U of T SG Course Advice...

[ale7733]

I am in Life Sciences and I have Bio, Chem, Phy, and Calc. I need one elective from Humanities or Social Sciences. I am thinking of Economics ECO105 (SS - really easy apparently), Math MAT133 (SS - math was my best subject in high school), or spanish SPA319 (HUM). Any advice on which to take?

Thanks

[Rishi]

What's the course code for your required math course? You may not be able to combine it with MAT135. I'd recommend ECO105, it's easy and will give a good basic understanding of market economics. I really like economics personally, if it's something that's interesting to you go for it.

[ale7733]

My bad, my Calculus is MAT135, and I want to take MAT133 since it counts as a social science.

[ale7733]

You're right... I can't combine both. I guess I'll take Economics. Thanks.

[flash2008]

help! i need one last course, and i can't decided between jmb170 (biology, models, mathematics) and eco105.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ale7733]

help! i need one last course, and i can't decided between jmb170 (biology, models, mathematics) and eco105.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

ECO105 seems to be a popular choice as an elective, it's supposed to be easy. I haven't heard anything about JMB170, so I guess go for interest / schedule availability. I'm taking ECO105 :).

[Rishi]

ECO105 seems to be a popular choice as an elective, it's supposed to be easy. I haven't heard anything about JMB170, so I guess go for interest / schedule availability. I'm taking ECO105 :).
Keep in mind when I say easy, I mean relative to other university courses. It is still more work than your average high school course.

[IBOPM]

Keep in mind when I say easy, I mean relative to other university courses. It is still more work than your average high school course.

I heard all you need to know is "y=mx+b"

[flygo]

help! i need one last course, and i can't decided between jmb170 (biology, models, mathematics) and eco105.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

If it were me, I'd go for JMB170 - it sounds alot more interesting than ECO105.

I think that if you're going to spend the time and money on a course, you might as well try to learn something you like too, instead of choosing based on how easy it is.

[Rishi]

I heard all you need to know is "y=mx+b"
Haha, there's a little differential calculus but nothing you won't know from grade 12. It's not nearly as quantitative as the econ for specialists (which itself is not a killer math-wise), it focuses much more on explaining concepts like supply/demand curves and elasticity qualitatively rather than using rigorous calculus. My brother is in 4th year business and from what I've seen of his upper-year econ courses most of the math is just substituting into a formula.

It's a read the book, practicum a few problems to be sure, get an 85 kind of course. Good GPA booster for first-year EngSci! ;)

[Rishi]

If it were me, I'd go for JMB170 - it sounds alot more interesting than ECO105.

I think that if you're going to spend the time and money on a course, you might as well try to learn something you like too, instead of choosing based on how easy it is.
I totally agree with you. As tempting as it is to pick really easy electives, I always try to find a compromise between difficulty and interest. There are so many cool courses you can take in university that you'll never have enough electives. I was even tempted to register for some arts&sci courses in the summer just out of interest but I got a summer job which was interesting, so that won out.

[xOnic_]

Before settling down for eco105, i suggest you consider which majors/specialist programs you would want to go into after first year and look at all the preq. For example, Neuroscience requires PSY100,global health needs ANT100 and GLG102 or if you wanted to do maybe a math and econ double major in case life science doesn't follow through then you would need to take MAT157[?] instead of MAT135.

Furthermore, for ECO105, lets say you wanted to go finish a econ major, you need a 80 in ECO105 to take 200+ series economic courses. The breakdown for the course is 25% test 1, 25% test 2, and 50% final. I wouldn't recommend the course if you are the type that will procrastinate although people do get by simply from studying the test solutions, but during my term, I have been seeing a lot more textbook related questions and people usually don't even buy the textbook. However, there are people who will do poorly on the first test and drop because if you do poorly on first test it just indicates that you are really behind on the material - each test covers about 12 lectures/chapters of material. Tests are kind of like essays not MC compare to ECO100. Now for the people who just can't simply trust their mark on studying past test, the textbook is quite thick (similar size to the CHM138 textbook, but there is actually 2 sets of textbooks - one for the fall and winter) and heavy on the reading - you would read less if you took SOC101. Now once again, most people usually don't read the textbook, but during my year, I could never be sure if I could simply rely on test/lecture notes.

Lastly, not to discourage anyone or scare them, but if you do happen to get 50-60 after the first test, I would recommend dropping before it does some damage to your GPA (full year course afterall), chances are if you get a 50, you procrastinated or studying tests only back fired and there are probably too many material for you to catch up along with your course load. I am basing this on the fact that the chances that you will get 100% on test 2 and final is highly unlikely, and the fact that the testing is based on essay-style answers and not everyone will have the time they need or can work effectively under pressure.

[Rishi]

^ Sound advice there.

[moosicfreek]

hey,
I'm a first year artsci at UTSG, and I'm also having trouble deciding on my courses...I'm deciding between a full year seminar or two half courses (mus110 and psy100).
I don't how interesting the seminar (death, loss, remembrance) would be, but people have been telling me to take it bc of the small class sizes and they're supposed to be easy. haven't heard anything about this particular one though.
I think music and psychology would be more interesting, but I don't know how heavy the workload is or how difficult it would be to get good marks in those.
does anyone know anything about the courses I mentioned? any advice?
thanks a ton =)