You may have thought "Summer School" was a term circulating only in bad family movies featuring an angsty and rebellions teen than gets the punishment of a lifetime spending the summer holidays with his head buried in a pile of books.
Well, that was the image it conjured up in my head, anyway. Turns out summer school does exist in the real world, however, and it's happening right here at Sydney Uni.
"What the hey?!" You may cry. "Who would DO that?" Well, uni is full of a lot of keen people.
One of my friends just finished her summer school Anthropology course. I bumped into her on campus as she was walking out of her exam and though my first reaction was almost word for word as above, she actually had a pretty reasonable explanation why she did it. She had done Anthropology in second semester of her first year, decided she liked it and would rather major in it than what she had originally planned, but had to make up the semester 1 subject before she could continue.
Okay, so that made a bit of sense...
The topic also came up with someone I know who was tutoring psych this year at summer school. Again, I raised the issue of "Who would DO that?!" and got quite a substantial list of the kinds of people who come to do a summer school course...
If you fail a subject that is a prerequisite for another course you need to do, you can complete the unit in summer school. Also, a lot of people find themselves nearing the end of their degree one or two subjects' worth of credit points short of graduating, and instead of doing a whole nother semester they can top up their degree at summer school.
You can even fast track your degree by doing some subjects in summer school, or lighten your semester load by doing a few of your subjects outside of regular times. Alternatively, if you're in a strict degree without much room for electives, you might do some summer school to itch that Spanish-learning or Calulus-hungry scratch you've been suffering from.
At the present moment however, summer school is very nearly over as we draw closer to the beginning of semester 1. The good news is that summer school has a cooler, mitten-and-scarf-donning sister called WINTER SCHOOL which works in the same way as summer school but is run in the break between semesters 1 and 2. Plus, it's never too late to start thinking about next year!
In the meantime, check out the website for more details and leave a comment if you have any questions!
http://www.summer.usyd.edu.au/
Comments
The idea is good, and I hope that you will have a great success but don't you think that children need a vacation? It is hard to study all the time, and sometimes children need a good rest to catch on up later.
Posted by: Lucy, school teacher | August 16, 2007 04:36 AM
hi lucy, very true - however, the summer holidays go for just over 3 months, and summer school only lasts a few weeks! plenty of time to rest still.
Posted by: asako | August 16, 2007 08:57 PM