Hi, I'm a first year student and need really easy electives because my other courses r really tough. I like art and have a bit of knowledge about art history...but I'm not sure if I should be taking Art History 1A03 and Art History 1AA3. I'm also considering Linguistics 1A03 and Anthropology 1A03. Can someone please tell me about the difficulty level of these courses! I only have a day left to decide!

Hey

It all depends...

First, your strengths should be examined; ie if you're not a good essay writer you should stay away from essay intensive classes. Addtionally, if you like a subject and have some previous knowlege it may be beneficial for you to take.

As for the anthro...I'm an anthro major soooo:

Anthro 1A03 is cultural; in my opinion it was the easiest of the three, but the most interesting. you get to learn about different cultures, and how they function (ie north american versus a small tribe-based culture in new guinea). If the course format hasn't changed, you have marks based on participation and attendance of tutorial, a midterm, an essay, and a final exam. However I'm going into fourth year now, so it is possible it could have changed a bit. Some of my friends took it last year as an elective, and also really enjoyed it.

I haven't personally taken Art History, but from the people I know who have, Art History requires plenty of memorization. You're basically shown a lot of graphical images from different time periods and learn various styles, etc. Therefore, it requires a lot of memorization with artists and artistic works. So if you have a great memory and enjoy art.. i'd say go for it!

A few courses I would recommend in first year that I found particularly enjoyable and less on the work-side would be Inquiry 1HU3 (you are in a class of only a dozen people and work on a project together... no exam. It differs depending on the teacher you get). If you're into films and movies, I would recommend Theatre and Film 1B03 because it is interesting material (you talk about lighting and music in movies) and each week you get to screen a movie (watch a movie each week with your friends, really fun!). Lastly, I'd recommend Peace Studies 1B03, simply because I took it and it had very great topics of discussion. It has a few large papers though, but good for practising research. I find if the topic is interesting, you can write a lot easier and flow better. Many topics are given to choose from. Also, they have guest speakers come in to talk about the UN, and crisis around the world. Very eye opening.

I have a friend in Linguistics who enjoys it a LOT and majored in it because he enjoyed it so much. I haven't taken it, but it sounds interesting.

Here's a list that you might want to look into:

ANTHROP 1A03
ANTHROP 1Z03
CMST 1A03
COMP SCI 1MA3
ENVIR SC 1A03
ENVIR SC 1B03
ENVIR SC 1G03
GEO 1HS3
GEO 1HU3
GERONTOL 1A03
HEALTHST 1A03
HTH SCI 1G03
INQUIRY 1SC3
INQUIRY 1HU3
LABR ST 1A03
MMEDIA 1A03
MUSIC 1A03
MUSIC 1AA3
PEACE ST 1A03
PEACE ST 1B03

Anybody know much on Psych 1A03 and Psych 1AA3? I heard theyre video lectures... Dont really understand how that works ahah

Originally Posted by samantha__

Anybody know much on Psych 1A03 and Psych 1AA3? I heard theyre video lectures... Dont really understand how that works ahah

http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=1709 8

bahaha.
i like how you used my previous post.

however, 1aa3 is supposed to be more enjoyable (ie less dry) than 1a03.

Anyone from a faculty other than Humanities with recommended electives that you found to be easy?

not yet?

i don't think many people know about this site, actually.

Hey
It's my first year at mac and i'm taking socio, the electives that i took are

Gerontology 1A03 – Aging and society
Anthropology 1A03
Social Work 1A06
Philosophy, Law and Society 1B03
Problems of Philosophy 1E03

Has anyone taken these courses before? And if so, how were they?

i took anthro (as stated above) and possibly one of those philosophies. possibly 1d03 (BAD, BAD class)...but i don't recall.

There are also quite a lot of good Geography courses. I heard the gemstones course was really easy. No midterm or exam.

Here's some info on their first year courses

Gemstones is already full...and a second or third year class.

I figured it would fill up fast

It was full before the second year students could pick their classes, apparently.

Additionally, labour studies courses are supposed to be very easy. Dry, but easy.