Is it hard to get an A in summer classes?

[Anonymous]

I hear a lot of people complaining about the workload, but if the child puts in the time, is it hard to get an A? Is it mostly small assignments or are there high stakes tests? Do kids need a tutor to be successful?

We were thinking of it next summer, and want to be prepared!

[Anonymous]

A's, in general, shouldn't be easy to obtain. I highly doubt MCPS is making summer classes uniquely challenging and "harder to get A's."

Kids probably struggle to get A's due to the compacted nature of the summer session and fewer opportunities to bump up your grade if you bomb an assignment or two compared to the regular semester.

[Anonymous]

It's not "hard", since there are no AP-level classes, and it's only in those that sometimes, however hard you work, you might not get an A. But summer courses are more concentrated than semester classes, since they pack more material in less time, and therefore the student does need to put in the time to work on the assignments, and does need to pay attention in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A's, in general, shouldn't be easy to obtain. I highly doubt MCPS is making summer classes uniquely challenging and "harder to get A's."

Kids probably struggle to get A's due to the compacted nature of the summer session and fewer opportunities to bump up your grade if you bomb an assignment or two compared to the regular semester.

The question is about MCPS, not in general. A's are quite freely given in MCPS, if you submit work (even if late or on second attempt).

[Anonymous]

It's a lot of busy work compressed into 3 weeks, so a kid needs to be prepared to put in the time. But it's not challenging in terms of content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a lot of busy work compressed into 3 weeks, so a kid needs to be prepared to put in the time. But it's not challenging in terms of content.

Yes, this. And the difference between due date and deadline is more challenging, since the deadline is at the end of each week vs. at the end of the semester. Important not to get behind.

[Anonymous]

lol, no

As in honors health for not doing much, and also As in honors physics - I swear he knows nothing about physics, but took the course online with friends to avoid it during the school year

[Anonymous]

it depends on the class. its very easy to get an A in health

[Anonymous]

If it seems hard it’s probably because summer school is mostly for dumb kids and kids who fail during the regular school year. It’s not hard for the normal kids.

[Anonymous]

OP here- thank you. I’m specifically speaking of the geometry class.

I wonder if I should plan on getting him a tutor to do the class with. That way he will really learn it and not just speed through and still earn the A.

(We are only considering this because we moved to MCPS mid-year and he is self-conscious about being behind his classmates. He’s actually a strong math student).

[Anonymous]

My son is redoing 2nd semester Honors Chem and 2nd semester honors Spanish 3. His teachers were not very good.
He had all A’s until then but ended up getting a C in each of these the last quarter so his gpa took a big hit. I’m definitely concerned about him taking both of these at the same time even though I think he grasps the concepts fairly well.

Health was a lot of work last summer and it was only one class and content was easy.

Does anyone else have a child doing two glasses at once? One is 4 hours in person. Other class is 75 minutes a night online. I’m told 4 hours a day of studying for Spanish alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thank you. I’m specifically speaking of the geometry class.

I wonder if I should plan on getting him a tutor to do the class with. That way he will really learn it and not just speed through and still earn the A.

(We are only considering this because we moved to MCPS mid-year and he is self-conscious about being behind his classmates. He’s actually a strong math student).

DS dropped his honor geometry summer class. It moved too quickly. It wasn’t about not getting an A. He was worried he might not get a C. There seemed to be no direct instruction. The teacher had the kids working independently in edmentum during the synchronous lesson times. It was a poor fit for his learning style. We will not attempt a summer class again online in an academic subject.

[Anonymous]

My kid is doing health and has 100 percent after completing what feels like dozens of assignments, some of them fairly lengthy and involved. They said it was 2-3 hours a day butI thought that wouldn’t be accurate. I was wrong. The work is easy but she’s definitely spent about that amount of time every day, on average. You definitely have to keep up with the volume of work.

[Anonymous]

You are taking an entire course in just a few weeks. What do you expect?

[Anonymous]

I think it’s noticeably harder to get an A in a math class over the summer because you cover a semester’s worth of material in about 9 classes. There’s much less instruction for each concept. You really need to be able to master material on your own. The assignments are much longer than the daily assignments during the school year.