what are some useful and easy electives that i can take in first year?
i see alot of people suggesting anthro 1A03
Also, What are gemstone courses? i heard there is no midterm or exam. if so, then what do they evaluate the students on? essays?
For mandatory courses, does the prof play a big role in how interesting or easy the course is? and any suggestion for the prof and time

Here is a list of my course:
HTH SCI 1LL3 – Human Biochemistry I
HTH SCI 1H06 – Human Physiology Anatomy I
NURSING 1A00 – Intro. to Health & Safety
NURSING 1F03 – Intro. to Nursing & Health I
NURSING 1G03 – Intro. to Nursing & Health II
NURSING 1I02 - Intro. to Nursing Practice
NURSING 1J02 - Professional Nursing Practice I
NURSING 1K02 - Health and Well-Being of Diverse Populations I
PSYCH 1X03 – Intro. to Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
PSYCH 1XX3 – Foundations of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour

Useful how? There aren't too many courses that are useful everyday life, in general they're only useful for letting you take more advanced courses in the same area in later years. Unless you're interested in a minor, that's not too relevant. In terms of easiness, I found Econ 1BB3 and Philosophy 1E03 to be very easy electives, as well as very interesting. There are course reviews for both of them, if either sounds appealing.

Gemstones is a course where you learn about, well, gemstones. It has a reputation as a super easy course, but generally people take it in later years (its a second year course).

You won't really be able to get good recommendations for prof or time without giving more details about which profs and which times are available. You should check the course reviews for those courses as well, that might be discussed there.

Psychs are good courses, I know a lot of Nurses take them. There are a lot of interesting psych courses in later years.

Thanks,
Another question, for the course that ends with 6 is a whole year course right? do i have to choose the same time for term 1 and term 2?
also, when i checked the course HTH SCI 1H06, it saids term 3, what does it mean? i thought term 3 are summer courses
and can you take the core in McMaster site and the Tutorial in Mohawk Site?

depends on if you are momac comac or mac. I am momac and through collabs i've already had to take a bunch of anthro/soc/psych courses. i wouldnt want to take another one after already taking 4 or 5 of them and then having to talk about it in nursing courses as well. Its up to you though. If anthro is where your interest is, then go for it.

also, as of september, gemstones will have prerequisites, so you'd have to get whatever the prerequisite is before registering. (the course is being revised).

Term 3 means Term 1 + Term 2 (1+2=3), so a full year.

Your term 1 exam would probably be considered a midterm or something, but, yes you will have it the same time for both terms.

Originally Posted by MacDai

Thanks,
Another question, for the course that ends with 6 is a whole year course right? do i have to choose the same time for term 1 and term 2?
also, when i checked the course HTH SCI 1H06, it saids term 3, what does it mean? i thought term 3 are summer courses
and can you take the core in McMaster site and the Tutorial in Mohawk Site?

yes, for first year you must have the same Core number for your two terms of PBL... and the same core number for the 2 terms of CLINICAL


and as for profs, you have really no choice of profs in the nursing course anyways, so either way it doesnt matter... you're assigned your tutors for clinical and pbl... anatomy has different profs every couple weeks, and you are assigned your tutorial for that... psych as one prof usually.. Dr. Kim for 1X03 and 1XX3.

and you MUST take the cores and tutorials assigned to your site... if you are a mohawk you HAVE to take the mohawk cores...and same with if you are Mac or Con.

Originally Posted by Charbs

yes, for first year you must have the same Core number for your two terms of PBL... and the same core number for the 2 terms of CLINICAL


and as for profs, you have really no choice of profs in the nursing course anyways, so either way it doesnt matter... you're assigned your tutors for clinical and pbl... anatomy has different profs every couple weeks, and you are assigned your tutorial for that... psych as one prof usually.. Dr. Kim for 1X03 and 1XX3.

and you MUST take the cores and tutorials assigned to your site... if you are a mohawk you HAVE to take the mohawk cores...and same with if you are Mac or Con.

How do you know what site you are in? and for the course Nursing 1K02- health and well being of diverse popluations I, it says there are 32 hours of service learning, four lectures and four seminars. i checked online, there are only 1hr core and 1 hr tutorials, so it is all included?

You find out what cores are from which sites from the Course Timetable. That's how you find out what site you're in. I'm not too sure about N1K02 because that's a new course. Maybe Charbs or someone else who just finished first year could help you out on that one. (We didnt need to take it on our first year)

As for electives, it really depends. There's so many strengths and weaknesses each elective has. I found that Sociology was very straight forward, so long as you attended class, tutorials, and read the required readings. You do write papers too! I did find that course to be an easy course on my first year.

As for your initial question with the profs. You don't really have much profs (besides Anatomy and Joe Kim for Psych), otherwise you have a TA (for Biochem) and Clinical/PBL Instructors. I did find that the clinical/PBL instructors were good in what they did in my experience in first year. But in the end, it's what you want to make most from it. They all follow the same curriculum, so I guess it's all up to you now!

