Hacks to FINISH a College Class EARLY!

I finished a 14-week class in 3 weeks, thanks to batching, online homework, and a student job in which I could do homework while I worked!

If you've come from my last post "Wishing For Worse Grades in College: Confessions of a Recovering Over-Achiever," the following instance actually was not toxic. It is instead a good example of my overachieving!

I kind of hacked summer school, making it faster and easier for me(:

I was taking Macroeconomics online. It was a full semester-long, 14-week class that was crammed into a 6-week summer class, and I finished in half the time.

I wasn't too concerned about grades. At this point, I already had my associate's degree, and knew that any of my classes would just be transferred to EMU, without my grades.

My goal was to get the class done FAST and have more time and freedom the rest of the summer. A good use of my overachieving I think(:

I was working at my community college's fitness center at that time, and could totally do homework while I sat at the desk, waiting for someone to come in to check them into the computer.

(I also got to work out at work, woo!!)

We had to watch 2 SUPER long videos (like several hours), and write a paper on them. I seriously just put them on in the background while I did other work, and switched over when I heard something interesting. Then I made notes of those things and wrote my paper.

I actually watched these videos BEFORE the class even started. She made them available... I wanted them done! Then after I finished all the other work after 3 weeks, I felt free to edit my paper more. But I finished the brunt of it in 3 weeks.

Basically, I did read the chapters and took notes. As time went on and I learned how all the online work went, I just skimmed them and wrote down the key words and such.

She had all the homework and quizzes open at the start of class. Some professors only open certain assignments in certain time frames, which I think is preposterous... I could have finished so many more classes ahead of time if the assignments were all available from the start.

But I digress.

The homework had UNLIMITED ATTEMPTS, so I just tried my best, and adjusted accordingly if I got a problem wrong.

I’ll admit, the multiple choice ones I just guessed on until I got them right!

I realized I could BATCH a lot of the work (a popular term/strategy for productivity, where you do a bunch of the same tasks at once, to stay in the groove).

The tests were open book. Does that mean open note as well?

She didn't say anything, so I used whatever resources I had available.

I recalled from when I took Microeconomics the previous school year, that a lot of the test questions were just the same questions from the quizzes.

So, I took the quizzes (these were timed with only 2 attempts), using the textbook and Google for help. I kept notes of the quiz questions to help me study, and to complete the tests.

I was finished.

This was SUCH a relief, because I needed time to finalize how I was going to pay for my first year at a large university!