I need to take bio 101 and precalc (obviously). I am at a community college getting ready to transfer to a University. It has been recommended by a few professors not to take math or science courses over the summer sessions, never mind 2 of these courses over 1 summer semester.
The precalc teacher is awesome and not hard, doesn’t typically give a lot of work but is a great teacher, I had him last semester. But in order for my pre-calc to transfer I have to take trigonometry also & I am running out of time.
As for bio, I have to take this bio class to take other upper level classes.
So should I follow my professor’s advice and not take any science/math during the summer? Or should I take bio, or should I take Pre-Calc. Or stick to what I am scheduled which is BIO and Pre-Calc.
I’d have classes 4 days a week twice a day (morning then evening)
Earl
Unless you consider yourself the A student and assuming you do not have a job, then it is doable although you will have to work quite a lot. Remember than BIO alone will take 4h / day, with lecture AND labs. So this alone is enough to keep you busy at least 6h/day (if you can do homework fast). Add to that pre-calc. So unless you are a Full time student with little responsibility on the side, I would advise you against the load.
I consider myself a good student and the only other thing I have going on is volunteering 1 day a week (but I have 3 kids also). But it does seem like a lot!
According to most of the reviews on RateMyProffessor the bio prof is tough but great. I’ve had the math prof last semester (& fall semester), He is awesome, not a lot of graded homework, tests are somewhere around 3-6 questions.
But I am still worried for the reasons you mentioned.
Hey Earl!
My name is Julio, and I was kind of in the same boat with you regarding what load to take a few semesters back; this also being at a community college.
My two cents:
Similar to Redo, if you find yourself naturally inclined towards math and not intimidated by Trig or Calc type stuff AND you are not the type of person to get easily distracted from HW then I would say yes, simply because Bio will take up a lot of your time (naturally, if done right).
I ended up not taking that course load for the summer (took stats and humanities instead, lol!!) because I knew that I was not the type of student to simply sit in a chair for 8+ hours a day for the next two or so months going over my homework and lab assignments and doing extra problems and questions just to get the material down.
This is not to say that there are some ridiculously smart braniacs on here but I’m not one of them and I’m sure if I did take that course load my grades for Bio as well as math would not have been that strong (not to mentioned that I wouldn’t have learned the material that well also).
“Know thyself” …this will get you through this crazy marathon race we call non-trad premed!
God Speed my friend!
Earl,
I have been teaching Bio 101 for many years, and I often teach during the summers. I agree with what has been said so far. Students that typically do well with a heavy summer course load are few and far between. If you already have a strong background in biology that can work, but one of the great advantages to summer courses is that they allow for intense focus. Remember that Bio 101 is going to set you up for all your other biology courses. Taking the time at the beginning to build a solid foundation in biology will pay for itself over and over. Most biology concepts on the MCAT come straight from general biology. When I took the MCAT in January one of the bio labs I teach every semester showed up as a passage!
In short, I think summer is a good idea for just the biology. It will allow you to focus. Community college can be a great place to take a course like that if you have an experienced instructor. That can be said for most of the pre-req courses.
Good Luck!
I found summers at CC to be pretty manageable. I took Gen Chem I and Psych 101 during the first half of summer '11, and EMT (8 credits) in the second half. The following summer, I took Physics 1 during the first half of summer and Gen Bio II in the second half. I did well in all of them. In fact, I kinda liked the face paced courses; it really keeps you on track when you go every day.
Thanks everyone. I ended up dropping the bio class as my sGPA is low (3.40)but I have 6-8 semesters left to bring it up.