for those that are in engineering, what would you say is the hardest course?

Umm... it's kind of hard to tell. I would say that Math 1ZZ5 was definitely not bad (which it seems like it should be). The textbook was really good for that. I got an 11 in the course without going to the last month of classes. Math 1Z04, on the otherhand, can get pretty bad if you don't attend class - make sure you do!

I found the labs in semester 1 physics kind of challenging (mostly because there were so many measurements and uncertainties). I kind of let my partner figure out all the calculations and stuff (I'm useless with uncertainties). Second semester labs were a lot more straight forward though.

I would say in terms of amount of memorization, materials was most difficult. It wasn't hard once you figured out what was going on though.

In terms of actual critical thinking, physics 1E03 was probably most difficult. There were a lot questions where you had to completely derive formulas for fields. Not too bad if you knew what you were doing though.

A lot of international students found 1P03 hard because it involved a lot of writing in first semester. I don't blame them; the TAs marked quite hard even if you didn't know English very well.

If you're good at drawing, 1C03 is probably going to be a course you dislike. People either did extremely well or extremely bad in this one.

Others found 1D04 (programming) bad. If you did any programming whatsoever in high school though, it will be a cake walk.

I think materials was the hardest to learn just because it was mostly new material and doesn't really follow anything we had done in high school. Physics 1E03 can get confusing at times too. But overall, first year was not as bad as I thought. As long as you don't slack off too much and keep up with your work or are really good at cramming, it should be okay.

Math 1Z04 and 1ZZ5 aren't bad as long as you practice enough and attend your classes.

Physics 1D03 was harder than 1E03 imo. Most people felt it was the other way around. Either way though I think you'll end up having a little difficulty with one of them. Nothing really bad, but not a cakewalk for sure.

Materials I found was one of the easiest courses last year. Same with Chemistry. Although there's more memorization in materials than your other courses its not difficult material at all. The theory, definitions, and math are easy to comprehend. The best thing you can do for this course is read the textbook. I did every single page of readings and found that it helped A LOT. More than the math readings, but those are important as well!

Chemistry is simple. Mainly cause you've seen most if not all the material in high school at some point. Although people did have some trouble with it. You can't assume you'll get a 12 just cause the material isn't new. Make sure you still work at it.

Professional engineering (1P03) wasn't too bad. I'm not gonna lie I put little effort into this course compared to the others. That might have been the reason it was one of my lower marks. It would probably be easy to get a 11 or 12 if you just do all the readings, but no one seems to ever do that... Don't worry too much about it though. It won't be too time consuming till you start your design project.

Design 1C03 is pretty straight forward. No hard material, but workload is pretty big comapred to the others. With weekly sketches both in and out of class along with labs every week it can get kind of tiring. Not to mention the final project. Make sure you space out that project well or else you'll find yourself sleepless for a couple nights. Overall this course is really easy, but its just the work load that's a problem.

Programming 1D04 like the above said is a cake walk if you did programming in highschool. I did programming grade 10-12 and I got a 12 with little to no effort at all. This is also a course where you can afford not to buy the textbook if you did do porgamming. I never needed to touch the txt at all. But if you didn't take programming the best advice I can give to you is practice. Do the sample labs, attend all the tutorials, labs and lectures. And you can also come up with your own programs and challenge yourself to write them. For example site down and tell yourself to make a simple calculator with addition.

And I'll write about Econ 1b03 just cause a lot of first years tend to take it for management. The course was simple enough. If you took econ like I did in high school then it won't be difficult at all. Not to say its a free 12. You might see stuff you've never learned before so don't get too cocky! But doesn't matter if you took it in high school or not. Its a pretty eays course.

Well I thought I would give my two cents for this topic.

Personally materials 1M03 was the hardest. Seems simple and don't be fooled by the cheat sheet u could carry the text book in(if they let you) to the test and still be surprised. The test were very short, so if you screw up you lose a lot.

Math 1Z04 was more difficult then I thought cause it started off with derivatives and stuff. It was kinda my first kick from the university to buckle down. Found 1ZZ5 too be easier. For the people I knew it stayed sort of consistent being tolerable not too hard or easy.

I knew my chem 1E03 well so that was not bad at all pretty similar to high school as already mentioned. Some quizzes and labs can get confusing but the point is to work hard.

