Hey,
Can I get some comments on what labs of Physics 1B03 are like ? How much prep do you need (a lot a little). & are the labs fairly easy ? Is there anything due in written the day of ?.. if not how much time do we have to hand stuff in ?

Anything in general. Thanks =)

You need to do a pre-lab for every lab. This takes average an hour and its pretty easy.
The labs are fairly easy (or at least I thought so).
Everything you need to write into your lab notebook, which you hand in at the end of each lab period. This gets marked. Your lab notebook doesn't leave the lab.
I think there was one formal lab report that you had a few days to write up and hand in... but this could have been another physics course.

As djRAIN said, there are short pre-labs you hand in. These are not difficult if you keep on top of lecture material. For the most part, I'd say labs parallel the lecture material, but occasionally get ahead by a little bit. If you're good at physics, the prelabs shouldn't take more than 30 mins.

The labs are not difficult... You discuss your answers with the TA's almost every step of the way, and you cannot complete a lab without having all the correct answers. The only problem I have with length of the lab is that sometimes there are lot of groups done their steps at the same time, and it's kind of a lottery to get picked by a TA so you can continue. If you find yourself lost in the shuffle of getting approval to move on to the next step than you can find yourself occasionally running very thin for time. If you run out of time without finishing... too bad. You won't get any extra time.

Personally I ran out of time maybe.. 2 of the 10 labs. But I heard the TA's only mark 3 of your labs to count towards your mark. I can't confirm that though. Generally the labs are a mark booster (the midterms are brutal if you are not prepared, in my year Midterm 1 average was ~55%, Midterm 2 was ~45%).

I'd say the prelabs take less than 15 mins. You don't get marked on the prelabs. Honestly I had the most terrible experience with physics labs, like a previous poster said, after every section you have to raise your hand and wait for a TA to talk over your answers and such before you can move on to the next part. In my lab there would be like let's say 12-14 groups and 3 TAs and at one point we literally waited over half an hour (in a 3 hour lab) for someone to come talk to us. It was extremely frustrating, but that only happened once. And 2/3 of our TAs didn't speak english very well, and once one of my group members got in to a little bit of an argument with one of the TAs and that TA ignored us for the rest of the lab, she would walk by us LOOK at us with our hands up and go to the next group. NO LIE. And the lab supervisor Alex is the most intimidating person I've ever met.

That being said, you get marked on participation so if you don't complete a lab cause you have run out of time you will get like only 80% on that lab for participation (depending on how far you got) But when they actually mark 3/10 labs you can imagine that if you haven't finished it you will get a really low mark but one of my TAs told me that they take into consideration that not everyone might have finished the lab so they only look at the first sections of that lab to mark, so that's good. Cause I was extremely stressed when I didn't finish a lab but then the TA told me and I felt better.

As annoying as the labs can be, and I hope you will (and you probably will) have a better experience than me, they do boost your grade! Have fun.

I'm hoping to shift my Physics lab for a Tuesday afternoon slot. However, tuesday is the day that my lectures start. Will that be a problem ?.. Will I be behind ?

Originally Posted by -Ish-

I'm hoping to shift my Physics lab for a Tuesday afternoon slot. However, tuesday is the day that my lectures start. Will that be a problem ?.. Will I be behind ?

there are usually no labs or tutorials during the first week of class. it doesn't matter which section you pick, you won't be left behind.

Originally Posted by -Ish-

I'm hoping to shift my Physics lab for a Tuesday afternoon slot. However, tuesday is the day that my lectures start. Will that be a problem ?.. Will I be behind ?

I had a Tuesday morning lab winter 2011. You should push it back as far in the week as possible, because I remember that a couple of times during the course, my lab partners and I found that we learned a couple of in-lab concepts the day after the lab. This was more frequent around the middle of the term.

Originally Posted by justinsftw

I had a Tuesday morning lab winter 2011. You should push it back as far in the week as possible, because I remember that a couple of times during the course, my lab partners and I found that we learned a couple of in-lab concepts the day after the lab. This was more frequent around the middle of the term.

My lab is on a Monday afternoon (L02) and I can't change it to anything else available except for L10 which is Tuesday at 9:30. I have another lab on Tuesday afternoon, and I prefer to avid morning labs.. but is it better to have it on Tuesday than Monday?