Since there are frequently questions about whether or not you should or should not take summer classes, I thought I would weigh in with my experience now that I am down to the last week.
I took Chem 2 over the summer. It was a 5 credit course with lab. The class was from 6pm-9pm MW and 6pm-10pm T-TH.
My personal schedule was that I would work my FT engineering job from 7-3:30, head to school by 4pm, study and do homework from 4-6, then go to class. I would NOT do homework late at night after class. I did occassionally do some on the weekends, but typically just the minimum to stay caught up since this was also the only time I had to pick up the house, do laundry, grocery shop, see my kids, and volunteer.
My grades in the class are good. I currently have a 99% in lecture and a low A in lab (group grades) with only the finals left. Overall, people in the class are doing well with more A grades than expected. . .of course most people who are willing to sign up for a night-time summer chem class 4 days/week are probably overachievers anyway, and the professor says we are the best class he’s ever had.
I will disclose that I have an engineering degree with a strong math background and spent my entire u/g career taking classes that are similar in format to chem 2, although different subjects. I took high school chem. I also took a ‘gen chem for engineers’ class in 1996. I retained none of it, but I know there’s a difference between having at least seen it before and not. Before this class, I did not take chem I, but I did a self-study review & tested out of chem I. I was able to maintain strong grades because of my educational background. I’m also a very dedicated student. I never missed class. I finished every homework problem and asked questions as needed. I didn’t text my friends during lectures (as if I have time to have friends - ha). And this is a long-term lifestyle for me: I graduated #3 in my engineering class. I may have a 99%, but I have worked hard for my whole life to now have the ability to get good grades under any circumstances. I strongly caution people without a science and math background against tackling this class in the summer.
Would I personally do another summer class like this one? NO!!! I did it because I would have delayed my application 1 yr for only one prereq if I had not taken it, but I’m not sure it was worth the strain on my family. My 4 y.o. really took it hard. It was hard to maintain the pace for 8 weeks because there was no down time. We had two exams every other week. The no-exam weeks were never long enough to catch a break!
On the flip side, it could be a taste of the med school life. I have barely seen my kids all summer. I’ve got about 5 hrs sleep every night for the past month. I’ve gained 5 lbs. I’m living on Snickers and Grandma’s Cookies and Diet Pepsi. When I do see my family, I am snippy because I’m tired. I am honestly not sure if I am going to continue in the fall, although I’m currently enrolled. My classmates think I’m nuts - the person with all the ability dropping out - but I am strongly leaning towards engineering grad school.
So, that’s my opinion on that. I’d love to hear others summer school experiences. Did you survive???
Great warning AliJ. I am currently taking intensivo espanol and it is both Spanish I and Spanish II rolled into a lovely 8 week summer course. I am maintaining an “A”, but for how long??? I will not risk any of my science grades by taking them in the summer. That is what I have learned from this summer course. Thank goodness I am learning this on an “elective”. But, still…
That would be a challenge too! Lots of new vocab. You should be well-prepared for orgo. . .they say it’s like learning a foreign language. 
Ali,
I think it is great that you shared the realistic experiences of your taking the course. You showed that while it an be done and done well, it will take a lot of commitment, hard work and sacrifices. I think some people think taking a summer class is easy, but it is usually not…just much more intensive due to the shorter term.
Congrats on your great grades!
THANKS!
I did organic in the summer w/o lab. 3 hours a day, 4 afternoons, a week, for 5 weeks. The silly ass dean who scheduled the class had the spring semester end on Friday May 13th and the summer began Monday May 16th. We had 3 exams and a comprehensive final for each term. From a content point of view, it was brutal. I found it took me two full days of studying, working problems, and etc to master a chapter. so at 3-4 chapters a week I was okay, provided there were 8 days in the week! I felt really sorry for the kids who took lab in the 3 days a week. They dropped like flies. Even squeezing in extra studying time as I work from home and even with the professor giving exam problems almost directly out of the book, it was a bitch and a half! I barely got an A- out of it! My experience is best captured by the following blues song I wrote about it
Organic Summertime Blues
I got 15 weeks of schoolin’ but I’m doing it 5!
I said, I got 15 weeks of schoolin’ but I’m doing it 5!
