is it possible to take math 1LS3 in 1st term and then 1AA3 in 2nd? would i be sufficiently prepared for math 1AA3 or not? i'm wondering this because when i first registered for courses, math 1A03 was full so i registered in 1LS3 instead. but now i checked and there's room so i'm wondering if i should switch 1LS3 to 1A03...

also i've heard that the "L" courses are easier and everything. would taking both L courses be a better choice? i wasn't horrible in math in high school and i usually got all the harder thinking questions at the end of tests but i did make a lot of stupid mistakes, like randomly multiplying wrong...

Math 1A03 was straight forward; not many tricks to it. Math 1AA3 was a little bit trickier. The midterm average was pretty low this past year and had to be bell-curved.

Originally Posted by smallthings

is it possible to take math 1LS3 in 1st term and then 1AA3 in 2nd? would i be sufficiently prepared for math 1AA3 or not? i'm wondering this because when i first registered for courses, math 1A03 was full so i registered in 1LS3 instead. but now i checked and there's room so i'm wondering if i should switch 1LS3 to 1A03...

also i've heard that the "L" courses are easier and everything. would taking both L courses be a better choice? i wasn't horrible in math in high school and i usually got all the harder thinking questions at the end of tests but i did make a lot of stupid mistakes, like randomly multiplying wrong...

Yes but I think you need a 10 in Math 1LS3 to be eligible? I'm not sure of the number (like a 10 or something else) - it is possible you just need to be above X grade point to do it.

Take Math 1LS3, I strongly recommend it, especially if math is not your strongest subject. Also you only need one math to graduate from Life science. I recommend you not to take math 1aa3. The class last term was really tough from what I heard.

I took 1LS3 then 1AA3, and there were a few things that were assumed from 1A03 that weren't covered, but they weren't difficult and by doing a lot of practice problems and putting in decent effort I was able to get a 12 without too much trouble. I really liked the course material for 1AA3, much more than 1LS3, which was I found to be quite boring as 99% of it was a repeat of high school math.

If you aren't good at math I don't know how well you would do in 1AA3, though...I'd probably start off with 1LS3 and see how you find it.

math 1a03s difficulty is overrated. it is harder than 1ls3 by far, but treat it like any course. do what they tell you to do. go to class. do the online assignments. most kids are just looking for the easiest way out tho which is unfortunate.

I TA'd 1XX3/1AA3 once in the same semester (January 2010 I believe).

During the first tutorial I was given special instructions for the students coming from 1LS3, and those were: to cover the topics that were covered in 1A03, but not in 1LS3. To "Bridge the gap" so to speak.

The biggest one was Integration by Partial Fractions. (You can see my tutorial notes here: (http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/~parchim...tutorial_1.pdf)) Some students may also not know what the arctangent function is (tan^{-1}), or more importantly, its derivative (1/(1+x^2)). This knowledge is important for partial fractions (as is outlined in the note).

That being said, it's definitely possible to go from 1LS3 to 1AA3. You need a 10 or higher in 1LS3 however (though in my opinion that's a bit excessive), but I have seen those exact students go on to excel in 1AA3...likely because they had already scored 10+ in 1LS3.

Originally Posted by Incognitus

That being said, it's definitely possible to go from 1LS3 to 1AA3. You need a 10 or higher in 1LS3 however (though in my opinion that's a bit excessive), but I have seen those exact students go on to excel in 1AA3...likely because they had already scored 10+ in 1LS3.

You actually only need a 7 in 1LS3 in order to take 1AA3.

Either way, I would definitely suggest taking 1A03 over 1LS3 if you can. If not then it's not impossible to transition from 1LS3 to 1AA3. I did it and I ended up with a better mark in 1AA3 than in 1LS3.

Edit: omg it's Mowicz!

Originally Posted by oranges

Edit: omg it's Mowicz!

E...I don't know to whom or what you are referring...





...wink.

Do you by any chance recall what was studied in 1LS3 that was similar to high school calculus/advanced-functions? If we didn't do that well in grade 12 math then will 1LS3 be extremely difficult?
Thanks =)
You're a second year so I figured you might still remember from last year =)

Originally Posted by ezlx310

Take Math 1LS3, I strongly recommend it, especially if math is not your strongest subject. Also you only need one math to graduate from Life science. I recommend you not to take math 1aa3. The class last term was really tough from what I heard.