3 days/ week x 1 hour /day x 15 weeks/semester =45 hours/semester.
You are expected to do 2-3 hours of studying/homework for each hour in class. So that is 6-9 hours of homework/studying per week in addition to the class.
So you are taking 4 days/week x 3 hours/day x 4 weeks/semester = 48 hours/ summersemester
You are expected to do 2-3 hours of studying/homework for each hour in class. So that is 24-36 hours of homework/studying per week in addition to the class.
If you said that you had an 8 week summer class, then I would say no problem.
But since this is condensed into 4 weeks I would say absolutely not.
Take the other class in another 4 week period.
I agree with @bopper – taking two heavy duty courses in such a compressed time-frame could be overwhelming.
Also Calc 3 can be a make or break class for Engineers…I once talked to Kevin Brown (the guy who played "Dot com on 30 Rock TV show) and he said he started college majoring in Engineering…I asked him “what happened?” He said: “Multivariable Calculus”.
So to do well, consider the following:
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GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
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Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
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If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
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If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
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For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
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How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
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At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
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If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
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At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
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Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
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If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
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If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
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Sometimes it is not the right time for college. Sometimes you have health, mental health, family or work issues to work out first.
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If you have trouble talking to professors, you may have social anxiety issues. Go to your college’s counseling center and talk to them about that. If you can’t do that, have a friend walk you over. Also you can practice talking to a friend about what you would say to a professor.
You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.
Might want to credit @bopper if you’re going to copy/paste their signature post.
It is “doable,” however these classes are very hard, much harder than the classes mentioned in reply #1. I wouldn’t recommend it for my own children or for myself but you might be some kind of math God where it would come easier to you?
I have done something similar-last summer I took 4 classes in a super condensed summer semester. If I had to do it again, the caveats are:
- Not a class that is integral to my major. The classes were extremely rushed and crunched, and I know they were not teaching some stuff that was taught in the regular classes. In some cases this worked to my advantage (one class was intermediate spanish, another one was into to computer science. Neither was in my major and I wanted them over as soon as possible), but in some cases I wished I'd had more time to get in depth with the subjects that I DID like. I would not use the summer semester classes as a foundation class to build on. It just wasn't in-depth enough.
- You absolutely cannot afford to get sick or miss a day. The teachers were hard core about this and took attendance (they're normally fairly slack about it).
- At some point you're going to hate yourself and want to quit. Don't. Just be aware that you'll be living with this feeling for several weeks.
My kid is looking at taking early college classes over the summer for 4 weeks. She’s a CS major and I strongly recommended she NOT take any foundation classes in her major. Just something that she can do for 3 hours a day and enjoy it, and it knocks out a requirement somewhere.
Sorry, didn’t know I copy that post. My bad, I was really sleepy last night so I wasn’t sure what I was doing
It is okay, just give it an attribution like "as @bopper often posts, "
Just like in school you can’t just plagiarise…you need to give credit I have no problem with you shareing if you attribute.