Does taking summer classes help to ease your way in nursing school?

[cannm56]

So, I am currently on my to getting my RN degree and I am constantly hearing about how difficult nursing school is. I have just completed my first year of college and I took the regular classes like A & P, chemistry etc. During the spring semester, technically I was only a part time student because I tested out a computer programming class required for the nursing program at my school and because of my many APs in high school, I didn't have to take other classes that everybody else in pre-nursing was taking at the time. So I basically just took the second semester of chemistry and physiology, and combined with their labs, I had a lot more freetime than my first semester, but I still had my fair share of work and just because I only had 2 classes doesn't mean I slacked off. This summer I have decided to take Microbiology and Informatics (which my advisor enrolled me because I have a direct-admit, even though it is only for people already in nursing) so I will continue to be a part time student next year, which will be my first year actually in the nursing program. Each semester I will have about 10 or 11 credits, and the upcoming summer, I plan on taking Statistics as well to keep my credits down. Now, taking microbiology, many of the students are already on their way to their second year of nursing, and so I am hearing first hand how hard the program is. They told me it is way harder than A&P or Chemistry and that they cried so many times over the course of the past year. So understanding that the classes themselves are very hard, my question is do you think that nursing school will be as hard for me if I keep my credits to a minimum? The previous fall semester was very difficult for me just taking 15 credits because all my classes were very time-consuming so that was part of the reason I lessened my load the next semester. The first semester, I regularly pulled all-nighters and I barely had a social life while the next semester I had more free time to join clubs and sleep when I needed to. So will nursing school be slightly less difficult for me if I go about this route than for other people in the nursing program?