To my dismay, I have two courses that conflict and neither can be moved.

-Second Term
-Wednesday
-Physics 1BA3 and Tutorial for Math 1CO3
-11:30-12:20

I'm in math&stats, first year, by the way, and I can't move Phys because all of my math&stats courses are at the other scheduled time (9:30am) and there is only one Math 1CO3 course.

so, my question: what do I do?

Email your academic advisor.

in my case, would if be: science [at] mcmaster [dot] ca?

you can do that, or you can e-mail one of the academic advisors. you'll find their e-mails here.

Hi Mellye,

Without seeing your full schedule it's hard to tell how to arrange things, but there's always a way! Switch physics 1BA3 to C01. I'm assuming it's Math 1AA3 that has to be moved then to C02 or C03 to make room for that physics. I'm not sure what else would conflict after that. You can send me your timetable if you'd like and help you find a fit, which would help save you the time of an academic counselor.

Cheers,
Mitch

One thing you definitely cannot do is take both, and alternate lectures and tutorials. The registrar looks at the course timetable to make the exam schedule. If the exams from your two courses are at the same time then they absolutely WILL NOT let you reschedule. People have failed courses for this before. Either move them around, or take one of them next year/in the summer.

I typed up my schedule so everyone can take at look at it.

A few things:
-yes, I know I have 6 classes in the 2nd term. It's there for a reason.
-TUT = Tutorial - I only added this in if it was definite.
-if you can balance out my schedule better than that, feel free to do so. I did it in a way so that I wouldn't have classes too late into the afternoon/evening. I personally would rather wake up early.

Hey Mellye,

I'm gonna move your post to the timetable sticky thread and answer there.

Cheers

Mitch

I did your first semester:

For the chemistry lab you can move it later, but I thought that the earlier you finish the better. I would have put it on friday but then your friday looked a bit hectic, you can still do it however and only have 1 class on monday but I wouldn't recommend it. Also, you can choose the 8:30 chem class, but I would avoid 8:30 classes, but it would make it so you only have one back to back class. So it's your choice.

Edit: The file isn't corrupted or anything. I didn't know that the forum only accepts xls and not xlsx so I just changed the name instead of resaving it and whatnot. It should still work.

Originally Posted by laurastevens

One thing you definitely cannot do is take both, and alternate lectures and tutorials. The registrar looks at the course timetable to make the exam schedule. If the exams from your two courses are at the same time then they absolutely WILL NOT let you reschedule. People have failed courses for this before. Either move them around, or take one of them next year/in the summer.

This is definitely not true, as I have successfully taken many courses in the same time slot due to the scheduling disasters involved with taking both Kinesiology and Mathematics. Giving a quick memory count, I count 3 instances in which I took a Kin course and a Math course at the same time, and simply picked one set of lectures to attend (and caught up on missed work in various ways). I have never had 2 exams overlap, despite this.

I mean just to argue...you have like 4 Math 1A03 sections, all of which are at different times, yet write the final exam at the same time. This leads us to believe that the scheduling of exams is done independently, and not related to course timetables.

And yet, some exams which are not in the same timeslot, do wind up overlapping. And in this case, the registrar cannot legally keep you from writing one of your exams because they scheduled it in a way that is not accomodating for you. (If this happened you could sue McMaster, since you paid for the priveledge to write both final exams).

All you do is report an examination conflict. You go to the registrar, and fill out a form. There are several other reasons to report an exam conflict, such as having 3 exams within a 24 hour period (even if they don't overlap).

Your professor will then, if possible, have you write the same exam immediately before or immediately after your scheduled timeslot...or in absence of this, write you (and any others who have a conflict) a completely new exam with different questions to be written at a mutually convenient time.

If however your prof cannot manage to write a new exam in a short time period, or if your exam is defered for a medical reason, then you will write the exams months later. December exams are written during Reading Week, and I'm unsure of when April exams are re-written. This is certainly annoying, but the option is there.



-----------------------------------------------

As for your concern...perhaps you should consider taking Physics 1BB3. Though Physics 1BA3 is 'superior' in some sense, I took 1BB3 and then sat in on 1BA3 and didn't really learn much extra (You learn a bit more of 'how to think' in a physics way...but if you're in Math&Stats, you'll learn how to think in this way, from your Math courses). Particularly since Physics is not your major.


If 1BB3 is not an option, then you probably can't do much to get things shifted around, and you probably don't _want_ to wait a year to take 1BA3 as it will throw off some of your future physics course aspirations haha. Although I suppose you can still take 2B06 concurrently with 1BA3 next year...either way, you probably wouldn't want to.


EDIT: After having seen your timetable (didn't realize you uploaded it) I would say try your luck with the conflict. You can always meet up with the prof or group mates etc. after class. If you're a math student, you may even find yourself naturally not attending those tutorials, haha...I didn't!



EDIT 2: Actually, I realized that Physics 1BB3 and 1BA3 are both offered in the summer (They have been every year for the past 4 years that I've been checking). You may also want to consider this option.

The thing is though, not everybody has the ability to balance taking two classes at the same time. Not everybody is a mastermind of catching up with work after skipping lectures. There's a reason why it's called a conflict in the first place. It might work for you, and that's great, but you're essentially putting one of your grades at risk and grades are very, very important.

Thanks Mowicz,

You're absolutely right. However, this kind of setup is not desirable and there are alternative options to help avoid overlapping courses. Remember, some courses have tests during class time, so it's not worth the risk unless there was no other choice. I have posted my suggestions in the Timetable Sticky Thread.

Please post any further comments and suggestions there

Thanks

I've never attended tutorials for my math classes either. I only took Math 1A03 and 1AA3 though. I'm not sure how 1C03 is...

As for writing defered exams next year it'll be June 21-24 for second term. First term as Mowicz said is in reading week, February 16-19

Originally Posted by jhan523

I did your first semester:

For the chemistry lab you can move it later, but I thought that the earlier you finish the better. I would have put it on friday but then your friday looked a bit hectic, you can still do it however and only have 1 class on monday but I wouldn't recommend it. Also, you can choose the 8:30 chem class, but I would avoid 8:30 classes, but it would make it so you only have one back to back class. So it's your choice.

Edit: The file isn't corrupted or anything. I didn't know that the forum only accepts xls and not xlsx so I just changed the name instead of resaving it and whatnot. It should still work.

sorry. the link isn't working. I tried opening it with excel 2003 and it proceeded to give me windings.

Alright, I re-saved it, I hope it works now.