Hi, I am going into life science in the fall and I heard that physics is a hard course and it would be beneficial if I take it in the summer. Is this true? (Physics isn't my strongest subject, I'm average at it) but yeah so would SOLAR let me take another course (like Enviro Sci) instead of physics? or do I HAVE to take it first year?

Thanks for the help!

Originally Posted by GurtegS

Hi, I am going into life science in the fall and I heard that physics is a hard course and it would be beneficial if I take it in the summer. Is this true? (Physics isn't my strongest subject, I'm average at it) but yeah so would SOLAR let me take another course (like Enviro Sci) instead of physics? or do I HAVE to take it first year?

Thanks for the help!

You definitely don't have to take it first year, I know a lot of people who took it over the summer or in second year. I found 1B03 to be relatively challenging compared to my other courses and in hindsight I wish I had taken it over the summer.

Thank you so much for clearing this up for me. I'm already planning on taking ECON 1B03 and 1BB3 as my electives, so does that mean that I can take ENVIR SCI 1A03 instead of PHYSICS 1B03 (which I would take the following summer)?

If you want to take something over the summer be prepared for it to go extremely (not kidding) fast. For this reason courses/subjects you struggle with can be tough over the summer. However, if you have excellent study habits and don't mind that your friends are out goofing off while you study you can absolutely obliterate it since you can focus all of your time on it.

I find the difficulty with summer courses is that you are no longer following a stream of support with them. However, if you have some friends going in/make friends in class it makes it a whole world easier.

Originally Posted by GurtegS

Thank you so much for clearing this up for me. I'm already planning on taking ECON 1B03 and 1BB3 as my electives, so does that mean that I can take ENVIR SCI 1A03 instead of PHYSICS 1B03 (which I would take the following summer)?

Yea, if you have one more elective space, you can take enviro 1A03.

Originally Posted by Phaint0m

If you want to take something over the summer be prepared for it to go extremely (not kidding) fast. For this reason courses/subjects you struggle with can be tough over the summer. However, if you have excellent study habits and don't mind that your friends are out goofing off while you study you can absolutely obliterate it since you can focus all of your time on it.

I find the difficulty with summer courses is that you are no longer following a stream of support with them. However, if you have some friends going in/make friends in class it makes it a whole world easier.

I agree with the fact that having friends take the course with you helps in terms of getting your questions answered and all that, but not all summer courses are taught quickly. I took Physics 1BB3 at UTM last summer and it went excruciatingly slow. It was a 4 month course and I think it would have been taught the same regardless if it was over the summer or during the school year.

You should also keep in mind that with summer courses, you're not stressed/burdened by four other courses so you can spend the bulk of your time focusing on that one course.

so summer courses are from may-august?I got an 82 in grade 12 physics, how is physics 1b03 really that bad?

physics 1b03 is honestly not that bad of a course, it gets a bad rep
i think taking it in the summer is fine if you have a ok foundation in physics
physics isnt like bio where you can just memorize the text the day before the test and be ok and some people find the pace to be challenging

Yeah, the fact that I would be able to spend most of my time on physics is what is encouraging me to take it in summer school

Originally Posted by Darknight23

so summer courses are from may-august?I got an 82 in grade 12 physics, how is physics 1b03 really that bad?

A 3-unit summer course runs either beginning of May-mid June or mid June-end of July. That's why it moves at a faster pace; you're doing a four month course in less than half the time.