Summer School

[oiprocs]

I'll be taking 2 engineering courses in about 2 weeks, and I've never taken a summer school class before. I'm a 4th year, btw. The session lasts a month, and from what my brother tells me I'm going to need plenty of lube for the a** reamage I will receive.

He recommends only taking 1 course because the "information they condense into a 1 month period is so much that you'll have to put in a good chunk of your days just to keep up", especially since it's engineering. He didn't make it sound completely impossible though; just close to that.

Oh yeah, I'm shooting for at least B+'s in both courses.

 

[Safeway]

Much easier.

 

[ChaoZ]

I took 2 summer courses at once. A lot of people extend to exaggerate on the difficulty. It wasn't bad for me, just a crap load of reading to do.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Very much easier, I'd say.

 

[oiprocs]

Liking these responses! :thumbsup:

I wonder if he'll stroll in here and start bashing everyone for putting me in the mindset that the classes will be easier.

 

[Tiamat]

You will be busy, but for some people, they learn much better when the material keeps coming at you without any pause (kind of like reading a book but pausing every so often vs. reading a book straight through).

You have to stay on top of it though, if you get lazy, you will get burned real bad on the exams.

 

[Slew Foot]

Back when I was in college, you were supposed to take the hard classes not pertinent to your major during the summer since they were easier then. Not sure if that holds true now.

 

[Balt]

I almost always liked summer classes better. Everyone (including the faculty) tends to be happier and more relaxed.

I didn't take engineering classes, though.

 

[orakle]

I just took 3 engineering courses in May/June. Nailed em.

 

[Strk]

They're just courses over a shorter perior of time, although the amount of classes and such is probably right about the same.

 

[slsmnaz]

I have a short attention span so the length of summer classes was better. I just seemed to lose focus during the reg semesters. Plus there are fewer distractions.

Like Balt said, there also seemed to be a more relaxed feel in the summer.

 

[slightlyhuman]

taking microbio right now. first summer course i've ever had. not too bad, just a lot of notes for 5 weeks.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: ChaoZ
I took 2 summer courses at once. A lot of people extend to exaggerate on the difficulty. It wasn't bad for me, just a crap load of reading to do.

ditto, in the last week for my 2 classes I took this summer too.

 

[George P Burdell]

You need to stay on top of things. And buy a lot of lube.

 

[nccr]

It really depends. I've had a few that have been jokes and others that have been very difficult. The very difficult ones were 10 week classes condensed into 4 weeks with a bunch of EE PhD students who were taking the class for a Stats PhD minor.

 

[evetstech]

Dropped both of my summer engineering classes. I missed a week of school, and by the time I got back, I was so far behind, there was no catching up. Not to mention the week I came back was the week they decided to give tests, and the whole semester, they only put out 3 tests, so if you fail one, it'll be hard to pick up the slack. If you take summer classes, be sure to be on top of it.

 

[bonkers325]

typically, summer courses are just regular courses rolled into one quick month... and just like regular courses, if u miss a few classes you're gonna get boned. but typically, summer courses are easier compared to their fall/spring counterparts

 

[Journer]

summer classes are soooooo much easier because:
1) shorter, not as much material can be covered
2) shorter, you forget less things because less time has passed
3) often taught by TAs who are extremely lax

however the hours are long and you have more condensed homework...if you have homework

 

[TecHNooB]

Summer classes are HARD omg! The curves are much higher than usual. Like, if the usual average was about 40, then during the summer it's a 70. Plus, there's twice the amount of homework, lot more material covered, and the occasional screwing on the second exam depending on how well people did on the first.

 

[DaWhim]

it was a bliss for me. I took tennis, conoeing, weight training, real estate law, and web programming. The best time I have in college.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Journer
summer classes are soooooo much easier because:
1) shorter, not as much material can be covered
2) shorter, you forget less things because less time has passed
3) often taught by TAs who are extremely lax

however the hours are long and you have more condensed homework...if you have homework

Uhh about #3 a lot of professors just mumble and digress. You really learn nothing from some of them at times, and you count on your TAs to clarify things. What's the point? A lot of times you wish TAs could teach the classes themselves.

It really depends though. I took practice midterms of the fall and spring semesters for our summer class and I noticed that the degree of difficulty of our summer midterm was much harder.

But I think when it comes to humanities classes its a lot easier. Political Science was a joke and they only gave us 1 paper for the whole summer. I could imagine people slaving away at multiple papers during the school year on top of midterms.

 

[SsupernovaE]

For me they are easier because you have to concentrate harder and tend to not forget as much stuff as compared to the regular semester.

 

[LongCoolMother]

It really depends on the course. It's easier for a lot of already-difficult classes, but other courses such as Math can possibly be much harder because its quite essential that no parts be left out. That being said, I prefer to get non-critical classes out of the way during the summer because even though it might be harder, it blows by more quickly.

A** reamage for 6 weeks beats reamage for 12!!

IE. I took a math course this summer. Started out with ~30+ people, and within 2 weeks, dropped down to 12. At the end of the class, 7 failed. Only 5 received any credit at all.

 

[RollWave]

Grad School summer classes are brutal, but undergrad is very doable.