Personally I did well in physics but most found both courses difficult. The tutorials, labs and participation help pick up some marks. It goes quick so keep up don't take it lightly when they start off with high school material.

Now to the engineering courses:
I didn't really like Eng 1P03. The material is dry and I am not too great in english. Second semester is ok with the group project if you get something interesting and good members like I had then it's tolerable.

1C03 is easy. At time it can be frustrating but the portion in the lab is pretty easy. The tutorial has its moments put real world objects were difficult and sometimes it is hard to get a starting scale. Do the work and you should do well.

Finally programming 1D04. This is a bit of a wild card I havn't met anyone that did ok in this mostly awesomely well or incredi bad. I personally had next to no programming experience and did very well. I found once you knew the syntax some basic code the rest is problem solving. My TA was also a big help, if you don't go to lecture for sure go to tutorial. I would advise to go to lecture anyway.

All in all I finished pretty happy. Some advice would to study hard, keep up, cram cram cram, stay focused. Not that its a bad thing to party and meet people(part of the experience) but know your limits.

Cheers

Haha, hard to tell.

First term overall I felt was harder (even though second term was suppose to be the tougher term) but probably cause the material and toughness of tests were much higher than highschool.

Math 1Z04 was hard - Class test averages for that were not very good, 50's for 2 of the tests, and i think 65 for the third?

Alot of people found materials hard, but I found it not too bad, the assignments didnt help at all for tests, but overall the course was a bit challenging because it was completely new material.

Physics 1E03 was suppose to be the "eliminator course" but quite honestly, it was not bad at all! The class test averages were horrible, but not many people put too much effort in seeing as how they were only 10% each. I put in about 4 days of study time for the exam, not knowing any of the material from the whole year, and I found the exam fair - couple questions i didnt get (waves - because i hated that unit :p) but the derivations and stuff were pretty ok. I think this was my favorite course after I finally sat down and learned the material haha.

Remember to put alot of time in Math 1ZZ5 - its alot of practice but definately able to get high marks. Overall the class average for this course was much higher (first test was about 25% higher) than first terms math.


I guess it all depends on how much effort you put in. If you skip lectures often, dont study for tests, and just wing assignments, then yes, you will find most of it hard. If you study, decent amount, for everything, you will be fine.

Good Luck!

I didn't enjoy Math 1Z04, or Materials... those were the most difficult for me. I know my skills lay in my application, rather than my memorization, and found that first term math was hard to comprehend, thus hard to apply, thus was no good for me. Second term, however, I got an easy 10 in. Physics 1E03 was no walk in the park either - again, more abstract concepts that are hard to conceptualize or apply, since you're dealing with a micro and invisible scale topic. Labs, CAPA, and in-class iClicker marks are a great opportunity to boost your mark.
Materials - DO NOT rely on old cheat sheets found on DC++. Read the textbook, develop an understanding of the content. The small test sizes guarantee that without a thorough knowledge and understanding of the material, you will not succeed. I know because I wasn't putting in enough effort in terms of studying for tests - and my marks showed it, I ended up roughly with a 50% on each test, but my exam mark (assuming they didn't bell curve it) which I studied for a LONG time for, had to have been around a 75% or 80 in order for me to end up with the mark that I had.
Chemistry is labour-intensive, but doable.
Programming, depending on how much experience you have, can be your easiest course, or your hardest.

Definitely devoted most of my study time to both Physics 1E03/1D03 more than the other engineering courses. CAPA really took a long time to complete lol...

Originally Posted by AnguishedEnd

Definitely devoted most of my study time to both Physics 1E03/1D03 more than the other engineering courses. CAPA really took a long time to complete lol...

I stopped doing CAPA. In retrospective I shouldn't have, as it was great practice for the tests, as some of the questions were even taken directly from CAPA. Without considering that fact though, it was hard for me to convince myself that it was worth doing, for a measly 2.5%

Well knowing what people think is the hardest course won't really help you. I remember there were tons of people that told me Physics 1E03 was really really hard. Even gave it the name "The Eliminator." But i found with some dedication and concentration that it wasn't really that bad and defiantly not my hardest course. Just keep at it and stay concentrated. Parties are fun, but don't get out of control and be reasonable. Like having a party 2 days before a physics midterm isn't such a good idea....