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Advice on Professors

 
Old 06-10-2008 at 10:57 PM   #1
dchan28
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Advice on Professors
Hey everyone,

I will be entering into the Life Sciences I program this upcoming September and I just wanted to ask for some advice on the professors teaching some of the courses. I already have a pretty good idea about a couple of them; however I'm not sure about the other ones, especially those that have only taught for a year or two. If anyone can give some specific advice about the following professors for the following courses, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

CHEM 1A03
Goward, GR
Britz McKibbin, P

CHEM 1AA3
Berti, P
Valliant, JF

MATH 1A03
Klein, T
Haskell, D

PHYSICS 1L03
Nejat, RM
Reid, M

INQUIRY 1SC3
Kevlahan, N

Oh, and for those who have similar questions regarding professors, hopefully this forum topic will help. Feel free to add your own questions, if you would like.
Old 06-10-2008 at 11:03 PM   #2
Eva C
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i'm only going in to third year science and all of these profs are unknown to me haha.. all different from when i had it... except for nejat. i never had him before. but from what i heard he picks on you in class. But its alright! it helps you learn. and if you really don't know the answer to the question, you can ask the person beside it. he's alright from what i have heard, but apparently alot better for the physics courses that ppl take as electives and not required. i guess cause he thinks you actually want to learn and aren't taking it cause you are stuck and have to.
Old 06-10-2008 at 11:07 PM   #3
lorend
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It's quite possible they're all new sessional profs, which is why you'd be unfamilar with them Eva
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Old 06-10-2008 at 11:33 PM   #4
Eva C
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yeah. alot of the profs change every so often. some of the biology ones are different too. so wont' be able to help anyone with how easy/good these profs are! sorry.
Old 06-11-2008 at 12:02 AM   #5
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I can tell you that those Chem profs definitely aren't sessionals, they're full profs in the department - I was a chem major in 2nd year, and had Dr. Goward (who's pretty good, but I had her for a very difficult course) and knew of the others. I'm somewhat surprised that they're teaching the first-year courses now, actually, since they used to definitely be more known for the upper-year courses they taught (and people like Pippa Lock and Dr. Brook were the iconic first-year instructors).

Dr. Nejat is an old-school physics prof who's not bad, but it's awesome to see Dr. Reid up there - I actually had him when he taught the 2nd year astronomy course when he was still a grad student! That was one of the most fun courses I took while at Mac, and while the subject matter of 1L03 probably isn't as exciting, he's a great instructor.
Old 06-11-2008 at 12:41 AM   #6
kenneth526
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I've had a few of those profs, so here are my $0.02:
Quote:
Originally Posted by dchan28 View Post
CHEM 1A03
Goward, GR
Britz McKibbin, P
I had Goward for 1A03, and I would say that she was overall a pretty good instructor. I think she taught a first-year class for the first time when I took this course and she went pretty fast the first week or so (you could tell that she was relatively nervous by the sound of her voice) but her teaching improved greatly as the semester went by. I think Goward specializes in physical chemistry, so she was pretty effective at explaining the first few chapters (quantum chem, lewis diagrams, etc).

I'm not entirely familiar with Britz McKibbin, but I've heard (from students with similar learning attributes as me) that he's an 'alright' prof. I went to his exam review session for the acid-base chapters, and he seemed to go over the really, really easy questions/concepts instead of the more challenging ones, which was actually somewhat frustrating, since acid-base chem was probably the trickiest part of 1A03.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dchan28 View Post
CHEM 1AA3
Berti, P
Valliant, JF
I also had Berti for 1AA3 I don't think he was as effective as Lock or Valliant. He really tried to explain the difficult concepts to the best of his abilities (and I'll definetely give him credit for that), but just didn't communicate as effectively as he could have. It's important to note that in both chem classes, all sections have similar "skeleton" notes, and professors just supplement these during the lecture. Everytime I compared my full notes from Berti's class to my floormates' notes from Lock's or Valliant's class, it always seemed like they went over more content in more depth. Don't get me wrong, Berti's still a decent professor, just not as good as the other instructors. Actually, I think chemistry has the best teaching depth in the Faculty of Science for first year classes, so you're definetely in luck.

In terms of Valliant, I hear he has an eccentric wardrobe, and it's fun trying to guess what suit/tie combination he'll wear next.


Quote:
Originally Posted by dchan28 View Post
MATH 1A03
Klein, T
Haskell, D
I've unfortunately heard nothing but mediocre to bad things about Klein as a professor. I haven't heard of Haskell however as he wasn't an instructor during my first year.


Quote:
Originally Posted by dchan28 View Post
PHYSICS 1L03
Nejat, RM
Reid, M
Reid is great! He taught baby physics (1P03; essentially the same class as this) last year and was very effective. He understood that several students in the class had little to no university prep physics knowledge, and taught the class accordingly. He has very clean, simple notes and paces himself very well during lectures. He also has amazing office hours (every day for like 3 hours) and replies to emails and webCT posts very quickly. Reid's strongest teaching method is probably the use of in-class demos (tracking an object's path down a ramp, spinning an accelerometer in a circle, etc). They take up a lot of class time (to the point where the other section was 5 or 6 lectures ahead of us), but are absolutely imperative in remembering exam and quiz-related concept questions, especially when the class mostly deals with mechanics.