I study so much that I feel more dead than alive.
I don’t know my mechanisms; reactions are killn’ me!
I said, I don’t know my mechanisms; reactions are killn’ me!
I study so much, my eyes they hardly see.
Alkenes and Alkanes! Alkynes and Alcohols!
Oh there so much to knows but I can’t knows it all!
I said, I got 15 weeks of schoolin’ but I’m doing it 5!
I study so much that I feel more dead than alive.
Personally, I love summer classes. I like the intensity, and I find that spending time each day in class helps me to grasp the material better. I took Chem II last summer with labs, and got asn A. I also just finished bio chem I, no lab, and I got an A.
Since I’m also doing the do-it-yourself informal post-bacc, I am unable to register for courses in advance. For those of you unfamiliar with ‘crashing,’ it means that I have to go to the first day and ask the instructor’s permission to take the course, on a space-available basis. Summer classes seem to be easier to get, since most people aren’t interested in taking a full year of bio chem over the summer.
That being said, however, I would never tackle something like organic chemistry over the summer. It is a tremendous amount of work, and the 3D visualization takes a lot of practice. That is one class that is easier to take in small bites, rather than a large summer chunk.
So, for summer classes, it is important for the student to know themselves and how they function. If you know that you struggle in a subject and that it isn’t intuitive for you, then do not take it in a summer class. If it is something that you have a natural ability for, then take the summer class. Just choose wisely, and be prepared to work because summer classes aren’t easy.
Thanks for the feedback guys… Still giving some consideration to summer O-chem though. We’ll see what happens.
- somedayDrA Said:
Really, I agreed with you 10 weeks ago, and I still agree in that I enjoy the intensity of the class. I have taken engineering physics II, engineering statics, general biology, statistics, and calc III in the summer format. I also took some MBA classes in the summer. I got A's in every summer course I took, and kind of even liked the camraderie of hanging out with the same tortured, socially-restricted students nightly. My big finding this year was that my life is much fuller than in the past years I've taken classes. I have two kids now instead of one, and they are getting older. They have their own activities, which are too much for my husband to juggle on his own. Our weekends were always busy with family commitments. I was really blindsided by how much my life sucked this summer, since I have pulled off difficult summer classes successfully in the past, even while working with kids.
Maybe I those old summer classes are just rosy in my distant memory and in another couple years I'll be telling everyone how wonderful this class was.
It can be done. I have three kids under 2.5 yoa and work part time. I am taking a full load for summer. So, yes an “A” can be had. I probably could do o-chem if it was the ONLY class in summer. But, I honestly want to know the information, I feel that taking summer classes I could get the grade, but, wonder if I will retain it for the MCAT’s. That’s why I choose not to ever do summer science classes. I might do well, but, will not count on retention when shoveling so much info into my brain in a day.
Personally with my math struggles, I would never do a summer course for a pre req. Possibly one of the buffer courses to help with MCAT prep, but with three littles plus work, I’m thinking I’d run out of time to sleep being I’d force myself to study when past the point of exhaustion. I tried a math course last summer and ended up with a “D” in the class. So that was enough to tell me, crash courses are not in the cards for me for the courses that really count. I want enough time to process and really learn the information since a lot of it will be imperative to understanding the tougher aspects of med school curriculum.
- LC2Doc Said:
I think you bring up very vital points. While it is possible to take a course in the summer and do extremely more, it is also important to be able understand the material further than the duration of the course. I've taken a number of classes over the summer, did well...but my recall, eh..would take some intensive review.
If anyone needs to take a prereq in the summer, do yourself a favor and don't take the first of the sequence over the summer. By taking the first course in the spring, you'll have a longer time to build a stronger foundation so that when you take the second course in the summer, you'll be much better off.
If you take the first sequence (or worse both first and second) in the summer, you aren't really processing the information. You are learning it, but it might not be enough time to put in your long term memory. So you might get an A because you are putting all of your effort into it, if you don't have a stronger base...it could be only temporary.
I'll leave it to say that everyone should use their own discretion when considering summer courses. I, personally, think that when it comes to prereqs, you want to have a good, strong foundation and that starts with the first of each sequence.