Originally Posted by swarly

^ I heard that Biochem 2EE3 is a very easy course

tbh it's very easy to get a good mark in, you can skip lectures completely and cram the night before/look at past tests and you're basically guaranteed an A-range mark. But like Bernard said, you need to put in a quite a lot of work (a lot more than what you'd expect for a "bird course") to do really well.

But you learn very little biochemistry in this course (even if you do really well). It's NOTHING but rote memorization of biochem trivia. You can learn biochemistry on your own as the course goes along, and some people did do that (the textbook is pretty good). That way, you'll learn some biochemistry, but it won't help you for this course, because this course will not test your understanding of biochemistry. The evaluation is based on memorization of completely trivial stuff on the slides. The only thing of value you will learn is the structure of the amino acids.

If it's still offered 2nd term...something to consider is that the workload is pretty intense in 2nd term. There are definitely better electives out there...

Thanks MichaelScarn and Remember Twce!

Would you say that any course in 2nd year is subjectively graded and dependent on your TA? I'm hoping that everyone has a fair chance and is put on a level playing field by having all work marked by the same person.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Galleria

Thanks MichaelScarn and Remember Twce!

Would you say that any course in 2nd year is subjectively graded and dependent on your TA? I'm hoping that everyone has a fair chance and is put on a level playing field by having all work marked by the same person.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, there were aspects of almost every course that are subjectively graded. In Anatomy (2F03/2FF3), there are presentations marked by the TAs. In Epidemiology (2G03) there is an essay, Stats (2A03) has assignments, and Cell Bio (2K03) has presentations. However, these are generally smaller aspects of each course.

Also, I've never come across a course that didn't have some subjective aspect. My two electives this past year were CHEM 2OA3 and MATH 1LT3 and whether it was labs or tests, there were definitely parts of each course that were influenced by the TAs.

Hey guys,

I've also got accepted into level II BHSc from Life Sci! I'm really happy to see this much support from the upper years.

Not sure if someone has already asked this, but how easy it is to get a good CA in second year? In terms of course load, do you think it is a good idea to take both Orgos as my electives?

Congrats, Pourya!
I wouldn't recommend 2 orgos, especially as second year's course load is rather steep...but you can always take it during the summer. I have several Health Sci friends who are doing just that.

Hey Pourya, I am just in the first Orgo (Summer School) and it's quite relaxed, a lot to learn but it's much easier to do just one subject at a time! See you in inquiry!

Any other transfers considering doing the biomed specialization?

And to anyone in that specialization now, how difficult/time consuming are the upper years? Theres a lot of health sci electives I want to take (Anatomy for example) but Im worried that I wont have time for these heavy courses in upper years. : s

Originally Posted by Bulfon

Any other transfers considering doing the biomed specialization?

And to anyone in that specialization now, how difficult/time consuming are the upper years? Theres a lot of health sci electives I want to take (Anatomy for example) but Im worried that I wont have time for these heavy courses in upper years. : s

I have actually emailed BHSc office and here is their reply:

Typically, the specializations are not available to incoming Level 2 transfer students given the limited number of seats. This year we received an increase in applications from our BHSc Level 1 students for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot consider your request to the Biomedical Sciences Specialization since we do not know how many of the first year BHSc students will accept their Level 2 offer to Biomed Sci.

Therefore, I would suggest that you base your decision whether to accept (or not accept) the admission offer to BHSc (Honours), Level 2 with no guarantee that you will be considered for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization.

Im planning to stick to the Core Health Sci, theres just to many cool electives to pass up!

Originally Posted by Pourya_PM

I have actually emailed BHSc office and here is their reply:

Typically, the specializations are not available to incoming Level 2 transfer students given the limited number of seats. This year we received an increase in applications from our BHSc Level 1 students for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot consider your request to the Biomedical Sciences Specialization since we do not know how many of the first year BHSc students will accept their Level 2 offer to Biomed Sci.

Therefore, I would suggest that you base your decision whether to accept (or not accept) the admission offer to BHSc (Honours), Level 2 with no guarantee that you will be considered for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization.

Hmm well thats disappointing, and kinda strange because when I talked to Del he said that if I got accepted that theyd make it available to transfers... :S

Originally Posted by Pourya_PM

I have actually emailed BHSc office and here is their reply:

Typically, the specializations are not available to incoming Level 2 transfer students given the limited number of seats. This year we received an increase in applications from our BHSc Level 1 students for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot consider your request to the Biomedical Sciences Specialization since we do not know how many of the first year BHSc students will accept their Level 2 offer to Biomed Sci.

Therefore, I would suggest that you base your decision whether to accept (or not accept) the admission offer to BHSc (Honours), Level 2 with no guarantee that you will be considered for the Biomedical Sciences Specialization.

Hmm yea that is weird, haven't heard of them denying spots before. Who did you ask?

Originally Posted by Pourya_PM

Not sure if someone has already asked this, but how easy it is to get a good CA in second year? In terms of course load, do you think it is a good idea to take both Orgos as my electives?

As others have said, it may not be the best idea, especially if orgo isn't your strongest skill. A good CA in second year is definitely doable, you will have to put in a lot of time and effort, but I definitely found it worthwhile

Originally Posted by MichaelScarn

Hmm yea that is weird, haven't heard of them denying spots before. Who did you ask?

I asked Teresa Basilio, the undergraduate manager.

I emailed them now as well. Ill let you know what kinda response I get.

Also, for people in core or the biomed specialization, how many exams did you have throughout the year? Which courses had/did not have them? : )

Originally Posted by Bulfon

I emailed them now as well. Ill let you know what kinda response I get.

Also, for people in core or the biomed specialization, how many exams did you have throughout the year? Which courses had/did not have them? : )

I'm in the biomed specialization. Since I took orgo in the summer, I had three electives: Physics 1BB3, and the two anatomy courses (HTH SCI 2F03 and 2FF3).

First term, I had 4 exams for Physics 1BB3, HTH SCI 2F03, BIOCHEM 2B03 (nucleic acids) and HTH SCI 2G03 (epidemiology); BIOCHEM 2L06, the lab course, didn't have an exam.

Second term, I had 3 exams for HTH SCI 2FF3, HTH SCI 2K03 (cell bio) and HTH SCI 2A03 (statistics); again, BIOCHEM 2L06 didn't have an exam, and BIOCHEM 2BB3 (proteins) also didn't have an exam.

I actually did better this year (2nd year) than I did in 1st year, even though I found 2nd year much harder.

Originally Posted by TheCrucible

I'm in the biomed specialization. Since I took orgo in the summer, I had three electives: Physics 1BB3, and the two anatomy courses (HTH SCI 2F03 and 2FF3).

First term, I had 4 exams for Physics 1BB3, HTH SCI 2F03, BIOCHEM 2B03 (nucleic acids) and HTH SCI 2G03 (epidemiology); BIOCHEM 2L06, the lab course, didn't have an exam.

Second term, I had 3 exams for HTH SCI 2FF3, HTH SCI 2K03 (cell bio) and HTH SCI 2A03 (statistics); again, BIOCHEM 2L06 didn't have an exam, and BIOCHEM 2BB3 (proteins) also didn't have an exam.

I actually did better this year (2nd year) than I did in 1st year, even though I found 2nd year much harder.

^^ Thanks! : )

They emailed me back and said the same thing, no Biomed for us transfers.... Now I feel bad for wasting one of the 20 transfer spots : s