CTY Online Courses

made4uchicago
Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:11:18 +0000

I’m doing AB Calc this year through CTY, so I know a little something about how it works. You can sign up for 3 months, 6 months, or 9 month sessions, but I’m guessing you would do the 3 month session because you want to do this for the summer.

There is no official class time, though you can set up a session with your teacher if you need one. CTY sends you video lectures on some CDs and a syllabus that tells you what lectures you have to do each week in order to finish the course on time, but you can move as quickly as slowly as you want. The only catch with moving slowly is that you cannot take the final exam after exactly 3 months from the day you started the course, if you do the 3 month session obviously. You have tests that are on the Thinkwell website (Thinkwell is the company that does the video lectures you get) and you fill out the tests and fax/scan and e-mail your tests to your teacher who then grades them and sends them back to you.

As for how much time you have to spend on the computer, well the lectures range anywhere from 5-30 minutes, and I do about 9-12 lectures a week, though I’m in the 6 month session, so you would be doing more. Also, it depends how good you are at math. There is no official textbook, but they do provide lecture notes you can go back and look at so you don’t have to watch the lecture again. There are also exercises on the website for each lecture that you can do to make sure you get the material. All these things are there to help you, but if it is tough for you to learn math, then you will have to spend some extra time on the computer in tutoring sessions or on the website or reviewing lectures.

I must say that there isn’t much outside help, so you not only have to be good at math, but you also have to be very self-motivated and be able to teach yourself. If you can’t do one of those things, then the course will be difficult.