6 Tips For Taking Summer Classes
1. Ask your guidance counselor about courses that they would recommend taking over the summer. They’ve seen other students going through the same courses, and probably heard about their experiences.
2. Go through the least difficult classes you need to take first. This will help you build up a bit of self discipline and sort out work habits before taking the harder courses. Gen ed courses are some of the best to knock out during this time.
3. CHECK THE LENGTH OF THE CLASS!!! Some schools allow summer courses to be shorter then two months, and others the entire length of the summer break. KNOW WHAT PACE YOU'RE GETTING YOURSELF INTO!
4. Check your professor's reviews online. This is something everyone should do regardless of taking summer courses or fall courses, because a professor's attitude, style of teaching, and grading system can make or break even a top student's grades. I currently use Rate My Professor, but you should definitely use more then one source of information to research them.
5. Start off your first summer with no more then two courses, until you know how much workload you can handle. Remember, this is a summer course. Summer courses are already going to be a little shorter then the traditional fall or spring term courses, so, CHECK THOSE START AND END DATES BEFORE REGISTERING!!!
6. If you are taking classes on campus, be prepared to bring your own lunch. Not all universities or campuses will be fully functional during the summer, since they will have a major decrease in active student attendance. So other facilities such as the gym, smaller food stalls, and other services may not be up and running, or will have much more constricted hours of operation.
Bonus: Don't forget to pack an umbrella for the rainy or hurricane seasons, and a water bottle. If you live in an especially hot and humid climate, bring a handkerchief and a mini fan in-case the AC goes down.
Bonus Bonus: If you are taking a course at a different institution and hoping to transfer the credit over to your main school, check with the guidance counselor that that specific credit will DEFINITELY transfer over. Several of my friends and I have had trouble with credits not transferring over even though they had identical course names and course content as our home university’s, and had to retake the course at said home university even though we already knew the material.