Hi,

I'm going into first year life science and had a few questions about course selection. This is what I have planned out

First term: Bio 1A03, Chem 1A03, Pysch 1X03, Math 1LS3, Econ 1B03

Second term: Bio 1M03, Chem !AA3, Math 1LT3, Econ 1BB3, Physics 1B03

My first question is if I'm unable to get a place in economics (both terms), would doing English 1A03 and English 1AA3 be manageable?

Second, would it be better to take Bio 1M03 first semester? I put it for second semester because I'm not sure if I could handle doing 3 labs in a semester if took bio 1a03 in the 2nd semester.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Originally Posted by R.M.D

Hi,

I'm going into first year life science and had a few questions about course selection. This is what I have planned out

First term: Bio 1A03, Chem 1A03, Pysch 1X03, Math 1LS3, Econ 1B03

Second term: Bio 1M03, Chem !AA3, Math 1LT3, Econ 1BB3, Physics 1B03

My first question is if I'm unable to get a place in economics (both terms), would doing English 1A03 and English 1AA3 be manageable?

Second, would it be better to take Bio 1M03 first semester? I put it for second semester because I'm not sure if I could handle doing 3 labs in a semester if took bio 1a03 in the 2nd semester.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Your courses look great, it's nice to have 1-2 electives per term to balance out your harder courses.

I definitely think taking Bio 1M03 would be better first semester, I had it first semester last year, and from what I know, people in second semester said it was really difficult, first semester was really simple. It's a really dry course, so if you can, try to put it in first semester.

I think 3 labs is doable, just make sure they're on different days, there's only 4 labs in Bio 1A03, 5 labs in Chem 1A03, and they're not that bad. I think it would payoff in the end, but that's just my opinion.

Just one question. Why aren't you taking Psych 1XX3? (It's not mandatory, you only need to really take it if you're taking psych courses in year 2 because it's a prerequisite for just a few).

Also, Honours Life Science requires Psych 1XX3 if that's one of your options (you can also take it in summer or second year).

Hey, it looks good. I was in the second semester Bio 1M03 and honestly the difference is the profs. The first semester people had Dr. Stone and another prof. Second semester we had Dr. Evans and Dr. Quinn. I would suggest avoiding Dr. Evans and Dr. Quinn. Quinn wasn't terribly bad compared to Dr. Evans whose first midterm destroyed the class. Aside from that the material covered was basically the exact same.

Hi,

Thanks for for advice I'm taking only one pysch because I'm hoping to get into honours biology, but like you said if I need the second one I'll take it over the summer or second year. I was just wondering whether you had Dr. Kajiura for bio 1A03, and if you did how was she?

Originally Posted by R.M.D

Hi,

Thanks for for advice I'm taking only one pysch because I'm hoping to get into honours biology, but like you said if I need the second one I'll take it over the summer or second year. I was just wondering whether you had Dr. Kajiura for bio 1A03, and if you did how was she?

Here's part of a post I made about Zhu and Kajiura earlier. I had them in Fall 2012, when they both did half the course.

Originally Posted by Quiver

Zhu isn't much of a lecturer but her notes are so much better than Kajiura's. Kajiura's notes will have one line about a topic and that line will correspond to like 2 pages of the textbook. I also found that she was a little too nice: she likes and encourages questions, but a lot of the time that just ended up with half the lecture spent answering questions that had nothing to do with the material because people were trying to show how "proactive" and "interested" and "smart" they were. I didn't go to Zhu's lectures much because they were bad, but I also skipped some of Kajiura's lectures because I didn't want to spend half an hour listening to keeners suck up. Difference was that Zhu at least provided good notes for me to study off of. This is personal opinion of course, and it didn't bother a lot of people.

all the profs for the 1st year courses you have are easy.

Originally Posted by R.M.D

Hi,

Thanks for for advice I'm taking only one pysch because I'm hoping to get into honours biology, but like you said if I need the second one I'll take it over the summer or second year. I was just wondering whether you had Dr. Kajiura for bio 1A03, and if you did how was she?

I loved Dr. Kajiura. Yes, she may baby you, but I never found that a bad thing, it was nice having that high school-esque teacher. Dr. K is one of the nicest profs ever, she gives you multiple opportunities to receive a reference letter from her just by doing a simple research assignment (a reference letter from a professor in first year is huge!). It's not a medical school type of reference letter, it's more simple, but still, it's quite nice of her to do that.

And I love how she lectures, I was never bored in her class, but when Zhu started teaching, it was sooo boring, I lost interest in the course. You can tell how passionate Dr. K is about biology, and she's trying to instill that passion in first year students too. I know all of my friends loved her. She does test you on random details, but she's still an excellent prof.

If you can, grab Zhu's notes from the first semester kids, they're really good, and use Dr. K's notes too, personally, I never really used the textbook and did fine. Dr. K's notes are pretty good, but the text isn't a bad read.

Originally Posted by naval23

I loved Dr. Kajiura. Yes, she may baby you, but I never found that a bad thing, it was nice having that high school-esque teacher. Dr. K is one of the nicest profs ever, she gives you multiple opportunities to receive a reference letter from her just by doing a simple research assignment (a reference letter from a professor in first year is huge!). It's not a medical school type of reference letter, it's more simple, but still, it's quite nice of her to do that.

And I love how she lectures, I was never bored in her class, but when Zhu started teaching, it was sooo boring, I lost interest in the course. You can tell how passionate Dr. K is about biology, and she's trying to instill that passion in first year students too. I know all of my friends loved her. She does test you on random details, but she's still an excellent prof.

If you can, grab Zhu's notes from the first semester kids, they're really good, and use Dr. K's notes too, personally, I never really used the textbook and did fine. Dr. K's notes are pretty good, but the text isn't a bad read.

If Dr. K ever gives bonus questions (I'm not sure if she still does), she won a pasta eating contest while growing up. She lived in a dense Italian community and grew up on pasta. LOL

edit: P.S. I meant to quote the person you quoted. LOL