I am taking a six week online three credit college course this summer and let me tell you, it’s pretty rough. But by employing these five tips, I have managed to make the course less rough. Keep reading for my list!

1. Do the work early

Aka don’t procrastinate. My teacher for the course I’m taking online was nice enough to open up the class a few days early than the actual start date, and I totally took advantage of that. I also don’t stick to the sample schedule that was given. If you have the time I suggest starting an assignment or reading a chapter as soon as you can. I promise you, you’ll be sooooo happy that you did.

2. Schedule times to do the work

Sit down with your planner or set reminders on your phone of when you will be able to dedicate time to finish the course work. If you have a job with set hours then this should be slightly easier because you know when you’ll be available and the times will be consistent. Consistency is key.

3. Use lunch breaks to do work

I’ve been using my one-hour lunch break to complete assignments and stay ahead of the game. Yes, this means that I’m pretty much chained to my desk all day and I can’t leave go out for lunch or anything, but my top priority is finishing my assignments. It’s like I already have an hour built into my day that I can use for school work so why not take advantage of it, right?

4. Try to make a class friend

In the class I’m in now my teacher put everyone in groups to complete projects with (which I have some thoughts about since this is an online class) but by doing that we’re also already required to talk to each other almost every day and use each other as a resource. So if you feel comfortable I would suggest just picking a random name from the class list and email them asking to be each other’s contact person if you ever have any questions about an assignment.

5. Watch/read all orientation videos or documents

My teacher had about a two hour video tutorial and let me tell you I did not want to watch it. I did watch it though and it was tremendously helpful. The course is extremely detailed and it has a lot of parts to it, parts that she explained in the video tutorials. And some but not all of the information was in the orientation documents also. You can’t pass the class if you don’t know what’s expected of you and required, right?

So those are my tips! I hope at least one help someone out there. Happy studying!