Summer is almost here and visions of a road trip to the beach dance in your head. Reality-check. You are enrolled in a summer semester. Who’s idea was it anyway? Maybe you didn’t do well on a calculus course and you decided to retake it to improve your GPA. Perhaps you met with your advisor and discovered you need more credit hours to graduate  in the spring. It could be that a pre-requisite is offered only in the summer for a course you must take in the fall. Or you could be just one of those people who love going to school in the summer. Here are my top summer semester survival secrets. (well, they’re not really secrets but I love alliterations).

Community Colleges are less expensive.

Tuition at your local community college is much lower than your 4-year university so taking a course at your community college makes money sense. But first, make sure your school will recognize the course from the community college and give you credit for it.

 

Options. Options. Options.

Look at all your options. Your school might offer 4- week, 8-week or 11-week summer sessions. Online. Face to face. Hybrid. You have options. Choose one that matches the content being studied. You can choose to enroll in a Maymester which generally starts the Monday after finals and ends the week of Memorial Day. Some courses are best learned by going to class 3-4 hours daily for 3 weeks or by going to class 2-3 hours daily all week for 4 weeks. These intense immersion-type courses support memory.   There isn’t a big break between class meetings like from Thursday to Tuesday during a regular long semester. So you won’t have time to forget material. That’s intense but it’s over quickly.  If you need to take two courses, taking one in June for four weeks and the other in July for four weeks can be the winning option for you. That way you are only taking one at a time and can focus on just one type of course material. Other courses which have writing-heavy assignments are best learned over the longer 11-week summer semester. These 11-week semesters are similar to the regular Fall and Spring long semesters. Choose wisely and survive the summer.

 

Daily work.

Go to class every day and do your homework every day. To survive the summer remember that summer sessions are short and there isn’t a lot of time to make a come-back if you bomb the first exam.

 

Stay accountable.

Summer weather might lull you into the lazy summer thinking. Find someone to help you stay accountable to your schedule and your commitments. This person will be your cheerleader. Someone who believes in you and encourages you will help you survive the summer semester.

 

Remember your WHY.

Find a picture that will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and put it on the wall. Keeping your reason for doing summer school in plain sight will help you keep going.

 

Resist the temptation …

of feeling sorry for yourself. “All my friends are at the beach.” Whine, whine, whine. Time to grow up and finish what you started. See the above suggestion about remembering your WHY.

 

Hire an academic coach …

to help you develop learning strategies, self-management skills, time and stress management skills. With a coach you’ll learn to use the summer to move closer to your academic goals.