Hey guys.
I've been accepted into Life Sciences 1 next year at Mac, and am a Canadian citizen. Coming from an American private school.
I'm really not familiar with Ontario's high school systems, and was wondering how the whole prerequisite system works? To my understanding, U/M courses are considered equal to Advanced Placement (AP) courses in the American curriculum. So that being said, to take a class like Physics 1B03 (which requires Grade 12 Physics U), does that mean I needed AP Physics? Or just Grade 12 Physics?

The entire conversion system is over my head -I have Grade 12 Physics (which I took in 11th grade..), so how does that hold up? It was not "AP Physics".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Life Sciences I
Grade 12 English
One of: Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus
AP Biology
One of: Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP Physics

vs.

Grade 12 U/M requirements - 6 courses in total, including:

• English (ENG4U)
• One of: Advanced Functions (MHF4U), Calculus & Vectors (MCV4U)
• Biology (SBI4U)
• One of: Advanced Functions (MHF4U), Calculus & Vectors (MCV4U), Chemistry (SCH4U), Physics (SPH4U)

For science courses mac appears to see AP and 12U courses as equivalent. Your best bet to know for sure is to contact an Academic Advisor in the Faculty of Science.

The AP Courses I've taken throughout my high-school include:
AP World History
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP English Language
AP English Literature
AP Macro and Microeconomics.

I took PreCalculus in my senior year, so I don't have any AP classes when it comes to math. Or physics for that matter. Does that mean I must take Physics 1L03 and Math 1F03 before I can take Physics 1B03 and Math 1A03/1LS3

I'm worried. Any more help would be appreciated. Thanks arathbon.

Yes, I believe you would need to do that, since you need to grade 12/ap classes to qualify for those courses. No worries, most of those courses are offered in the summer, so you could take 1L03 and 1F03 in the year, then 1B03 and 1A03/1LS3 the summer after (the one before year II).

However, it would be best to check with the university, just in case (try to Life Sci undergraduate adviser, or [email protected]). I would call if I were you, it would be much quicker and easier to get a direct response, since they are busy at this time.


EDIT: Looks like you are ok for math. It needs One of: Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus. You've taken Pre-Calc, right? So its just physics, which shouldn't be a problem. But, like I said, double check.

Hey, thanks for the reply.
So this is what I did -I checked up with a friend from Ontario who went to high school there and he said that my PreCalculus is basically Ontario's Advanced Functions U course -we did Rational and Irrational Functions, Advanced Trig Identities etc, things like that. I didn't really touch integration and differentiation at all, like what 1F03 teaches.

Also, it seems like I did what is considered 'Grade 12 Physics U' (I looked at the Ontario curriculum) in grade 11..

So what I'm thinking is the opposite -that I'd be exempted from the intro physics class, and not the intro math class. 1F03 replaces Calculus and Vectors U, something I haven't done, whereas Physics 1L03 replaces Grade 12 Physics U, something that I HAVE done.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Check with the university - just because some of the topics overlap doesn't mean it counts. That the best advice I can give you, they deal with this stuff everyday.

Wait, and where are your physics coming from? I don't see it. You need a course credit or else whatever you know doesn't mean anything to them.

Originally Posted by Smanohar

Hey guys.
I've been accepted into Life Sciences 1 next year at Mac, and am a Canadian citizen. Coming from an American private school.
I'm really not familiar with Ontario's high school systems, and was wondering how the whole prerequisite system works? To my understanding, U/M courses are considered equal to Advanced Placement (AP) courses in the American curriculum. So that being said, to take a class like Physics 1B03 (which requires Grade 12 Physics U), does that mean I needed AP Physics? Or just Grade 12 Physics?

The entire conversion system is over my head -I have Grade 12 Physics (which I took in 11th grade..), so how does that hold up? It was not "AP Physics".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

OH MY GOD! THIS IS SO EXCITING. You're basically the first person i've heard of who is Canadian and went to high school in the states..just like me =)! So basically how this works is...they hold you to the international standards, and you're probably going to have to talk to your academic advisor because the system will not recognize your high school classes as equivalent to Canadian (so I had a bit of trouble last year during course selection). So if you need grade 12 physics (which I'm pretty sure non AP will be fine), you're going to have to contact them to make sure they waive requisites so you can sign up.

Haha well actually, I went to an American private school in Kuwait..so it's kinda not the same. But still, are you sure? I'll have to call them tomorrow. This is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. You did that and it was fine?