Nejat was one of the more interesting professors I've had in first year. During the first two weeks or so of 1B03, I absolutely hated his class to the point where I was seriously considering revamping my entire schedule to leave his section (which also would have meant dropping another class entirely). He loves picking on students to answer questions during lectures which is something that didn't bode well for me because I was never good at answering physics questions on the spot. But as the semester went by, I found that I was actually learning more per lecture in physics than any other class while taking the least amount of notes. Nejat wanted his class to be a giant intellectual discussion between the 150ish students in the class rather than him just talking for 50 minutes and let students do most of the talking when someone had a question. Also, Nejat always went over questions similar to those on tests and the exam. Always. I didn't realize this until it was too late, but everytime he put up a random question on the overhead at the start of class, it (or something very similar to it) ended up being on a test. I absolutely despise physics, and I still do, but I ended up getting a pretty good mark in his class and I actually think that physics (1P03/1L03 and 1B03) were the best taught classes in first year.

By the way, if you took grade 11 physics (or even grade 12 for the first two weeks) this class regardless of the professor will probably bore you to tears as it's catered to students with enough physics knowledge to only do scale diagrams.
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Old 06-12-2008 at 06:39 PM   #7
Quester
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hey kenneth 526, i see that you're a biochemistry student...do you mind answering few of these questions?

do you still take physics in your 2nd year? is it a required course for your third year? also, one of the prereq. for biochemistry is either 1b03 OR 1lo3. are you disadvantaged in your 2nd year if you took 1l03 instead of 1b03?

lastly, is there a difference between taking physics during regular school year, or during summer? ie) is the summer school credit valued less when calculating your gpa?

thanks,
Old 06-12-2008 at 08:24 PM   #8
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summer school classes go towards your cummulative (all four years) average and not your average from the term previous or forthcoming.

so they "only" affect your cummulative.
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Old 06-12-2008 at 11:13 PM   #9
kenneth526
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quester View Post
hey kenneth 526, i see that you're a biochemistry student...do you mind answering few of these questions?

do you still take physics in your 2nd year? is it a required course for your third year? also, one of the prereq. for biochemistry is either 1b03 OR 1lo3. are you disadvantaged in your 2nd year if you took 1l03 instead of 1b03?

lastly, is there a difference between taking physics during regular school year, or during summer? ie) is the summer school credit valued less when calculating your gpa?

thanks,
Hey Quester,

I'm actually entering my second year in September '08, but I don't plan to take physics. Upper year physics courses (including 1BA3/1BB3) are not prereqs for any mandatory courses in the biochemistry program.

Because McMaster changed their level 1 Science program for the upcoming year, it's hard to say if just taking physics 1L03 will put you in a disadvantage compared to students who took 1B03 (students in my graduating class have to take 1B03 to fulfill their biochem degree requirements). Honestly however, I don't think it will: I've talked to several upper year students in the program who say that the stuff they learned from physics doesn't resurface that much in later courses. In any case, if the faculty says that physics 1L03 is sufficient, you should have enough assumed knowledge to do just as well as a student who took 1B03.

In my opinion, summer school is strictly preferential. Physics tends to be one of those trickier courses for most people and they prefer to take it during the summer so they can focus entirely on that one class. In terms of GPA, if you take the Physics 1L03/1B03 equivalent at another Ontario University, it will not count towards your GPA, since it's a pass (C- or higher) or fail grade on your transcript.
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Old 06-13-2008 at 09:43 AM   #10
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thanks for your reply, kenneth 526!

I'm taking Gr. 12 physics and I really hate it (but I get decent/good marks). I've also heard that physics is really hard in first year university, especially 1B03, where more than 50% of the people fail. I don't even know if should take all 30 units in my first year or not because I have no idea how well or fast I could adapt into my new environment.

I know it's a bit early to think about what to do in post-undergraduate, but i'm aiming for med school. few of the med schools require 1 year of physical sciences. so, if i take physics 1l03 in semester 2, and physics 1b03 during summer, i'm fulfilling the requirement, right? what other physical sciences courses are there?

which option 'should' be better? math 1ls3 + math 1a03 OR physics 1l03 + 1a03 (during semester 1 and 2)
Old 06-13-2008 at 10:12 AM   #11
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Phys 1B03 is a tricky course (I actually got better grades on 1BA3, the next course than 1B03. I'm a bit biased, but 1BB3 and 1BA3 physics were way more interesting courses - modern physics gets introduced here), but it is a bit of an exageration to say that 50% of the students fail. But, if you hated grade 12 physics, you probably won't like B03 either, because you do alot more of the same- kinematics, energy conservation, momentum conservation, that kind of thing . I garuntee you, that if you did moderately well in grade 12 physics, phys 1l03 will bore you to death. You will recover everything you did in highschool, and something like half of what 1B03 does.

