Accelerated Summer College Courses

[mRx 16]

I haven't taken an accelerated class, but I taught an accelerated statistics class last summer and I'll be teaching one this summer, so maybe I can give some useful insight. I'm a grad student who is about to go on the job market next year, so I had to take the class seriously because I needed good reviews both from the students and from the prof who was teaching the next class in the sequence.

My class was pretty much a boot camp class. I didn't skip any topics and the students really needed to learn everything or they would have failed the next class. I felt like a zombie by the end of the day, and I was teaching material that I already knew really well, so I can't imagine how the students must have felt.

My 2 cents: only take summer classes if they are very easy, or if you are really excited about the class and don't mind doing a lot of independent work.

You can easily read 100 pages of gen ed 101 BS every day, ace a multiple choice exam, and forget everything you learned as soon as you walk out of the exam room. If you need to actually learn stuff, but you aren't terribly thrilled about the subject, I would strongly advise you against taking science and math classes during the summer.

I am not saying that cannot learn a lot in an accelerated class. You can probably learn more than you would in a regular class, if you spend your whole summer completely focusing on one subject, but you have to be 100% dedicated. There is very little leeway, so you can't miss classes or labs. An average student will have to spend about 3 hours doing homework/studying for every hour in a summer class, so be prepared to put your social life on the back burner for awhile. If you don't care about the subject, it's very easy to start slacking off.

If you are actually excited about doing a lot of work in that field, an advantage of accelerated summer classes is that you can completely focus on one class and you will learn a lot. Plus you can kind of get a taste of what working in that field would be like, because you will only be doing chemistry-related stuff for 3 months.

evilmonkee,

I appreciate your insight. I plan on devoting myself entirely to these courses and I'm prepared to completely neglect my social life for 9-weeks.

[mRx 16]

But you're really smart, Matt, so you can do it! Best of luck!

Aww. I'm humbled, Lisa. Thanks!

[William33 110]

I have no job, and since the school is about an hour away, I'll be temporarily moving in with a buddy who lives within walking distance of the university. My wife and I have one car, so we'll be apart for the 9-weeks, but she understands. So, I'll be able to devote every second of those 9-weeks to the classes.

Neils Bohr, I'm not taking O-chem over the summer. I'll start the regularly-paced sequence of that in the fall.

Matt,

I finished college at the normal pace. Your proposed effort is admirable, to say the least. I wish you much success!!!!