Hi all! I'm going into Life Science I in 2017 fall, and with course selections coming up, I had a few questions that I was wondering some people could help answer!

-I didn't end up taking grade 12 physics this year, so do I have to take Physics 1A03? If so, does only taking this course close future course opportunities?
-Which math should I take? I read that 1LS3 is a lot easier. While I am great at calculus, should I take 1LS3 to make my life a bit easier?
-How difficult are my course choices?
-Could you share what courses you took/are going to be taking first year?

These are my current course choices:

Biology: 1A03, 1M03
Psychology: 1X03, 1XX3
Chemistry: 1A03, 1AA3
Physics: 1A03?
Math: 1A03 or 1LS3?
Astronomy: 1F03
(I know I need 1 more course, maybe kin?)

Thanks!

Originally Posted by douhua1999

-I didn't end up taking grade 12 physics this year, so do I have to take Physics 1A03? If so, does only taking this course close future course opportunities?

You would have to check the undergraduate calendar for when your second year program would require it. Some second year programs say they need physics 1a03 for admission while some say that you need to complete it by the end of second year. Physics 1a03 is for people who don't have the grade 12 credit and those who have the grade 12 credit. Basically Physics 1a03 is meant for non-physics majors. That's not to say that you can't go into a physics program with these courses, it's just that you'll be less prepared as you will have less knowledge because the physics-major physics course is more rigorous.

Originally Posted by douhua1999

-Which math should I take? I read that 1LS3 is a lot easier. While I am great at calculus, should I take 1LS3 to make my life a bit easier?

1LS3 if you just want the credit. 1A03 if you're planning on taking any additional math courses in the future.

Originally Posted by douhua1999

-How difficult are my course choices?

They're pretty standard for a first year life science student. A misconception is that you need to take both psychs. You don't need to. I see a lot of life science students every year posting their timetables and they're all registered for both psychs. I remember in my first year my friends and myself were all enrolled in both psychs but partway through 1x03 we were hating it so much that we dropped 1xx3. Though the material covered in 1x03 and 1xx3 are completely different, the method of instruction is the same, which we were not really a fan of. Though you have a lot of science courses. I recommend you explore some other courses outside the faculty of science, possibly courses from humanities. I've always found humanities courses to be quite interesting and less dry than my science lectures (and if you're good at writing, it's also much easier).

Originally Posted by douhua1999

-Could you share what courses you took/are going to be taking first year?

In first year I took French 1A06. After I dropped Psych 1XX3, I took Math 1AA3. Math 1AA3 turned out to be an easy A+ for me as it was pretty calculation heavy (I had also taken Math 1A03 instead of 1LS3 in the term before so that worked out well). As the general saying goes, choose courses based on what you're interested in and not what others are saying are easy. Don't feel pressured to take a course simply because everyone else is doing it.

I think I will take the physics 1A03, and the math 1A03. Also i'll stay in both psych for now, and see how I like them later (i guess I can always switch out of second semester like you). As for electives, I will definitely take a look at courses outside of the sciences!

Thanks for the help!

Great reply Imperious. You touched on just about everything I was going to say.

To the OP.. it sounds like you're mainly picking courses based on what's "easiest". I recommend never planning things that way, always plan ahead and work backwards.

Why are you taking Life Sci in the first place.. what is your end goal in 4th year? What stream do you plan to go down for your career path? Look at 4th year courses and what you think you might be interested in for the future and see what their prerequisites are (classes needed to be taken to take those courses). And worn your way backwards to 1st year classes.

Not taking a certain math can limit you down the road, for example.

Also use the My Planner tool in MOSAIC to see all your required courses to take. And use it to help you plan stuff out.

Here's the steps https://registrar.mcmaster.ca /enrol/steps/plan/

Also check out the course reviews section to see feedback from honest, real students who took the class http://www.macinsiders.com/forumdisp...104.html?f=104

Thanks for the help and sorry for the late reply!
You're right!, i'm not going to be choosing any courses based on their difficulty! Since I enjoy Calculus, i'm going to take the harder one (1A03), and I have no choice but to take the physics 1A03 because I didn't take grade 12 physics in high school. The rest of the classes I believe are mandatory for Life Sciences. As for electives, I stuck by what Imperious said and decided to take courses that interested me, like astronomy, linear algebra and calculus II.
Thank you for the useful course review section on MacInsiders, it is very nice to see what the students think about each course!