Students looking to get ahead on completing a degree can speed things along by taking intersession courses offered at the end of each semester.

Intersession courses are two to three weeks in length and are held in January, May and August annually, according to the OCCC 2014 schedule. Intro to Public Speaking Professor Katherine Eaves said intersession courses are usually a little more fun, because the students are usually more laid back.

Eaves said she also tends to have fewer students drop intersession courses.

“They go at a lot faster pace, so I tend to have students that are more on the ball with things because they have to be in order to be successful,” she said.

Eaves said she would recommend intersession courses only to students who “can dedicate the time and resources necessary. Otherwise they’re setting themselves up for failure.”

Eaves said intersession courses have the same amount of work as a regular semester but with less time to do that work.

“Don’t do it if you think it’s going to be easy, because it’s not going to be easier than a regular semester course,” she said.

Sanmi Adeleye said he took an intersession history course. He said he would recommend it to anyone who is ready to do the work.

“It was four hours every day, so it was intense,” he said.“We definitely did not cover everything, but we got most of it.”

Adeleye said it was nice to complete a class so quickly.

“It was pretty hard getting through it, but being out in two weeks was pretty sweet,” he said.

English Professor Jon Inglett teaches film studies during May intersession.

He said intersession courses fill fairly quickly, usually with around 30 students in a class.

Inglett agrees that students need to be prepared to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time.

“It is fast paced,” he said. “It’s the same amount of material that an 8-week or a 16-week course is.

It’s close to four hours a day for two weeks straight.”

Inglett said intersession classes are held Mondays through Fridays, usually from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

He said the course load and difficulty varies depending on the class.

“(In Film Studies) we do lectures, discussions, sometime small group discussions,” he said. “Maybe biology might be difficult or a math class in two weeks,” he said.

Inglett said the drop-out rate for his intersession courses is very low.

“I think because it’s two weeks, I usually only have one or two students drop out and that’s it.

There’s a higher retention rate,” he said.

Roberto Allen, physics major, said he would reccommend intersession courses.

“The only thing is, [students] have to prioritize,” Allen said.

“They have to make sure they’re on top of things.

“Otherwise you’re going to start falling behind really quickly.”

August intersession starts July 28 and ends Aug. 8.

January intersession starts Jan. 5 and ends Jan. 16.

May intersession starts May 18 and ends on May 29.

Intersession courses allow students up to four credit hours, according to the OCCC 2014 schedule.

For more information, visit www.occc.edu/Catalog/index.html.