While many students toss their backpacks to the side once summer starts, Sathya Srigiri, junior, won’t be done with homework after the last day of school.
Srigiri is taking AP Calculus BC and AP Chemistry in the fall, with both classes requiring summer work to be completed before the first day of school.
“I think that it can be helpful in some instances because it will help you prepare for what you’re going to learn in the class because a lot of people forget what they need over the summer,” Srigiri said.
Last summer, Srigiri had to complete summer work for Pre-Calculus and AP Biology.
“If you start in June, you won’t remember it in August.”
— Ed Bolton
Srigiri said she waited until the day before school started to do her AP Biology packet and was stressed. Now, she recommends avoiding procrastinating summer work.
“You can take time off, but if you just spread it out you won’t have to stress out about it,” Srigiri said.
Like Srigiri, many students are enrolled in classes with summer work. MHS offers a variety of AP and Honors classes that require work over the summer.
Ed Bolton, science teacher, teaches AP Chemistry. Because the class covers two years of college chemistry, reviewing topics from Honors Chemistry prior to the beginning of the year allows the class to hit the ground running to cover new material.
Bolton said to avoid starting summer work too early.
“If you start in June, you won’t remember it in August,” Bolton said.
Bolton also gives a test on the first day of school over information covered in the summer work.
“The test lets me know if you did the summer work or not,” Bolton said
Teju Venkatesan, sophomore, has upcoming summer work for AP Chemistry and AP English Language and Composition.
“I think that it can be helpful in some instances because it will help you prepare for what you’re going to learn in the class because a lot of people forget what they need over the summer.”
— Sathya Srigiri
Last summer, Venkatesan had summer work for ALAR/P II. Venkatesan said she had to pick a topic over the summer that she would research further during the fall.
“I don’t really mind summer work because it’s two months to get something done,” Venkatesan said. “I know it feels like a burden to do work over the summer, but I feel like once I get back into school it provides a good base for everything we’ll learn during the year.”
Venkatesan said a positive attitude can make doing summer work easier.
“I would just go into it with an open mind because you have to remind yourself you have a lot of time to do it,” Venkatesan said.
