Originally Posted by meikaelahmad

all the percentages have sky rocketed...its not fair :(

You only have your friends to blame for that... XD

I'd definitely recommend taking the courses in school, for two primary reasons.
First, if you find the material challenging, there's a lot more support in school than there is in university - of course, there is support here too, but you'll have to go look for it yourself, it won't be as easily available as in school. In addition, you have a familiar environment in school - probably much less distracting than your first year away from home, so you'll probably have fewer distractions.
Second, if you think the material will be challenging, it probably won't be too much easier in first-year. You'll be taking similarly difficult material (if not more difficult, since more is expected of a first-year than a gr. 12) without the same support system and outside of the same familiar surroundings. In addition, if you're considering dental school, you'll need to keep your university marks high. I'm not sure how they select marks in dental school, but a B can definitely hurt an otherwise strong GPA.

Of course, this doesn't mean you shouldn't take the courses in university, but I'd still recommend taking them in school. You could be like me, and come in to first-year with the idea of majoring in a life-science related stream like biochemistry, and end up getting carried away by mathematics, so you may as well not restrict your options before first-year even begins...

Originally Posted by nerual

As something completely unrelated, when did chem 1A03/1AA3 stop being a requirement?!?!?!?!?? !?!??!?!

I was looking at your post Jeremy, and it seemed like at the end, the hypothetical person taking those courses was left with way more electives than people who did that in our year...and it's because they now have an extra 6 units because chem is no longer a requirement!!!!!!!! wow....that makes me really sad

It does make it easier to take the replacement gr12 courses, I suppose...but I can't believe chem isn't required!

Don't mind me, my world was shattered

Yeah, I don't understand why chemistry isn't required for life science anymore...I mean, surely you need to understand general chemistry (at least, if not orgo as well) to understand cell and molecular bio

Originally Posted by Mahratta

I'd definitely recommend taking the courses in school, for two primary reasons.
First, if you find the material challenging, there's a lot more support in school than there is in university - of course, there is support here too, but you'll have to go look for it yourself, it won't be as easily available as in school. In addition, you have a familiar environment in school - probably much less distracting than your first year away from home, so you'll probably have fewer distractions.
Second, if you think the material will be challenging, it probably won't be too much easier in first-year. You'll be taking similarly difficult material (if not more difficult, since more is expected of a first-year than a gr. 12) without the same support system and outside of the same familiar surroundings. In addition, if you're considering dental school, you'll need to keep your university marks high. I'm not sure how they select marks in dental school, but a B can definitely hurt an otherwise strong GPA.

Of course, this doesn't mean you shouldn't take the courses in university, but I'd still recommend taking them in school. You could be like me, and come in to first-year with the idea of majoring in a life-science related stream like biochemistry, and end up getting carried away by mathematics, so you may as well not restrict your options before first-year even begins...



Yeah, I don't understand why chemistry isn't required for life science anymore...I mean, surely you need to understand general chemistry (at least, if not orgo as well) to understand cell and molecular bio

This is slightly off-topic but for those that are reading the thread and for the OP if they end up getting into McMaster, if you are having trouble with university you can visit the Centre for Student Development: csd.mcmaster.ca

Just take the Calculus and Vectors, Physics in high school... They aren't difficult as long as you do your homework.

I went back to night school to finish these courses just so I could go into university without having to take any pre-requisites for university courses. Also I think it looks better on your transcript.

i got in without taking physics...but then i had to take physics 1l03 becuase in order to take physics 1b03 becuase i ended up needing it, so it may save you time later to just do it now, and that way if you need the physics you wont be so lost and cluless like i was.