I would also Highly reccomend math 1A03 it's a good course, and a prerequisite for many courses in the physical sciences. Unless you feel that you are really bad at math, I wouldn't waste your time taking math 1ls3

Remember that with all of these first year courses, there is a support system in place for you. There are tutorials and TAs available to go over solutions, and you can also go to your professors with questions ( contrary to popular belief, you will find that most of them actually like to hear from students). The undergraduate physics society has tutors, and there are many, many students who can help and or tutor you for math 1a03. This is not to mention your classmates, because with these big, first year courses, there is a really good chance that most science students you meet will be taking, or have taken one or both of them.

If I were you, I would take the full 30 unit course load, especially if you are aiming for med school. Check out what courses you might want or need in later years, and take the pre requisites for them now. Also remeber that you are not going to find all courses equally hard - there may be some that are easy for you because of your interest. If 30 units of science worries you , there are lots of interesting first year humanites and social science courses that you can take as well to mix things up a bit (instead of just dropping some units) and expand your range of learning - people like doctors to be well rounded students. Just like in science, some are more work than others. I found that the first year humanites courses I took offered a nice change every once in a while - more readings, but fewer weekly assignments and labs, but also they have essays to write, which do represent a solid block of work, but in general I only had to write one or two per first year course (I know this doesn't sound like much work, but imagine 2 per course over 5 courses - it adds up for full humanites students- 10 essays a semester is a lot)
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Last edited by Cubit : 06-13-2008 at 10:56 AM.
Old 06-13-2008 at 10:48 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quester View Post
thanks for your reply, kenneth 526!

I'm taking Gr. 12 physics and I really hate it (but I get decent/good marks). I've also heard that physics is really hard in first year university, especially 1B03, where more than 50% of the people fail. I don't even know if should take all 30 units in my first year or not because I have no idea how well or fast I could adapt into my new environment.

I know it's a bit early to think about what to do in post-undergraduate, but i'm aiming for med school. few of the med schools require 1 year of physical sciences. so, if i take physics 1l03 in semester 2, and physics 1b03 during summer, i'm fulfilling the requirement, right? what other physical sciences courses are there?

which option 'should' be better? math 1ls3 + math 1a03 OR physics 1l03 + 1a03 (during semester 1 and 2)

Hey Quester. I've finished second year biochemistry, even though I have now transfered out to biopharm. But for sure, I can tell you that second year there wasn't anything related to physics at all in any of the required course (thank god!) So if you have physics 1L03 and it fulfills as a requirement, it should be fine! not to worry. I think its just important for everyone to have taken at least one physics course when going in to biochem, but not alot of physics involved at all.
I've had alot of friends take physics 1b03 and then either 1bb3 or 1ba3. Everyone did alot better in their grades in 1bb3/1ba3 than 1b03.
As of which one should be better, the two math or two physics. I think it really depends on what you like to learn more. Its hard to suggest which one is better. Personally, i'd rather take math than physics but that's just me. because i hate physics. but i should also let you know that i didn't take physics gr. 12 maybe that's why i hate it so much. Alot of ppl that took gr. 12 did fine. 50% did not fail. haha. no worries. I know nothing and i didnt' fail. you just have to put in alot of work. understand the concepts, do questions and know how to apply to the questions. I've known ppl that got 12s in both !
you gotta decide if you like math or physics more. they are both hard. ask more questions if you have any other problems.
Old 06-13-2008 at 06:41 PM   #13
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I'm going to have to agree with Cubit and Eva on the math advice. In terms of medical schools, be very careful about their physics requirements. Some med schools require 1 full year of physics with a laboratory component, which physics 1L03 does not satisfy.
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Old 06-13-2008 at 08:29 PM   #14
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well, i was looking over the chart from omsas and saw that i need 1 FULL credit of physical sciences: http://www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/pdf/rc_omsas_e.pdf
i didn't, yet, find the information about the loboratoy component for physics. could you give me a link to that information? it's just that i've never heard of the info before...

also, both physics 1lo3 and 1b03 are half-credit courses, so would i meet the requirement by taking both? if it's just a required course, it wouldn't matter if i take it Mac, or in other universities during summer, right?

surely, i've been doing well in gr. 12 physics but the grads from my school have told me that our teacher did not prepare them AT ALL. one of my friends actually dropped out of physics before christmas...

i've been taking AP/pre-AP math for four years so we pretty much covered first semester of math. so i think choosing math over physics should 'maybe' a bit easier? it's just that i wasn't too sure about it...i'm so indecisive these days! i really can't think straight with all these exams...

maybe i should, indeed, take full 30 units. i want to take non-math, non-science courses, so i'm considering music 1a03/1aa3 or microeconomics. once again, would taking both 1a03 AND 1aa3 be considered as 1 full credit? but, i ALSO want to take inquiry 1sc3. any comments on these three electives?

btw, thank you all for your helpful comments.
Old 06-13-2008 at 11:42 PM   #15
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Typically, if courses are related you will have Title I and Title II. For example, Bio 1AA3 is the continuation of Bio 1A03. But, not all courses work like that.

And because I'm not in Science I have no idea! And my course calendar is hiding somewhere in a mound of clothes and I'm too lazy to look online.

You can however ask a faculty advisor via email and hopefully they'll get back to you soon.
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