Hi i was just wondering,

i'm going into 2nd year Life Sci. I only have to take one of Bio 2B03 or Bio 2F03.. which should i take? I'm leaning towards 2B03. Also does 2B03 have labs? because on the master timetable it has 3 cores and a tutorial? I thought there were labs... can anyone clarify this?

Which one do you want to take? They are completely different courses. 2B03 is cell bio and 2F03 is ecology. 2B03 doesn't have labs and neither does 2F03.

Actually BIO 2F03 does include labs. From what I've heard, they involve outdoor activities and such. These 2 course are completely different in terms of the learning material. Choose the course that interests you the most.

Check which one opens up more options for you in terms of the upper year courses you want to take. I've yet to take Bio 2F03, but there are tutorial activities. I personally found Bio 2B03 to be on the easy side. Make sure you keep up with the material and avoid cramming for the midterms/exam.
There are online tutorials that weren't too stressful or time consuming. Sometimes you have to do an activity while other times you have to read/watch something. There's a follow up quiz. The only times you have to go to the actual tutorial is do to a plagiarism quiz and for peer editing your essay.

There are no labs for 2B03, the tutorials are all online except maybe two that you have to physically go to (which is why they have it scheduled into your timetable)

I didn't take 2F03, but a friend of mine did and I don't think he liked it very much but said it was easy. 2B03 is very interesting, and not too hard. So out of those two I would recommend 2B03. Also I believe 2B03 is a prerequisite for a bunch of stuff where as 2F03 is only for upper year ecology courses (I think?)

Also Bio 2D03 is awesome, fairly easy and has cool labs Only a prereq for upper year plant biology courses but plant biology is awesome!

Yeah I was leaning towards 2B03, cause I guess it's most similar to Bio 1A03 and i did better in that bio class than Bio 1M03 (Cause that was boring..).
and I just was not in the mood for labs! haha


Thanks guys! That was helpful. and you guys replied so fast, i could not live without macinsiders

i have taken both courses last year and I would recommend Bio 2B03 if you are only gonna take one.
Bio 2B03 does not have labs but it has a tutorial but it's not mandatory and you only go if u have questions regarding weekly assignment and quizzes. And there is a essay you have to write at the end of the term and for that there is a 2 mandatory tutorial you have to attend for plagiarism quiz and peer evaluation.
Bio 2F03 does have a lab but it's not really a lab more of a tutorial. You get put into a group and prepare a presentation, so the structure of the lab is present your own, listen to others and group discussion style.
The labs for bio 2F03 is actually quite fun and easy but i do not recommend this course because the material you learn is very dry and you had to memorize ridiculous amount of useless information for the test and midterm
So overall I definitely recommend Bio 2B03 over 2F03, the material is more interesting and Dr.Dej who teaches 2B03 is a very good prof

How difficult was the essay/assignments? I need to pull up my average this year, so I want to make sure its doable! Plus I hate writing! lol

Originally Posted by mohinip

How difficult was the essay/assignments? I need to pull up my average this year, so I want to make sure its doable! Plus I hate writing! lol

The weekly quizzes were pretty straightforward. Dej's midterms were on the long side so you have to learn to work fast, but they weren't horrible. The essay is fairly marked, if you put enough effort in, you should do well. Last year everything was online, peer-review of the rough draft and the final marking by the TA.

If it's online like how it was avoid this course like the plague. Without going into a laundry list of complaints I find myself constantly frustrated by how the online component of this course is set up. Dr. Dej seems like a nice prof and a decent to good lecturer, but the format is just so disappointing.

2F03 I found to be pretty interesting and really easy to do well in if you attend lectures and take it seriously. Sometimes feels like the prof reads right off the slides so its tempting to miss class but she does add alot of helpful hints for the fairly-easy midterms.
Also the hiking component of it is really interesting.

Originally Posted by mohinip

Hi i was just wondering,

i'm going into 2nd year Life Sci. I only have to take one of Bio 2B03 or Bio 2F03.. which should i take? I'm leaning towards 2B03. Also does 2B03 have labs? because on the master timetable it has 3 cores and a tutorial? I thought there were labs... can anyone clarify this?

take both, you would need them for higher year courses