I might be transferring to the PNB program for September. I'll be starting as a third year, but an academic advisor told me I'll have to simultaneously complete the missed required courses for year 2 (meaning I don't really get electives.) I'll have to take:

PNB 2XA3 — Human Perception & Cognition
PNB 2XB3 — Neuroanatomy & Neurophysiology
PNB 2XC3 — Animal Behaviour & Evolution
PNB 2XT0 — PNB Tutorial
PNB 2XD3 — Integrative PNB through Scientific Writing
PNB 2XE3 — Descriptive Statistics
PNB 2XF3 — Perspectives in PNB
PNB 3XE3 — Inferential Statistics
PNB 3RM3 — Research Methods Lab
+ 2 other courses from the psychology course list of my choosing.

Is this doable? Is my year going to be hell? Any insight into what other 2 psych courses I should take would be really helpful, too Thanks in advance!

6 courses a sem certainly is not fun, but its doable.

many programs normally do 6 courses a semester

Hey there~
So in first semester, you have PNB 2XA3, 2XB3, 2XC3, 2XT0 and 2XF3 + two electives of your choice.
This seems like a lot, but 2XT0 is not a class, it's just a tutorial that the department schedules to be used for the midterms of the 2XA3, 2XB3, 2XC3 classes. This guarantees that you'll never have more than one midterm from these classes in a week. Some times information sessions are also held in the 2XT0 class. It's just one timeslot a week, and it's not really a class.

2XF3 used to be called research methods, and it's a fairly light courseload class. Basically you have guest lectures from different professors in the department, and in your weekly tutorial, groups take turns presenting on the topics discussed by the professors. It's mainly discussion based and the presentations+partici pation are the only work required. Of all my classes in second year, I enjoyed this one the most, and it was the least time-consuming.

PNB 2XA3, 2XB3, and 2XC3 will take up the bulk of your time in first term. The professors plan their courses fully aware of what is happening in the other courses, so they try to be conscientious of your workload. The good thing about PNB is that a strong sense of community develops very quickly so the cohort groups together to work on homework/study for quizzes and such. I can't speak to the specifics of each course as they've probably changed quite drastically by now, but though there was a lot of studying involved for them, it was manageable.

In second term, your required courses are 2XD3, 2XE3 (and 3XF3, if it spans across both semesters? when I was in second year, it was split across both terms but only counted for 3 units) and whatever electives you need. This semester was much more manageable, but that also depends on what electives you take and how much work is required for them. The bulk of the work was really in first term, so I suggest taking your "easy" electives then.

I'm confused as to why you're taking two third year courses? you can't take 3XE3 or 3MR3 until you have the second year pre-reqs.

Thank you for your reply! This is honestly really helpful

To answer your question, I already did two years of Health Science at UWO, but health sci at Mac doesn't accept transfers past level 2. I like the look of PNB, and it spans many areas I'm interested in. If I want to graduate without taking an extra year, I have to squeeze the major year 2 and 3 courses into one year that are specific to PNB. Hopefully I can take the 3rd year courses with prereqs in second semester?

I'm just worried about the heavy workload. Thanks again - do you know if the third year courses are really hard? Do you think it's manageable to take at once? Which would you say are hardest?

Originally Posted by abeckwit

Thank you for your reply! This is honestly really helpful

To answer your question, I already did two years of Health Science at UWO, but health sci at Mac doesn't accept transfers past level 2. I like the look of PNB, and it spans many areas I'm interested in. If I want to graduate without taking an extra year, I have to squeeze the major year 2 and 3 courses into one year that are specific to PNB. Hopefully I can take the 3rd year courses with prereqs in second semester?

I'm just worried about the heavy workload. Thanks again - do you know if the third year courses are really hard? Do you think it's manageable to take at once? Which would you say are hardest?

You should take a look at when these courses are offered. For specific/structured programs like this, the required courses usually don't change the term from year to year (perhaps someone in PNB can offer more insight regarding this). The 3rd year courses you have listed are only offered first term. When planning your courses, you need to take that into account because it's very common for a course to only be offered in one term.

If you want to find out which are available in each term this year, check out the master timetable (just google it). Many electives may change, depending on availability, but core courses *usually* stay the same. An academic advisor or program advisor can also be very helpful with planning your courses.

Yeah, I'm afraid you won't be able to take 3XE3 and 2XE3 in the same year though. As starfish mentioned, those required courses are set and they're only offered in those certain terms. You need to take 2XE3 in term 2, and 3XE3 is offered in term 1. Sometimes 3XE3 is offered in the summer, but not always.

the requirements for PNB 3MR3 are PNB 2XA3, 2XB3, 2XC3 and credit or registration in PNB 3XE3, which you won't have in second term since you'll just be starting PNB 2XE3. So basically you won't be able to take 3MR3 until the next year either (or summer, if it's offered).

My suggestion is for you to go see Ann Hollingshead, the academic advisor for PNB. She can help you figure out how the scheduling would work if you want to minimize the amount of time it takes for you to complete the requirements for the degree. You can find her contact info here.

In terms of workload, I believe 3MR3 is a new lab course. I haven't taken it, as it was just recently introduced, so I can't say anything as to the workload. Third year stats consists of midterms and weekly labs. most of the work due is completed within the actual labs, so the only outside time you dedicate to it is for studying. Third year was a lighter workload for me overall because you only have 2-3 required courses and then you can choose whatever you want to take, so you can opt for lighter workload elective courses or take an independent study (which I did) to lower the amount of work you need to do. So in general, third year was easier for me than second year (but second year was still manageable). Stats is hard though, especially the second one. it's kind of a running joke in our department that stats is our gpa killer xD other programs' stats courses are comparatively easier. Do keep in mind though, PNB is a very young program. It just got revamped in 2011 for my cohort, and it's been undergoing changes every year since. The courses are changing too, so the workload/difficulty could be different now than what I'm describing.