I have to take Psych 1XX3 this summer and I was just wondering if taking it at Mac or doing it online at Athabasca would be more beneficial for me.

As far as I've heard, you don't get a grade for a course completed at Athabasca and it's essentially pass/fail (ie it doesn't count towards your GPA). But I've taken a neuroscience course in 2nd year and I understand that Psych 1XX3 is based heavily on the biology portion of neuroscience, so the course should be relatively easy given my background.

Is there anyone who has taken Psych 1XX3 either in the summer at Mac or the equivalent course at Athabasca who can give me some input about the difficulty of the course in either case? Is it worth doing it at Mac and taking the train 2.5 hours twice a week to (hopefully) get a really good grade and have it count towards my cumulative GPA?

I'm also planning on working this summer and Psych 1XX3 is offered at 9:30 am at Mac in the summer which could be difficult to work around.

I know there's no simple yes/no answer but any input given some experience with this course, doing summer school at Mac or taking online courses at Athabasca is greatly appreciated!

Originally Posted by Matt S

Psych 1XX3 is offered at 9:30 am at Mac in the summer which could be difficult to work around.

Seems to me that you already have a solid reason on why you don't want to take it at McMaster for the summer and just need reassurance in order to have a source to blame if your decision does not pan out in the end.

are you sure the Athabasca credit is even accepted as a transfer credit for 1xx3 ? aren't a lot of the Athabasca credits 6 units ?

I took 1XX3 in the summer 2012. I had the same difficulty as 1X03 and it is the same layout with online lectures and live lectures. There would be online quizzes every week. it has been awhile since I took the course so I have no idea what other components but what I remember is that there was an online tutorial which is set up as an online forum like this one and it is essential to participate in weekly discussions for participation marks. This class was also 9:30am when I took it but it is worth it.

It depends on the grad programs you apply to. Although the grade obtained from Athabasca will not be counted towards your cGPA at McMaster, many schools do calculate their own GPAs and so some schools will use the grade that you have gotten from Athabasca.