Taking Bio and Chem over the summer?

satherp5 · Feb 23, 2013

Taking the Bio and Chem in the summer on top of a part-time job is going to be crazy hard. Adding the speech and history class is just looney.

Just my opinion though. Best of luck with whatever you decide!

runsalot · Feb 23, 2013

NS is very competitive. Your GPA will be critical. All that to say you may want to space out those classes especially during a condensed summer term when you want to work as well. Good luck.

Trenata · Feb 23, 2013

Bio and chem over a short summer session is going to be super hard! As previous poster said, GPA is very important!

mmullen · Feb 23, 2013

It really depends on how determined you are and well you are able to store and retrieve information. If you are the type of person who has to study a lot to get the information into your head and understand it, I would recommend not taking so many courses at once with such a high level of difficulty because you'll only hurt your confidence and GPA. The first science courses in a BSN are often tough because all the language and information is new and it takes time and practice to build a foundation. As you move along into higher level courses; provided that you've done well and retained the information from your fundamental science courses, you will be able to learn new material more efficiently and you'll start to see the big picture. I'm not sure what type of learner you are but if it were me, I would space out my courses in the beginning. At my school, the summer is divided into 2 semesters - each 7 weeks long. If this is the case for your school, perhaps you should try taking BIO during the first part of the summer and O-Chem during the second part. That way you'll have time to concentrate on one thing at a time. O-Chem is one of the hardest courses that I had and I don't think I could have done well if I took it in a condensed semester along with other courses. I would leave the other courses (i.e. history, etc.) for another time. If you need to catch up for graduation take them in another summer; after all, you are only in your first year! You have plenty of time!

liz022 · Feb 23, 2013

Now that I think of it, it does take rereading several passages for me to understand certain concepts. I guess I'm just in a hurry to get into nursing school, but if that's gonna hurt my GPA, maybe that's not a good idea. Thanks for going in depth, really helped!

lalacb123 · Feb 24, 2013

As a pre-nursing student, your science classes are most important. I highly recommend you do not take them in the summer. Take the other pre reqs like history, government, or sociology in the summer. Science classes require lots of study and it could make or break your future acceptance in a nursing program. Best of luck to you.

jh408 · Feb 24, 2013

Also, science courses in the summer are very time-consuming. I took Chem I and its lab last summer and for the whole month I was in it, my life revolved around studying for that class. I definitely could not have taken it with another summer class, because one science course itself requires at least a few hours of studying everyday.

But if you are really good at time management, and fast-paced learning, the choice is all up to you!

Best of luck!

I felt like classes such as the sociology or any philosophy courses are do-able during the summer, however, with another course. One summer, I took Intro to Sociology and Lifespan together and felt like both were manageable to study for in one summer session.