Guest wab8611 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 i will most likely be going to UofT (st george0 next year, and everyone is telling me that calculus is once of the hardest courses to take. i was wondering how hard could it actually be?....i currently have a 93 in gr12 (ontario) calculus.. i know calc is not a necessary course for MedSchool, but i always thought of math as my strong point. if anyone here has done calc at UofT st george, please tell me what you thought of this course.. thank you.... wab8611 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest purplefairy13 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Its honestly not that bad...just stay up to date on the problem sets, and don't fall into the usual first year pitfalls. Its not any more challenging than OAC (back in my day...) Calculus. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leviathan Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Don't sweat it...if you have a 93 in high-school calculus, it doesn't get all that much more complex in university. Just keep up with your studying and do tons of problems and practice finals, and you should have no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 On your course sign up date, get on there and get in Lam's section! He's such a good prof and people from other sections come to his lectures, they get to big, he ends up giving people actually enrolled "tickets" so make sure you get in his lecture section! The course itself, if you're doing well now, and you continue to keep working, doing all the problems assigned and past exams, you should be alright. 1st semester is review, not too hard, 2nd semester though you'll see a lot of new stuff (I had OAC, we did some integration) and I've heard that the new curric doesn't do as much of it, so don't take it lightly, especially if you kill 1st semester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s sadry Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 well i had a 95 in high school calculus, but MAT135 at U of T is my worst course on my transcript. so... don't try to correlate hs with uni. that's not to say it isn't possible to do well in MAT135...i just wasn't interested in it, and thus i failed to give it enough attention except in the week leading up to the term tests. calculus is a skill that you have to build..you can't expect to excel by doing the problems for the first time a couple of nights before. *although some people can!* i think in MAT135, the course co-ordinator (PROF LAM..who you should try to get as a prof) always puts a couple of challenging questions at the end of the test, where students either get 0 or full marks. i could never really *see* the solution to those questions the way some students could. also i was grade 12...and had never touched integration before uni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s sadry Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 i could go on and on about regrets i have on thsi course... here's a piece of advice ACE THE 1ST TEST...in retrospect, it was REALLY easy and i should have done really well in it, becuase it pretty much reviewed grade 12 calculus. but unfortunately for me i would make silly mistakes (eg: copy the question wrong when doing my full solution, and thus differentiate the wrong thing). also again, that last *challenging* problem often got to me. the second test...wasn't half bad. had a i studied more...plus it was all multiple choice. the questions varied in difficultly, but were all equally weighted. so you had people having no idea how to do calculus scoring in some of the more difficult problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wab8611 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 if i do go to UofT i already know the courses that i am going to take first year; Calculus, Biology (basically evolution and ecology), Chemisty (organic, inorganic), Physics, and Pshycology.. i hope that im not overwhelmed with this course load. if you have any sugestions on changing any of these courses, and taking them later, it would be apprectiated. wab8611 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 You're taking the first year life sci 4-pack, which pretty much everyone takes cause they're prereqs for so many of the subject POSts and upper year courses. Most people supplement that with psych, anthro, or socio, so you're doing that too. It looks pretty much like what most 1st years are facing. I wouldn't reccomend taking anything later cause you're immediately closing off doors for 2nd year courses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s sadry Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 no..nothing strange...you are taking a very common load..i agree with OT6.. BIO150 CHM138/139 PHY138 MAT135 PSY100 *best course! just had to plug that... plus you are lucky..this may be the final year that PSY100 is offered as a full year course with prof marty wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 4shattered4 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 I actually thought that the first test was the hardest. It was definitely my worst mark and then I got better with each test (hopefully the exam went the best, but who knows). I think the first test takes adjusting to the format since it's quite different from high school, but of course, try to ace it if you can. Also, get your hands on as many past tests as you can. I did a ton of them and it worked out ok most of the time. Personally, I thought PHY138 and CHM138 (physics and organic chem) were harder than calculus, but that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sunmoonandstar Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Strangely enough, I got a 93 in calc in high school too. Then I didn't do as well in calc first year. As the previous posters have said, if Lam is still teaching you should try to get into his section. He's really organized and a lot of fun. Also, if you fall behind in the work you may not ever catch up because you'll be trying to catch up in bio, chem, physics and your other course too. So stay up to date! