A “minimester” is a course that gives you a semester’s worth of credits after one or two weeks, usually during winter or spring break. They go by many names, but at their core, they’re a quick way to rack up credits and get ahead of your graduation schedule. In undergrad, I took “wintersession” (winter intersession) classes and spring break offerings when I could, and I’m doing the same now in graduate school. But of course, there are pros and cons.

Unless you’re really racing for credit (perhaps to make up for a failed class or graduate early), you should pay extra attention to the content of a semester-long class: On the one hand, if it’s a topic that doesn’t interest you, it might be worth it to get through it in a week or two; but on the other hand, if it’s a difficult topic, a super-intensive, abbreviated class can be overwhelming. This spring, I’m taking a perfect topic for an intensive class: it’s a week-long course on drug policy that I’m really interested in. To me, it’s a great example of the ideal type of class for an intensive semester: a topic that I’m at least somewhat excited about. I’ve already gone over the syllabus several times and have started reading some of the material.

“Really familiarize yourself with the syllabus and readings ahead of time so you can really immerse yourself in the course and not worry so much about deadlines,” says Maryam Ismail, a full-time clinical researcher and graduate student who took a weeklong public health nutrition course last year. In a regular semester, you have the first week or two to get comfortable with the material and expectations. In a mini-mester, the first “two weeks” of material are covered in the first half day. You don’t have the luxury of settling in, so familiarize yourself with everything ahead of time to make sure you can handle it.

During a mini-mester course last winter, I spent the first few days trying to keep up with the reading. It was a fool’s errand. Over three months, I could have read every study and chapter in the textbook and still kept up with my work. In two weeks, that just didn’t happen. Instead, I started focusing on what we had discussed in class and what was specifically asked for in the homework, and then I just did serious reading and dissecting.