what was your average when you got accepted?

My GPA is currently a 4.0 on the u of t scale. I'm living proof that you don't need to be a genius, or have gone to a top notch private high school in order to get A's at U of T. High marks are well within the reach of any reasonably intelligent student. All it takes is hard work, persistance, and sometimes, a bit of inspiration helps too :)

As for how I did it, I did mention in my last reply that the three key things for me were hard work, persistance and inspiration. I'll explain these in a bit more detail:

Hard Work: the main challenge first year is not the difficulty of the material, it's the fact that you are expected to learn a lot in a short period of time. This means you have to work hard in order to assimilate all the information being thrown at you. A useful study strategy is to review all the work you have done previously in a course before going over today's work. This takes a lot of time, but saves you a lot of panic before a test or exam because you will be familiar with content of the course.

Persistence: this one is easy. In first year, you will take a wide variety of courses, some of which you may not enjoy or excel at. If you want to keep a good GPA, you have to understand the material, no matter how difficult or boring or useless you might find it. Small, productive study groups help make the boring material less painful, and seeking help RIGHT AWAY (from friends, profs or TAs) if you don't get a concept should get you through the difficult material. Remember, at u of t, no area of the curriculum goes unexamined, so don't pray that the one thing you didn't study won't show up on the exam!

Inspiration: sometimes the above two aren't enough. In order to get high marks at U of T you will have to answer the more difficult questions on the test. These questions won't be like the ones you have seen before in your homework problems. They will require some original thinking, logical reasoning, and a bit of inspiration. Now, inspiration doesn't always happen (unless you're extremely gifted :) but there are ways to increase your chances that it does. For Example, in math/chem/physics, try to do the hardest problems at the back of each unit (you can pick up good problem solving strategies along the way, even if you have to look over the solutions manual once in a while). In bio, be able to explain the mechanicsms you study in your own words. DO PAST TESTS AND EXAMS to familiarize yourself with the type and difficulty of the questions you are expected to answer.

A complaint from a lot of U of T students is that the test questions are nothing like the assigned homework questions. Sadly, that is the reality (once again the reason why past tests are so useful). Indeed, inspiration and the ability to think logically allow one to answer such questions, and separate the 3.8-4.0 GPA students from the 3.0-3.3 ones.

So I hope that helps a little bit :) As for whether I had enough time for ECs...there was some time left over after studying, and I often had to choose between doing ECs, or having a social life or getting enough sleep. Thankfully the summer break is 4 months long and there is plenty of time for volunteering, work, and relaxing :)

Do you know any kids from DMCI?

Umm I know that there are lot of kids from Don Mills CI in life sciences but no I don't know them personally.

in first year, can you whatever courses you want, according to your interests, or is there a mandatory list of courses that you must take? and do u know anyone doing human bio? how do they like it?

If you`re in Life Sci you have to take MAT135 (calculus), BIO 120 (ecology and evolution), BIO130 (molecular and cell bio) and CHM138 and CHM139 (Organic chem and physical chem). You have 2 electives. Some people take physics (it`s required for some programs but not human bio as far as I know).

Human bio is supposed to be one of the ``easier`` programs. It involves a lot of memorization but its definately dable to get good grades if you`re motivated.

Life Sciences at UTSG is a very broad range of majors/specialists. Immunology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Health and Disease, Global Health, Cell and Molecular Biology, Nutritional Science, Pharmacology and many many more all come under the broad category "Life Sciences". Most students either choose to do a double major or single specialist in the ones mentioned above.

I'm not too sure about UTSC programs.

true say. esp mat135

Ok so first year this is what I took

Bio120 (ecology and evolution) with Thomson / Barrett. Labs are easy. Thomson's test involved a lot of reasoning and common sense. Barrett decided to test us on mindless details on his exam. Barret's exam was pretty much the only thing I didn't like about this course.

Bio130 (cell bio) with Coleman and Mitchell. Boring lectures but labs are easy and if you memorize all the lecture material you'll get minimum 85-90 in the course.

Chm138 (organic chem) with Dicks, Winnik and Seferos. The course involved a lot of creative thinking. Possibly my favourite course first year. Labs are hard though. And the tests can be pretty tricky so make sure you sharpen your problem solving skills by doing past tests.

Chm139 (physical chem) with Staikova, Scholes and Wheeler. Not a bad course. Mostly review of high school but the tests can get tricky depending on who you have (my tests were pretty easy but the fall class had much harder ones) Labs are easier than chm138.

Mat135 (calc) with Usefi. Didn't go to lecture, and unless your prof is Lam, I don't see why anyone should. Doing past tests and developing creative problem solving skills is the key to success in the course, because 75% of the test is easy but it gets harder from there.

Phy131/132 with Morris, Harrison and DeyrimenjianHated this class. Labs are marked harshly and bring your grade down while not teaching you anything useful. Lectures are useless because they go over theory but not problem solving techniques (which is 70% of the test and exam). Loved physics until these two courses.

Psy100 with Dolderman. Good class. Dolderman is a very engaging lecturer. It's very doable to do well in the course but the memorization is heavy.

Vic107 with Vicedo. Interesting class overall. As far as seminars go this wasnt a bird course. Class average was only a B-. Just goes to show you that at U of T you need to earn your marks in EVERY class.