Studying between semesters to prepare for a course

[land_of_ice]

How weird of an idea is it to study for a course before the course even starts to get a good handle on the actual course.
For example if you sign up for a summer semester of trig. and you are going to spend a few weeks before the class starts studying the book for the course, how weird of an idea would this be?

Any one have any advice or tips for preparaing for a course by the way?

 

[Pengwuino]

It's a good idea, plain and simple.

 

[xxsteelxx]

I do that all the time, in fact, right now I'm studying Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algegra, Calculus-based Physics (Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism), and Computer Science all for next year. lol

 

[Newtime]

How weird of an idea is it to study for a course before the course even starts to get a good handle on the actual course.
For example if you sign up for a summer semester of trig. and you are going to spend a few weeks before the class starts studying the book for the course, how weird of an idea would this be?

Any one have any advice or tips for preparaing for a course by the way?

I typically do this for my hardest classes over Christmas break and summer. Email the professor, find out which sections you'll be covering and go through them, working the exercises along the way. You'll be glad you did.

 

[Neither]

It's a great way to prepare for you courses and to get a heads up on the course material. At my university, a lot of the course materials are made public online, so I collect all the past course material and study them well in advance.
So, when the school term begins, attending the lectures will be a recap of what you have learned, and focus on doing questions during your spare time to solidify your understanding.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I once did it, it's highly recommended, and it gives you good skill to learn by your own, a skill which is not taken for granted nowadays and if you keep to graduate school it's almost mandatory to learn a lot of stuff by your own.

I don't do it now as I used to, cause I don't always find free time to learn by myself, them cursed exams... (-: