I have a question, perhaps this is specifically for Life Sciences I, but if not, then it's towards all second year students regarding any first year program:

When does it get crazy difficult?

When do you get swamped with work and stuff? Is it the second midterm? The final exam? Second semester?

I'm just wondering because I'm concerned that the difficulty will ramp up quickly - sure it's nice and easy right now but then how much harder does it get?

Biology is essentially the same thing as Life Sci, so:

- Second year is actually easier than first year, imo.
- You get "swamped" in the fact that you may have 4 midterms & a lab in the same week, but it's not so bad if you time management. There are usually two weeks (one in October and the other in November) where you have lots of things to do.

It depends on the courses that you take as well.

Nice and easy right now... are you kidding me?! What courses do you have?

I slacked just the first week and a half and I'm lagging behind and catching up is becoming very difficult.

In regards to your questions, I'm not upper year and unfortunately can't accurately answer them. However, I'm sure a lot of people will respond with "it depends on your courses," which it really does. From talking to other Life Sci upper years, they said that Year one was the hardest. Apparently every program has a "killer year" and for Life Sci it's one

:burger6 ::cuckooclock: haha some of these Smilies are so random...

I see...
Ah, this is my easy semester: I have Bio, Chem, Math, Psych and Linguistics.

Doesn't second year get harder in terms of the expectations and such? I heard like, the way they want you to think about things and such becomes more in depth, similar to how University works compared to high school...

And I was just wondering when in first year it gets hard, then, perhaps not compared to second year but then compared to how it is right now.

Thanks for the advice so far

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

I see...
Ah, this is my easy semester: I have Bio, Chem, Math, Psych and Linguistics.

Doesn't second year get harder in terms of the expectations and such? I heard like, the way they want you to think about things and such becomes more in depth, similar to how University works compared to high school...

And I was just wondering when in first year it gets hard, then, perhaps not compared to second year but then compared to how it is right now.

Thanks for the advice so far

I dunno, I found second year courses to be easier. It's a mixture of less assignments and knowing how to study that really makes it better than first year.

I'm fourth year Pol Sci and I'd rate my years (hardest to easiest) like this


Fourth year
First year
Third year
Second year


I heard that first year is difficult because they want to "weed out" the people who will drop out. I don't know if that's true or not. It might have had something to do with my courses, but second year was definately my easiest year.

Haha, my sis is in Poli Sci at Guelph and that's basically exactly how she would rate her years ^

Interesting..
My brother thought that his second year was his hardest at U of T for Life Sciences. But I guess they're taking it super easy on us at the start of the year.

First year is the hardest. I never want to go through all that again.
I found I was busy all the time in first year - labs all the time, tests every week....it just drags on and on and on...

Upper years are a bit better in that you have your tests closer together and you will have less things to do during the rest of the semester.

Just be cautious.. it may be easy right now but take the time to try and get ahead. Go meet with your profs and TAs, do extra reading, start looking into second year options, perhaps some relevant volunteer work, etc. Soon enough, you'll find lots of work creeping up on you especially when you're in the thick of midterm season. I found first year easy too. I noticed it really starting to build up in second semester but the experience will be different for every individual.

Go science!

Sweet, that's helpful.

Yeah, I haven't had a chance to meet with my profs yet but I suppose I will soon...and because my tests are so spread-out it's more like midterm month for me, not week.

But thanks for the help, I'm usually wasting time chilling with friends during my 1-2 hour breaks but I think I'll start seeing some of my profs assuming their office hours are during that time.

I'm in second year multimedia, and I find it more difficult than first year for sure. Assignments pile up like crazy, but lesser exams.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

and because my tests are so spread-out it's more like midterm month for me, not week.

I think that was one of my favourite things about first year life sci, pretty much everyone has the same schedules, so the profs co-ordinate enough to make it so you don't have more than 1 tests a week. There were a couple weeks where I had 2, but it didn't happen often.

On the other hand, it means you never really have midterm free weeks. By the time my midterms finished I had to start exam studying >.<

The midterms tend to pick up a bit after Thanksgiving (or they did during our year at least). Just make sure you stay on top of your readings, and that you're doing practice problems for Chem, you'll be fine. If you still feel like its easy and that you have plenty of time, start picking up extracurriculars and volunteering to pad your resume. Its also a lot of fun, as long as you get involved with something you like.

I can you tell now, in the month of October and November, its getting really busy. I say every week at least one test, 2 assignments and 2 labs.

We started midterm last week. We have another one this week, along with a quiz, and most of us have a lab aswell. Then next week is midterm free, but with 2 labs for me, and atleast 1 for others.. and then the week after is 2 midterms, 2 labs, and a quiz. Joy.