I'm going into the Business 1 program in the fall, and i'm not sure whether to pick COMPSCI 1XA3 or COMPSCI 1JC3 as one of my electives. I didn't take any courses related to programming in high school at all, so I'm wondering which of these two courses would be recommended for me.

Thanks in advance.

Haven't taken either of two, but did take the Comp Sci 1MD3 equivalent for engineering 1 Eng 1D04 so I can't comment on 1XA3 OR 1JC3.

Is COMP SCI 1MD3 an option for you?

Hopefully this will be a bit of help though.

COMPSCI 1JC3 - Introduction to Computational Thinking

3 unit(s)
Inquiry into ideas and methods of computer science (CS), the science underlying our computational universe. Topics include what computers can and cannot do, the Internet and search engines, artificial intelligence, computer-controlled devices, and sustainability in computing.
Three lectures, one tutorial (two hours), first term
Prerequisite(s): One of MATH 1K03, Grade 12 Advanced Functions and Introductory Calculus U, Grade 12 Calculus and Vectors

COMPSCI 1XA3 - Computer Science Practice and Experience: Basic Concepts

3 unit(s)
Study through implementation of basic CS concepts such as data representation, recursion, computer architecture, concurrency. Hands-on application of CS concepts to formulating, analyzing, and solving problems.
One lecture, two labs (two hours each); second term
Co-requisite(s): One of COMP SCI 1MD3 or ENGINEER 1D04

Source: http://goo.gl/xvQ4np (McMaster website had odd symbols in the url that didn't work when I directly linked it, this will take you to same McMaster page)

1JC3 is mostly theoretical; we'll be using ELM, (Fall 2015), but the focus is mostly on ideas rather than the actual language. We just use the language to explore some concepts. Since it's ELM, the ideas have more to do with functional programming.

1XA3 is a lab based course (4 hours lab, 1 hour lecture); you basically learn to write programs (we used Python in Winter 2015); also it requires 1MD3 as a co-requisite, you'll have to consider that too.

1MD3 is again more theoretical, the title is Introduction to Programming, so there's a bit more coding than 1JC3; we used Python (Winter 2015) Since it's Python, the ideas have more to do with imperative programming.