Can anyone give their thoughts on which one is an easier elective? I've heard good and bad things about both courses.

I'm leaning towards taking Biochem 2EE3, but I heard it was A LOT of memorization, but it's less work - with just 2 midterms and an exam.

2H03 is definitely a LOT more work, so if you're pretty decent with memorization then biochem is probably your best option, even though the class is really boring, but most of the stuff he says tends to be on his slides

I took both courses this past semester, and I found it frustrating that there was a high margin of error with biochem 2ee3 since your entire mark is based on 90 MC questions (and a lot of these questions were obscure detailed questions). I preferred life sci 2H03 a lot more (in terms of the content and the grading scheme) and I did much better in that course. However, similar to what celtics fan said, if you are really good at memorizing and don't mind being tested on useless little details, then yea go for it lol

I know, that's where I'm conflicted
I don't like being tested on really small details, and if they're really small details, it's more likely that you're going to get them wrong and the margin of error is even worse :/

How were the assignments and tests for Life Sci 2H03, because I'm just worried I won't be interested in the content of 2H03, and the content for Biochem 2EE3 seems more interesting.

When I took Life Sci 2H03 last semester, there were no midterms, but there were biweekly quizzes that makes up 30% of your final mark, and they were pretty easy. I was told that Bernier doesn't like midterms, so if you were to take this course next year, I highly doubt you will have a midterm. As for the assignments, there were 2 essays that we had to do and they were based on documentaries that we watched in class. However, a lot of people found that the some of their T.As marked the essays harder compared to previous years. The average for the first essay was ~75% (it was bell-curved bc one of the T.A's marked the papers too harshly) and the average for the second essay was ~80%..soo it wasn't too bad.

I was kind of in the same boat as you as I thought the biochem content was more interesting prior to taking the course, but I ended up hating it bc the prof would test us on the tiniest details, which really discouraged a lot of ppl including myself. Even though all the info tested for biochem are straight from the notes, I should warn you that the vast amount of info tested in grossly disproportionate to the number of questions the prof will put on the midterms and the final (which is why there's a high margin of error with this course). But if you are really good at memorizing obscure details and such, then it shouldn't be too much of a concern for you. I would suggest you also look up the course reviews for these two courses since its very useful!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/441657429239268/

You can try to join the biochem 2ee3 fb group for this past semester to sort of get a feel of what people thought about this course too. I hope this helps!

I took both courses just this past term. Both are good courses but if you have to choose one, I recommend Biochem 2EE3 on five accounts:

1. Predictability. A lot of Zhorov's past tests are drifting around. Expect similar, and in some cases, identical questions to pop up on the tests. His tests aren't actually too bad. Yes, he asks specific questions, but I've seen worse (ahem, microbio). It's all multiple choice too which makes studying a matter of practicing recognition and understanding more than just pure memorization.

Bernier's assignments are marked by TAs so there's always the chance you have a nasty TA. Mine were marked fairly and I did well on the assignments, but they were time-consuming and a bore to do. The exam is what hurt me a little. There were case studies and questions that followed which were based on course knowledge and a few short answer questions for which he gives the questions ahead of time. The exam was very holistic and you'll find that you won't need to memorize all the details in his lectures, but something went awry regarding the case study MCs.

2. Mark. I did better in Biochem 2EE3 than Lifesci 2H03, despite getting perfect on all the lifesci quizzes and doing well on both assignments. I also did well on both biochem tests but because I knew what to expect going into them, so I was less caught off-guard.

3. Interest. Sometimes Zhorov's content gets dry (Krebs, ETC, glycolysis...) but there were definitely some interesting parts during the course. As a whole, Biochem was much more interesting than Lifesci.

4. Attendance. This is a toss-up between both. Bernier has blanks in his lectures that he only releases the words for during lecture, but you can always get these from a friend. Zhorov's notes are all you need to study although he does drop hints about what to avoid memorizing for his tests, which saves you time. Zhorov does recommend reading the textbook for that elusive question he says "separates the good students from the excellent students", but his lecture notes are good enough to go by.

5. Time investment. Biochem wins. Although I attended most lectures, biochem only had 2 tests during the whole term so cramming a few days before the test was more than enough. Lifesci had regular assignments and quizzes. I know you're apprehensive about having only two evaluations in biochem - I was too - but if you go over Zhorov's lectures, understand mechanisms, go over past tests, and memorize what you need to (ex. the 20 AA names, abbreviations, and structures, etc.) then you're good. It's not that bad and actually very straightforward.