Originally Posted by Sarah13

I've only taken a few of those courses, but here's an overview of the ones I did take:

Psych 1A03 & 1AA3 (pretty much the equivalent of 1XX3 and 1X03)
- 2 hours of tutorial/week, although you are responsible for watching 2 online lectures/week (usually 15-30 minutes) on your own time.
- in Psych 1A03, we had a big group project essay, and in 1AA3, we had four smaller one page group project papers. I can't say that this will be the same next year - first year Psych had a complete overhaul this year, and they might still be making changes.

Gerontology 1A03
- only 2 lectures/week, and no tutorials. You also need to complete either 10hrs of volunteer work with seniors over the course of the term, or attend an extra tutorial for 10 weeks.
- only one 5 page paper, a multiple choice midterm, and a multiple choice exam
*This was my elective, definitely the easiest course I took all year. It is the study of aging though, so that needs to interest you at least a little bit*

From courses that friends took this year, Comp Lit and English courses have a ton of reading and papers (but you probably could have figured that out haha), and Philosophy was quite difficult. Good luck choosing!

hey in gerontology 1a03 wat does 5page paper means (essay, report, group project.............. .." thanks

paper = essay

It was a 5 page reflection on your volunteer experience/extra tutorial. Very open-ended, so you could pretty much write about whatever, and just relate it somehow to the course content.

Katie_batt
Kinesiology offers 2 first year anatomy/physiology courses that are open to all students. If I remember correctly, they are KIN 1Y03 and KIN 1YY3

Hey,
Does anyone know an approximate difficulty level of MATH 1A03 and MATH 1AA3?

Math 1A03 is similar to calculus in highschool gr 12. so it shouldnt' be that bad. its just the same thing except for the last chapter on integrals, which isnt alot, only like 3 classes on it during the last week. Math 1AA3 is when you start getting in to new material you haven't seen before. that will require more work and practice. The math courses are not too bad, as long as you practice alot , and do the practice tests. Math 1AA3 is harder than Math 1A03. The profs are all really nice and TAs are always there to help you with lots of office hours.

So I'm looking for a few pointers on electives that would be interesting. If I don't have any interest in the course I won't be able to do the work and my marks will just drop off completely. Something not too heavy would be nice too.
Also I'm in science and I hated high school english and I would really love to avoid writing essays. Right now I'm kind of looking at a few
CLASSICS 1B03
COMP SCI 1TA3
HEALTH SCI 1G03
INQUIRY 1SC3
KIN 1A03
KIN 1AA3
RELIG ST 1B06
RELIG ST 1D06

If anyone knows ANYTHING about these courses or has any to reccommend that would be superbly wonderful

Hey, so I'm considering taking English 1A03 and 1B03. Does anyone know how these two courses are like?

thanks so much

Originally Posted by chugaucon

Hey, so I'm considering taking English 1A03 and 1B03. Does anyone know how these two courses are like?

I took 1B03 several years ago. I found it more difficult than 1BB3. There is more theoretical analysis in this course than in 1BB3.

I think I am going to take peace studies for my one first year elective (technically my other is ECON 1B03, but I need that for eng & management).

It seems to be considered moderately easy, and its a subject Im really interested in.

Hi, i am going engineering 1 next year and having problem in choosing electives. So is it impossible to choose Math, Physics, etc. as elective? I want to focus on main subjects too since engineering itself has a lot of lectures already.
Also, is it a good idea to take ECON 1B03 even I am not planning to go Eng.Mgt. programs next yr? It interested me the most over other electives(I hate language and humanity). Is it a hard course with lots of homework? What about Geog.? Or any other recommendation? Thank a lot.

Well, if you look at the list of electives

http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /calen...008/sec_20.htm

you will see a little light-bulb beside some courses (dont know why they chose a lightbulb lol). The courses that have this little lightbulb are courses that engineering students are NOT allowed to take as their electives. You will see that most of them are physics/math/chem/computer courses that are already key parts of the engineering program.

I guess the reason they dont let you take these courses is because they want you to have a slightly broader education....it kinda forces you to take some humanities courses.

I can't say for sure how difficult the economics course is, but if its a subject that interests you, and you dislike humanities/social sciences than it will probably be easier for you, even though it may be considered a "harder" course.

Originally Posted by mikefung

(I hate language and humanity).

interesting typo.

I see, Thanks