I will be in the Life Sciences I program in the fall. I have not taken gr. 12 physics. As of now, I have registered for Physics 1L03 in first term and Physics 1B03 in second term. I am contemplating whether or not I should take gr. 12 physics in summer school or if I should cancel it.

Reasons why I would take it is so that I can drop 1L03 and just take 1B03 in first year and find some easy elective. I would want to do this because I already have two semesters of bio and chem and a semester of math. I am afraid my courseload would be too heavy if I have two semesters of physics as well. Also, so that I can take Physics 1BB3 in summer school after first year and focus on this 'harder' course.

I don't want to be moving these physics courses into second year because I know that I will have other science courses which will cover new concepts in second year and this might challenging.

Reasons I would not take summer school physics is because it is pretty much a crash course right, so I don't know if I would actually be getting anything out of it. And I don't know if it would prepare me for physics 1B03 if I drop 1L03.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I know this was quite a long thread.. but thanks in advance

Instead of dropping the course, get a tutor. That's one option.

I'm taking Gr.12 physics this summer ! =) So that I can have an extra elective!

Keep taking it in summer. First year courses are generally a lot of review in order to get everyone on the same page since they come from different highschools. I found that a lot of information in Physics 1B03 was repeated from high school and then went in more depth. Since high school is free, you might as well take it.

Also, don't worry about the course load. I'm sure at least 50% of first year life science students take 2 math, 2 physics, 2 chem and 2 bio. Also, upper years have a much heavier course load compared to first year.

take it in summer school!
i'm going into my second year in life science,
and i didn't do grade 11 or grade 12 physics in high school. so i had to take 1L03 and 1B03 (because it was required)
MANY second year courses require you to finish 1B03,
do grade 12 physics in summer (since its free)
and then do 1B03
you save money that way. and 1L03 and 1B03 is really different, so no point in paying to do an extra physics.
i regret not taking grade11 and 12 physics in high school!
hope that helped!

^ exactly. thts wat id suggest

Physics 1BB3 isn't too difficult. You can do it during the fall/winter term and do something else for summer school.

take grade 12 physics in the summer

take 1b03 (and 1bb3 if u r interested) in the next summer (2012). depending on how comfortable u r with physics, u can take it in the school year or summer 2012. the reason i recommend taking physics 1b03 in summer is because I FEEL its a lot of work and boring (i m more into bio and chem than physics). if this applies to u too, i strongly recommend taking physics 1b03 (and 1bb3 if u r interested) in summer 2012. u will do MUCH better.

also, speaking from experience, there is not a single AMAZING prof teaching physics (they are good but not amazing). if u take it in first year, the two profs are hughes and wilson.
i dont much abt wilson, except that she doesnt have an accent
hughes on the other hand is a professor THAT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. she doesnt give out notes. her teaching style is like of story-telling. if u r not comfortable with physics concepts, dont take it with her. and dont think that u will adapt to her style...reading the textbook is VERY boring and will discourage u in so many ways.

that being said, u can also take it in second semester. one of the profs is rheinstadter. he is very very good, and very approachable, and very helpful as well + he gives out notes!!!


dont overestimate urself and expect urself to be super in everything. u have to learn so much in SO LITTLE TIME. i m talking abt the transition to uni from high school. i was a 90% student in high school, came to uni, marks dropped because i overestimated myself and loaded my courseload with lots of hard courses. and i didnt end up doing so well.

hope this helps u in ur decision making.

Or you know, you could not do school in summer like a regular kid.

Originally Posted by Chandlerowns

Or you know, you could not do school in summer like a regular kid.

So everyone that enrolls in summer schools is deemed irregular?

Seems like there are a lot of irregular people then..

My advice: Be irregular, take Grade 12 physics in the summer and save yourself from 1L03. Almost everyone I talk to says it's a waste of time and money.

I agree with the above posts - take grade 12 physics in the summer so you can save some money and take a more interesting elective at mac (I haven't heard anything good about Physics 1L03). I took Grade 11 physics way back in summer '08, so I was -somewhat- in your shoes. I actually thought it was a great learning experience - the course was compressed into 3 weeks, we covered the exact same material/curriculum as compared to the regular school-year (so not really a "crash course"), but we had to write 1 large test every week, plus a final exam, plus assignments. A little stressful, but gives you a chance to develop your time-management skills and get a good taste of what university will [kind of] be like. I'd recommend it. :-)

The only real disadvantage I could think of with this method is that there are no labs in high school physics at summer school (because of the time constraints - unless it's different at the school where you're taking it / it's changed since 2008) but... you're really not missing out on much.