What course did you take as your 5th credit and how did you find the workload? Thanks :)

Hey! How was your first year like?
and how are the professors in Western? I've heard from many sources, except from a person that's actually been inside their lecture halls their great. So I was wondering how did you find them?
Any tips on which teachers/electives to take in your first year?

Thanks A lot in advance! :)

@ronmovilla

The profs are generally pretty good, but it really varies by the course and section.

Bio- there's been a change in prof since I took it, but I thought Haffie was excellent though many people dislike him for his tendency to ask questions that actually require some application. Maxwell is hilarious and I want to just go sit in on his lectures sometime.

Chem - Calvin's pretty good, she gets the material across clearly. Lee is great, and always super happy, which is nice!

Physics - I took Zinke physics (1028/1029). He's an interesting character. Most people don't go to that class because a lot of it is online. I believe the unit tests even became electronic this past year. But yeah Zinke's a German guy who tends to go off on tangents, often philosophical. Not my favourite, but I found going to class helped me understand the way he thinks, which is key for his tests and quizzes.

Calc 1000/1301- from my experience, calc profs are a bit patronizing because they're so beyond first-year. I had Bryan and Ditor and they were both decent. They both give assignments as opposed to quizzes, which I liked. I was recently talking to someone who said they had a really good calc prof but of course now I can't remember exactly. I think it was Kiriushcheva.

Psych 1000 - Like I said Dr. Mike is pretty awesome. I've heard others say that they had good profs too though.

Oh also if you want to get a feel for profs check out the instructor and course evaluations, if you don't mind sifting through a bunch of info. I don't think this year's evaluations will be there for a long time though.

@stack444

Hours of studying. This is always a tough question, because time does not equal knowledge. You have to study effectively. If you can do that, then you can study for fewer hours and still get good marks. It all comes down to time management. First year, I'd say I put in about 25 hours a week outside of class maybe? Just doing problems and readings. Obviously it changes depending on workload and exams. This year I started doing more review after class since my classes were less problem-based, which was helpful and reduced stress and study hours around exams, but it's hard to maintain during midterms.

Course that required the most work? I'd say calc. It takes me forever to do questions though. Chem was pretty demanding but if you keep up it's fine. Physics I also remember being quite a lot if you do all the assigned questions, but it was also my highest grade both semesters despite my dislike of physics.

Residence - take a look at this thread, and if you still have questions we'll be glad to help there!

Hi! Thanks so much for this thread

i was just wondering, is western biomed really easier than mac life sci or queens science or is that just a myth?

i still can't decide between those schools.

and the entrance scholarships that we get for first year, based on our high school admissions, are those going to stay the same for each year in university? or does it change based on our averages in the previous year? like if we get 75% in first year, will our entrance scholarship go down or is it still the same as the first entrance scholarship we received?

and how's the city of london? is it busy? nice? quiet?
tell everything :)

you will hear different opinions from everywhere, but since nobody has attended two of those life science programs, nobody knows for sure.
the entrance scholarships are given for the first year only, unless you have above 95% top 6 avg
never been to london..

have anyone taken algebra 1600a or bio 2299F/G yet?
how are they? easy/tough?

Thank you @freebird

and I was wondering: how are you going to get essay course requirements done for graduation?
Will the fourth year thesis be the 1 credit or is it half?

So monday, wednesday and friday you had lectures from 9:30 to 12:30? That sounds frightening!!! And thanks alot for the information:)
How big are the classes? Are they small enough to get to know your profs?


McMaster Health Sciences- Waiting...
McMaster Kinesiology- Accepted
McMaster Life Sciences- Accepted
Western Biological and Medical Sciences- Accepted
Western Engineering- Accepted
Waterloo Management Engineering- Accepted

Pharma 2060 is only offered online? why? does it mean I can't take on campus?

Yeah, like I said, 4 hours is not recommended. It's really tiring. The classes a generally pretty big:
Bio - 600-800
Chem - 300-400? I think they moved some sections to a larger room this past year though.
Physics - well, at the beginning of the year there were about 400? By the end, 10 haha
Calc - 100
Psych - 600-800
But just because there are a lot of people doesn't mean you can't get to know the profs. You can talk to them before and after class or at office hours. If you sit at the front it's easy to talk to them.




Yes, 2290 is 0.5 essay credits. We're kind of bouncing between threads here, so I already answered your quiz question in the other one. I took it first semester. Not going to lie, that was the most stressful semester so far.


I don't know why it's only online, but I've heard good things about it from a couple different people. Apparently the workload is pretty light, but there's a lot of memorizing of drugs for the final.