I got 3 assignments due for Tuesday, a midterm on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and the following Monday, along with a lab on Thursday, along with 2-3 more assignments that will surely be assigned this week! I got readings to do and homework to look at but that is not a very big priority in the big picture.

Engineering Physics and Management is fun!

Edit- Forgot about my inclass quizzes too!

Well I also have 2 midterms, 2 assignments, and 2 mini-assignments for next week, and I have a surprising amount of work to do, but I don't think it's anything too crazy.

Fourth year is by far the worst. I'm in a different program, but the expectations for fourth year classes are much, much higher.

I found second year classes in general to be more challenging than third year courses. I'm not really sure why this is though.

I've also found a first year course to be super hard: Ojibwe. I'm just hoping first year Mohawk is easier!

I found first year to be TERRIBLE .. my average dropped form a 96% in high school, to a mid 70. I nearly failed physics, and got mediocre (70s and low 80s) for everything else except calculus, which I surprisingly did extremely well in (I'm thinking it was a TOTAL fluke). I was barely sleeping every night, permanently exhausted and stressed .. it sucked. Definitely the HARDEST year!

Second year was also busy but not quite as terrible. That was influenced by the fact that I was working a SHITLOAD (manager of a restaurant!). But if it weren't for that, I would have found it MUCH easier, actually.

And third year so far .. also not as bad as first year. I have 3 midterms, 1 quiz, 1 position paper, and 4 assignments due in the span of 4 days, but it's actually not too bad since by now you learn to figure out how to use your time properly. I volunteer at 2 animal hospitals and I am involved in clubs and stuff and I still find time. This definitely would NOT have happened in first year.

(I'm in biology by the way).

Expectations-wise, I didn't find a huge difference. With lab reports, there are higher expectations, and if you mess up your lab reports, they are less understanding of it since by now they expect you to know how to write a decent lab report (in third year). In first year, if you make some mistakes, it's not as bad. There is a lot of help available for people who need it in second year and third year, they don't "hold your hand" as much as they do in first year, but help is still available if you go and seek it.

What program were you in first year?

Originally Posted by Dulitha

What program were you in first year?

If you're referring to me, I was in Science I. They didn't split it up into Life Science, Physical Science, or any of that stuff back when I was in first year. Everybody was just put in the same science program.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Well I also have 2 midterms, 2 assignments, and 2 mini-assignments for next week, and I have a surprising amount of work to do, but I don't think it's anything too crazy.

Haha,

I have the same Linguistics midterm and those little weekly assignments + that in-class quiz this week. Shouldn't be too bad!

Overall, some upper years have already mentioned it. Go to your professors, TAs, or if you're living in res, ask your CAs (if they're in a similar program). There are so many resources available for you to use!

I would definitely agree that second year so far is far easier than first year! A part is simply because I got to choose every single course that I'm currently taking. (Yes, I have orgo and I don't loathe it. Yet.)

Plus, I had a friday midterm EVERy friday in the month of March. It was horrifying.

Another big part, is I've learned to manage my time wisely. Those 1-2hr chillage time isn't terrible. But if you have it everyday, honestly, those hours add up! You could be using that time to do your readings or going to your professor's office hours/TA's office hours.

Just because a midterm is coming up in 2 weeks does not mean that you can wait to study for it 3 days before (and for some people, that's already studying ahead!!) If you have questions about something taught in lecture, get help immediately! If there's something I learned in first year, that's what it would be. The material will just accumulate and you will soon have more questions and stress than you can handle.

Hope I didn't scare you or anything. Overall, I learned a lot in first year. But I'm loving second year.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by luv.ng.u

Haha,

I have the same Linguistics midterm and those little weekly assignments + that in-class quiz this week. Shouldn't be too bad!

Overall, some upper years have already mentioned it. Go to your professors, TAs, or if you're living in res, ask your CAs (if they're in a similar program). There are so many resources available for you to use!

I would definitely agree that second year so far is far easier than first year! A part is simply because I got to choose every single course that I'm currently taking. (Yes, I have orgo and I don't loathe it. Yet.)

Plus, I had a friday midterm EVERy friday in the month of March. It was horrifying.

Another big part, is I've learned to manage my time wisely. Those 1-2hr chillage time isn't terrible. But if you have it everyday, honestly, those hours add up! You could be using that time to do your readings or going to your professor's office hours/TA's office hours.

Just because a midterm is coming up in 2 weeks does not mean that you can wait to study for it 3 days before (and for some people, that's already studying ahead!!) If you have questions about something taught in lecture, get help immediately! If there's something I learned in first year, that's what it would be. The material will just accumulate and you will soon have more questions and stress than you can handle.

Hope I didn't scare you or anything. Overall, I learned a lot in first year. But I'm loving second year.

Good luck!

Lol i have that linguistics midterm too, so i havent really been enjoying first year i've been having a midterm test/exams every week with other little quizzes and assigments! So far i got 4 more tests to go meaning 4 more weeks of tests (N). Hate having atleast one midterm a week!

Well I've only gone to the professors to meet them, really, but I don't really see the need to meet TA's or anything like that, or even the IA's. And I would still think that second year is harder than first year, though I suppose I can't say that for sure cause I haven't got into it yet.

Now that our first round of midterms are almost completely over, nothing's really changed...workload is still average which is kind of nice. Also the material is also very simple (for bio/chem/math/linguistics), so there's no real need to get extra help right now.

I'm going to have had a few Friday midterms consecutively along with one more interspersed in there, but I don't really see the problem with that (except for the waste of your Friday evening!)

Thanks for the advice though, I'll try keeping that stuff in mind.

There are a couple other things I could do during my breaks that could also be more efficient than just sitting around, maybe I'll look into those activities instead.

4th year is super hectic if you're doing a thesis. Just so you know.

I'm in second year humanities now, but I'm taking bio, psych, and upper year linguistics courses. Soo, it's hectic. It is NOT hard if you keep up, the hard part is keeping up, because so many things are going on at once. But midterms are probably craziest time... little late to say that though.

First year science was very easy. Despite slacking off at times, I found it easier than high school and found that most courses (both physics, both chems, both bios, calc 1a03) were mostly review.

You just have to watch out because everything is faster paced.

Originally Posted by macsci

First year science was very easy. Despite slacking off at times, I found it easier than high school and found that most courses (both physics, both chems, both bios, calc 1a03) were mostly review.

You just have to watch out because everything is faster paced.

I agree. Most of the stuff in my first year was basically review of grade 12 without too many new topics. The only challenge was keeping up with readings since the prof's do go through the material fairly quickly.