Originally Posted by MacDai

How do you know what site you are in? and for the course Nursing 1K02- health and well being of diverse popluations I, it says there are 32 hours of service learning, four lectures and four seminars. i checked online, there are only 1hr core and 1 hr tutorials, so it is all included?

your site depends on where you applied.. and it should say in your SOLAR what site you are in.

As for 1K02... it is a service learning course, you only meet with your tutors a couple times throughout the year... I think first semester you meet as a large group class 2-3 times and a small tutorial group 1-2 times throughout the semester, they will tell you when, usually first week you meet as a large group to go over the class structure... other than those sparattic meetings, you just do your volunteering every week and rack up your hours. Last year we had 3 large group classes at the beginning of the semester, and once we got into october we started signing up for our volunteer placements, and into november we started doing orientation and hours at those places. definately stay on top of your hours, try to do something tha tyoull be doing consistently every week.. because we had a LOT of isues with people not being able to get their hours done last year, and I think they are taking all that into consideration because we had a LOT of feedback for them about the course.
It is also a 2 year course, so you wont get credit for it until after youve completed 2nd year.

It basically consisted of doing your hours, and writing a couple reflections throughout the year based on some reflection guidelines they give you, and making a portfolio for the end of year. It's not tough at all.

Originally Posted by Charbs

your site depends on where you applied.. and it should say in your SOLAR what site you are in.

As for 1K02... it is a service learning course, you only meet with your tutors a couple times throughout the year... I think first semester you meet as a large group class 2-3 times and a small tutorial group 1-2 times throughout the semester, they will tell you when, usually first week you meet as a large group to go over the class structure... other than those sparattic meetings, you just do your volunteering every week and rack up your hours. Last year we had 3 large group classes at the beginning of the semester, and once we got into october we started signing up for our volunteer placements, and into november we started doing orientation and hours at those places. definately stay on top of your hours, try to do something tha tyoull be doing consistently every week.. because we had a LOT of isues with people not being able to get their hours done last year, and I think they are taking all that into consideration because we had a LOT of feedback for them about the course.
It is also a 2 year course, so you wont get credit for it until after youve completed 2nd year.

It basically consisted of doing your hours, and writing a couple reflections throughout the year based on some reflection guidelines they give you, and making a portfolio for the end of year. It's not tough at all.

Wow, thanks
Sorry to bother you again, i am just wondering, how do you know what textbook do you need for each course? and when can you buy the second hand ones? do you buy them from the previous students?

Originally Posted by MacDai

Wow, thanks
Sorry to bother you again, i am just wondering, how do you know what textbook do you need for each course? and when can you buy the second hand ones? do you buy them from the previous students?

the text book list will come out on Mcmaster's website, on the titles site... but wait until you go to your classes to find out which ones you need, some texts you need first semester for PBL some not until 2nd... and for PBL there are some books listed, but you get to choose between them to do some essays on, so wait until you get to class and ask the profs...

It'll be hard to get some texts for the nursing courses, because a lot of them we use throughout the 4 years... but let me know if you need any (like the PBL ones, or psych)... and I can let ya know if I need them later or not to sell to you.

But things like anatomy, and biochem and our physical assessment books and such we're told to keep for later years.

Here's a related question: How come I can't pick sections for any of my required classes? I'm with the Mohawk site for BScN...I got an email from Mohawk today stating that our sections are assigned to us. If that's the case, then why are there multiple options for cores, tutorials, and labs on the master course timetable for my site for numerous (not all) courses?? I spoke to my academic advisor and she couldn't give me an answer...wth!?

Edit: I realize that June 28 was merely the opening date for course selection, not sectioning. There's also confusion as to when we are allowed to do sectioning. Pretty much all my pre-health classmates are as equally confused as I about this. If we are allowed to pick our sections, would it be July 12 or August 11? I'm thinking August 11, because sectioning (automatic? who knows...) occurs August 9, and the SOLAR schedule says something about July 12 being the day that SOLAR re-opens for course selection...and again, my academic advisor could not clear this up for me either. Big help she was! lol Anyways, if it's not too much trouble, could somebody please clear this up for me? I just want TO KNOW lol that's the kind of girl I am :-P

Originally Posted by Charbs

the text book list will come out on Mcmaster's website, on the titles site... but wait until you go to your classes to find out which ones you need, some texts you need first semester for PBL some not until 2nd... and for PBL there are some books listed, but you get to choose between them to do some essays on, so wait until you get to class and ask the profs...

It'll be hard to get some texts for the nursing courses, because a lot of them we use throughout the 4 years... but let me know if you need any (like the PBL ones, or psych)... and I can let ya know if I need them later or not to sell to you.

But things like anatomy, and biochem and our physical assessment books and such we're told to keep for later years.

Wow, thanx, buying a second hand textbook would be so helpful.