Easy first year electives thread for 2013-14

See the old massive thread from 2007-2013 here: http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=1711 1

Discussions on easy first-year electives have been merged into this single thread to be easier to find answers in one place.

SOC PSYCH 1Z03 and Art Hist 1AA3

physics 1b03

English 1AA3 with Dr. Hyman was pretty great. Tutorials are worth 10% for participation, there's two essays and an exam. If you're comfortable with writing essays, I'd highly recommend the class. Plus the prof was a really good lecturer- classes were focused on various themes and ideas presented in the books.

Originally Posted by mastercool

I personally found Econ 1b03 really boring and hard to study for.

On the other hand, Econ 1bb3 was a complete joke. Biggest bird course in the entire university. Most questions are based on common sense, so if you don't know the answer to the questions, you can just rely on intuition.

Even with all the "bonus marks" in the world, there is no guarantee that you will achieve a high mark in Econ 1b03. The tests are a joke, but I found the exam to be kind of difficult (again, mainly because the material put me to sleep in seconds).

Hi there, I'm just wondering when you took econ1bb3. I heard it got a lot harder in the last couple of years, and I"m trying to decide if I should take it.

English courses are fun electives, but you're right, they do expect a lot out of first years, but this is also because plenty of prospective Med students need an English course to get into Med School, so they tend to take first year courses. I remember more than half of my 1a03 tutorial was made up of 4th years.

Linguistics is super easy and fun, but it does require memorization and a bit of work to keep up.

Relig 1J03 was easy and interesting.

Classics 1b03 was the most interesting of all my first year courses, but again, you have to keep up with the readings.

Don't take History courses, unless you're actually good at history. If you made it through history courses in high school with 60s-70s, AVOID HISTORY.

Philosophy courses are a hit or miss... I don't want to be biased towards my major and say that philosophy courses are fun, thought-provoking, and engaging (which they totally are, haha). I've also heard a lot of people say philosophy courses landed them their lowest marks and killed their GPA, so it's up to you. You'll either really love them or really hate them.

Originally Posted by RiskBreaker

I wouldn't recommend taking any religious courses at Universities, especially if you follow the religion the course teaches. Everything that the course teaches about that religion will usually consist of criticism and by the time you get out of there you will become more confused about what you are initially believed in than when you were when you entered the course.

Good Luck.

Wait, have you actually taken a religious studies course in university?
It's not at all like that. They don't pull you towards another religion or push you away from your own religion, either. They just teach what scholars and famous authors' views on certain topics in that religion are. It's up to you to believe what you want, and honestly, if you rethink your entire religion based on one course, you must not be very strong-minded.

hi, I'm a first year in social science and I was looking for an easy elective that does not have a heavy work load. I was suggested labour studies and geo 1HA3... would some one give some course reviews on it please or suggest other courses.

Thank you!

Hi Avi

We have a large thread about easy first year electives for 2007-2013 that you can check out:
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=1711 1

You can also check out the course reviews for 1st yr courses here:
http://www.macinsiders.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10 4

Hey Avi,

GEOG 1HA3 is a great course though the workload is a little intense for the major project (but not particularly difficult). I'm a TA for the course this semester. I took Labour Studies last year with Dr. Goutor and it was way more interesting than I was expecting but the majority of the grade is made up of essays (including the exam) so if you're not a fan of writing papers I'd avoid that one.

cmst 1a03

thank you!

I was also wondering how the electives soc sci 1SS3 - c20 and social psych 1z03 was?

As a comp eng student, I have completed ECON 1B03 and 1BB3 plus a second year ECON. What you recommend that is light on papers since I am not the best at writing.

Music 1a03
Music 1aa3
Econ 1b03
Anthro 1aa3
Anthro 1ab3