How to Get Ahead With Summer Courses

When students enroll in summer courses, the goal is often to simply check off a graduation requirement or replace a below-proficient grade. Staying on track is great, but summer is also the perfect time to get ahead and turn passive learning into active strategy. In turn, families and caregivers can use this window to help students develop a professional and productive approach to learning that will continue to serve them far beyond the summer break. 

Here are a few ways to transform that summer coursework into a strategic launchpad for the upcoming school year. 

Use Scheduled Friction to Improve Retention 

One of the most common mistakes students make is trying to "power through" summer classes too quickly. On the surface, it may look like great work ethic when a student finishes a week's worth of work on a Tuesday afternoon, but it can be a disaster for long-term retention. 

During sleep and downtime, the brain moves information from short-term memory to more stable long-term storage. If a student finishes a lesson at noon and takes the quiz at 12:15, they aren't testing what they know; they’re testing what they just saw. Information has entered the brain just long enough to pass the quiz.  

To combat this, students can implement scheduled friction, a deliberate, mandatory 24-hour waiting period between finishing a lesson and attempting an assessment. 

How scheduled friction works: Once a lesson is done, encourage the student to step away. Go for a swim, run an errand, or play a game, and let the brain work in the background. That way, testing the next morning will give them long-term ownership of the knowledge. 

Fine-tune Productive Skills and Habits 

Without the pressure of a full courseload, the summer break gives students extra space to experiment with how they learn. The specific facts they learn may fade, but the workflows they develop can pay dividends for years. 

Encourage your student to identify and adopt tools and habits that make them more efficient. As they work through their lessons, get them thinking about: 

• How they approach digital notetaking. Does mind-mapping work better for them than standard outlines? Does a specific application help them see connections between ideas? What’s most effective? 
• Advanced research habits. Introduce them to academic databases, specialized libraries, or even technical forums so they become skilled at finding high-quality information from sources beyond the usual go-tos. 
• Their personal performance windows. Maybe they discover that they’re most focused between 8 and 10am, or that 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest triples their output. Identifying and scaling these optimizations gives them a huge advantage going forward. 

Shift from Consumption to Production 

Many students are accustomed to a typical classroom setting, in which they act as consumers, reading textbooks, watching videos, and repeating facts. To really get ahead and achieve mastery, they need to shift into more of a producer role.  

Challenge them to create tangible artifacts of their learning, shifting the focus from getting a grade to building a portfolio. A few ways to produce proof of work: 

• Have the student explain the most difficult concept they encountered to you in under two minutes. The catch? They have to explain it simply, with no jargon allowed. If they can’t do that, they haven’t fully grasped it yet.
• If they’re taking a history or social studies course, ask them to find a current news event that mirrors what they’re studying. Have them write a one-page brief on how the past is informing the present.
• Encourage them to find a real-world application. For example, if they are learning about geometry, have them sketch out a professional blueprint for a backyard project using the principles they’ve learned. 

Make a Plan for the Ups and Downs 

Unexpected spikes in difficulty can easily cause summer burnout. A course may seem relatively easy at first, but then a major research project, a mid-term exam, or a complex new concept can suddenly make it feel much more challenging. To help your student maintain even momentum, reverse-engineer the syllabus during the first week, identifying what looks to be the most challenging weeks on the calendar. Then, proactively clear or amend the schedule.  

For instance, if a big research paper is due in week 4, that is not a great week for travel or other major events. When a student is free to focus during the highest-demand weeks, they are far less likely to feel squeezed and frustrated during crunch time.  

Find Relatable Real-World Bridges 

Summer learning can feel like a compliance chore that takes away a student’s ability to see the why behind the content. To prevent that motivation buster, help them find a real-world bridge by connecting them with someone who has already navigated this academic path and is now using that knowledge in their career or higher education pursuits. 

This doesn’t need to be a high-level mentor. A 20-minute talk with a college junior majoring in engineering can feel far more relatable than someone giving a lecture. Recommend that the student ask questions that prompt meaningful conversations. "When did this subject finally click for you?" or "What is one thing from this course you actually use in your job?" 

Coach Your Student Toward Academic Maturity 

Summer offers a rich opportunity to help students polish their academic practice. By using that time to focus on retention over speed, skills over memorization, and production over consumption, students can build valuable foundations to take into the new school year. 

Apex Learning provides support every step of the way in doing just that. Explore our courses here.