With the 2022-2023 school year is coming to an end, some students are wondering if they should take a head start and take a course over the summer.

Summer courses can help you get ahead of your grade and they are supposed to give you the same education and experience as a full year course, but some students and teachers warn that the shorter courses can be difficult.

“Summer courses are beneficial because if you take a certain course over the summer, you can take another course during your actual high school year,” said Charu Ejjagiri, an eighth-grader on the Explorers team.

Summer learning is there so students can have the opportunity to get ahead, catch up or retake a course of their choice. 

“I think summer courses can be beneficial in certain circumstances,” said Mr. James Kim, a math teacher on the Explorers team. “For instance, I don’t think taking gym over the summer has any negative effect on anything so it is pretty beneficial and it frees up an elective. Taking something like geometry can be pretty hard though.”

Seventh-graders who are taking Algebra 1 HN (Honors) this year, will have the opportunity to take Geometry HN over the summer. Eighth-graders are preparing for high school and have multiple courses they can choose from based on the high school they are attending. 

“I really disliked my summer geometry experience, as I ended with a B+ and wasn’t able to retain much information,” said Arthur Dsouza, an eighth-grader on the Discovery team. 

There are upsides of summer learning such as getting more credits and learning new things. Some downsides of summer learning are that it requires full participation and focus, it will take away time from any vacations, and end-of-year tests are required in-person. 

“They don’t let you actually understand the course because they go through it so quickly. It also doesn’t let me go to the beach during the summer,” said Neev Heneghan, an eighth-grader on the Wolves team. 

“They cram a lot of material into a short span of time,” said Gabriel Amare, a seventh-grader on the Discovery team.

Based on the interviews, eighth-graders have said that if they were to take a summer course, it would definitely be a math course or gym.

Neev Heneghan said, “If I had to take a summer course, it would be summer gym because I can get it over with and it won’t be too difficult to do during the summer.”