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jochi1543 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 I took Advanced Placement Calc AB in HS (don't know if Canada has AP classes? But it's basically college-level classes in HS). The class was a struggle, I cried weekly. Had about a B average in the class (with the help of my math whiz roommate who was in the class too), but somehow got a 5 on the AP so now I have an A on my college transcript for it. I managed to get out of the Calc II requirement for my Physics II class by a special request. I explained that I'm a senior with no room for another class. I would kill myself if I had to take another Calc class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest richmond604 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 yes...there is AP in canada I took Calc AB as well, but Calc 2 was tough i thought :rolleyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Wow 93 is such a commong number! I too had 93 in OAC calc (very though teacher though) but I ended up going up a bit in University, so I think it also depends on how tough your highschool is and things like that when you consider how well you will do in university. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 I agree with endingsoon.. it's tough to correlate your high school grades with university cause your hs might be relatively easy/tough, your study habits will most likely change, etc. I had an 80 in OAC calc and went up quite a bit for 1st year calc, so while it's good to know where you stand, don't take a 95 in grade 12 calc to mean you'll get at least a 90 in 1st year calc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PhysiologyDude Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 Hey, just calm down. I got a 92 in OAC Calculus, but your mark in high school cannot be used to accurately gauge how you do in university. The most important thing about MAT135 (I'm assuming that you're going to be taking that, going to St. George for Life Sci), is that the first half of the course is going to be a review of high school. Make sure you actually do the problem sets, and if you have trouble with it, don't hesitate to get help and then do more problems! Personally, I find that the professor's teaching style and enthusiasm contributes to my overall opinion of a course. I took my sister's advice to be in Professor Lam's course and I'm grateful for taking it. The anti-calendar rates the professor's performance, and there was a web-site, ratemyprof.com, something or other along those lines. Go through them and see what people think. Hope this helps, and do your homework! P-Dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leviathan Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 You can't perfectly correlate your performance in high school with that of university...but you can correlate your performance between a course in high school and an identical course in uni that is only a bit more difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PanjabiMD Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 Just a side question...is it really worth taking first year Calculus during the school year if you do not plan on taking it in upper level years? Would it be better to take it during the summer, where it won't count towards your GPA? Am I correct in assuming that summer courses will not affect your OMSAS GPA? PanjabiMD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PhysiologyDude Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 PanjabiMD, I'm sure everyone will find some subjects harder or easier. First year typically involves biology, chemistry (inorganic and organic), physics, math and an elective. These requirements MUST be fulfilled at St. George in order to enter a subject POST (your major). You can technically take math in the summer, or physics, or any other subject for that matter. Keep in mind though, during the regular school year, the class sizes are enormous. The enormity of the class size means that there is a tendency for the averages to always work out to where they have been historically. As long as you perform a bit better than the average, you're fine. The caveat of summer courses is that marks aren't adjusted (at least at St. George) due to much smaller class sizes. I know nothing about the OMSAS @#%$, so someone else is going to have to answer that. Besides, it's your summer....wouldn't you rather be working and having fun instead of going to school? P-Dude OFFTOPIC: Does anyone know anything about the PCAT? I'm going to start a new thread soon, but I just wanted some info. I've already checked out the PCAT site btw. I'm in search of information I can't find on-line, such as how hard it is . PM me if anyone can help me out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 wow, s_sadry's experience was the same as mine. I killed OAC calc and 135 was my worst mark. Do not fall into the trap of spending too much time with the hottie living next to you in res or thinking that because the first term material is similar to what you've done already that you don't need to stay with the work and do a lot of problems. I second (or third) the advice to go with Lam's section if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EchoAngel911 Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 it really depends on how your high school oac course. I didn't so well ( low 80s). However, it was because of this background when I took first year calculus at UT , I almost aced the course :b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest purplefairy13 Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 I also had Lam in 1st year...definitely book his section early b/c it will fill up fast... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wab8611 Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 wow...thanks everyone for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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