[nbelu]

Ok here's how it worked (I had Dalnoki-Veress, my year was the first year they taught the course):

-No mandatory textbook (one is sold, but should only be bought if you didn't take physics in high school or if you had low marks in such), all practice problems will come in the form of either lecture examples or online problem sets (most questions are simple, some can be tricky, 1 or 2 in the whole semester were impossible for me to fully understand but thankfully too complex to include on any tests).

-The first lecture in a week is just a review of module content, plus example problems and solutions and iclicker questions (only marked for participation, attend lectures!)

-The second lecture in the week is where you're tested twice: once on a new iclicker question and again right after on one of the questions directly from the problem sets.

-One core had just 1 2 hour lecture in a week, so I don't know how that worked out or if the structure was similar in a way.

-Every week there's a new module to watch, took me usually between 30 minutes to an hour, or even up to 2 hours for longer modules.

-I'd say 70% of content is grade 11 and 12 physics review, some parts even left out entirely. One of the last topics covered, thin film interference, was the only thing that was very challenging to me, took me very long to figure out my own way to understand it (maybe the textbook would have helped)

-There is a lab every 2 weeks, very simple to achieve 100% in all. The only way to get less than 100% is if you straight up just walk out of the lab before finishing. Basically you are always in the same group and you have a different hands on setup and you answer questions and observations about it after following instructions. Example is a cart on a track with a system that maps d vs t, v vs t, and a vs t graphs for you. TAs discussed results with you and told you if you were wrong anywhere, again still only marked you on progress of questions. The last lab was a home project where in groups of 2 or 3 you made a short video showing and explaining any physics phenomena in real life relating to the course (ex free fall of something, calculating things for a baseball throw, etc).

The 2 midterms weren't that much different than lecture problems and online problems, maybe a tricky question here and there that require you to figure it out yourself since it's never been touched upon in problems or modules (example of a hard one on midterm 1: What happens if you roll ball 1 off an edge at a very high height, then a few seconds later roll an identical ball 2 off. You had to chose between whether the distance between the balls increase continuously, or if the distance between them is constant. The first one is correct, I did this by simply sketching a d vs t graph of the balls, gravity causes exponential shape, so ball 1 is like the right half of y=x^2 and ball 2 is the same but shifted right in time.)

The exam was very similar to the midterms. Lots of time left over for both it and the tests.
This I consider a bird course overall if you took grade 12 physics. Very nice to take with a heavier course load (ex BIO 1M03 and 1A03 at the same time). Also, Dalnoki-Veress is quite funny, prepares you well for the evaluations.

[Tev11]

Hi there,

I took grade 11 physics, but not in grade 12, would I find this course to be a little more difficult? I understand that they only require grade 12 Calculus and/or Advanced Funxtions, which I am both taking and doing reasonably well in.
The reason why I'm not taking grade 12 physics is because it was cancelled in my school and they're sending the students to take it during night school.

Thanks for your time.

[nbelu]

Originally Posted by Tev11

Hi there,

I took grade 11 physics, but not in grade 12, would I find this course to be a little more difficult? I understand that they only require grade 12 Calculus and/or Advanced Funxtions, which I am both taking and doing reasonably well in.
The reason why I'm not taking grade 12 physics is because it was cancelled in my school and they're sending the students to take it during night school.

Thanks for your time.

Hey, sorry it's been so long, this site doesn't really notify you of replies. Course selection hasnt started so hopefully it's not too late, but to answer well you absolutely don't need to do calculus or advanced functions stuff in this course, never came up. I have no idea why it's required, so don't worry about that. It's all simple math like in grade 11 physics with formulas. And grade 11 physics is enough I think, as a lot of this course had to do with force and kinematics and energy, covered in grade 11. It's been a year and half since i did this course and even longer since grade 12 physics, so I'm not sure if it's bad if you didn't do it, but they reteach all of it completely, the only difference is that you'd be seeing the content for the first time versus someone who did grade 12 physics has seen it before. However both people will need to practice the same amount, as the person in grade 12 physics would probably forget over the summer.

[faithrl]

Do you know anyone who has never taken a physics course, do well in this course?