|
|
Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/18/2008
Posts: 1
Location: Vancouver
|
i'm going into science next year, but took chem, and math last year and barely remember the material. is this going to be a problem for me in uni? Will i still need to remember the basics of high school math and sciences or will i be okay starting off with a clean slate>?
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 445
Location: Hamilton
|
they will briefly review any content you'll need to know.
don't bring your high school notes, everyone I know in science did that and didn't use them
1 We are from Mac! 2 A little bit louder! 3 I still can't hear you! 4 more more more...
McMaster Class of 2011
Combined Honours Political Science and Philosophy
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 451
Location: London (UWO)
|
"Briefly review" is quite the understatement, especially for bio, chem, and physics, which are pretty much entire reviews of their respective grade 12 courses. Immediately after studying for your grade 12 chemistry class, if you were to write the final exam for first-year chemistry, you would be able to do quite well on it (at least a passing grade). Calculus is quite a bit different (you wouldn't know what the heck to do if given the final exam for that class), but a good review of the fundamentals should/will be covered. Textbooks almost always have a good review of the stuff that you learned in previous courses, and you will notice that as you go through university too.
Don't lose any sleep over this.
In fact, I had one professor who would tell us to "unlearn" everything we were taught in high school, simply because he felt we weren't taught those topics (genetics) well enough/in the right way by our high school teachers.
Honours BMSc Specialization in Medical Science UWO '09
Bachelor of Pharmacy Alberta '13 ???
|
|
Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 49
Location: Hamilton, Ontario
|
I would consider it a priority in the subjects where your foundation is not as solid. I struggled a lot with chemistry especially at the beginning of the year because my grade 12 teacher did not cover a lot of topics that we started out with in university like pressure/gas/wavelengths/frequency etc. I was sort of overwhelmed at the beginning but when we learned organic chemistry, which my grade 12 teacher really focused on, I was fine. Plus, looking back after I've finished both first year intro chem courses, I realized that in grade 12, I never really learned the true concepts behind anything...Just learn a formula, plug it in, memorize it, try same kind of questions...There was never any "think outside the box" sort of thing and I did well in that aspect. This is probably biased likely because of the high school that I came from...
Anyway, I learned that this does NOT work in uni.. The greatest difference in university and high school is that they test whether you truly understand something, and your ability to apply what you learned. They give you all the formulas so whether you know it or not doesn't really matter. You have to know how to apply the formula(s) to different questions by understanding what exactly it is they're asking for, and how you're going to get to it. If I had thought about reviewing before I started uni, I would have. It doesn't have to mean hardcore review seesion over the entire course of the summer...just take a weekend about a week or two before uni starts to look over your chem, bio, physics notes....brush up on things. It will only be of more benefit to you.
Although the bio/chem/physics?(..not sure about this one) courses are mostly grade 12 review, I found the questions on the midterms/exams a LOT harder than anything I ever learned in my grade 12 classes. I didn't take regular science bio this year, but I've heard it's the same for that course as well. The content you learn will likely be the same....you just learn it in more depth and you get tested in a more demanding manner.
Just my personal input though. It's up to you! There's always better things to do in the summer.
McMaster University, Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) 2011
"Carpe Diem"
|
|
Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/17/2008
Posts: 17
Location: Johannesburg
|
Don't bother bringing high school notes.
If you pay attention and go to class you'll go over it again, usually much more rigorously and specific than in HS, if your prof is any good. Besides, in first year it's pretty much a joke and you'll definitely see high school concepts all over again. The real test begins in 2nd and 3rd year onwards.
|
|
Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/11/2008
Posts: 12
Location: Mexico
|
Yeah, don't bother with HS notes. Usually what you need to know will be taught right there, and chances are that what you'll see will be quite a bit more advanced than what you saw in HS, at least in maths.
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/6/2008
Posts: 247
Location: Toronto
|
So first year is basically a transition year?
McMaster '12!
|
|
Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/7/2008
Posts: 552
Location: toronto
|
For bio, def. I hear chem is tough, but its stll arite.
I don;t know where these guys took phys.
From what I hear, unless you got an AP physics C course (I beleive available only 1 place in ontario, and also in BC) physics will run you into the ground. In life sci, this is where you;ve got to be careful. Many ibo majors that are great at that, get screwed becasue of how killer physics is, and end up in trouble.
Everyone I know in uni took the same AP calc course I did, and so they find it liveable.
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 451
Location: London (UWO)
|
Word to the wise---if you don't absolutely love physics and/or you don't plan on taking any further physics courses, take the lowest level physics possible.
Honours BMSc Specialization in Medical Science UWO '09
Bachelor of Pharmacy Alberta '13 ???
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 140
|
mynameismattgotmlgo wrote:Word to the wise---if you don't absolutely love physics and/or you don't plan on taking any further physics courses, take the lowest level physics possible. hahahaha i don't even know where i'm heading off for next year but i'm already planning my 'non-physics' route... it's not an appealing course for me. 
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 451
Location: London (UWO)
|
Feona wrote:So first year is basically a transition year? That is exactly how I felt. It seemed like I could almost have skipped first year and went directly into second year without a hitch. I suppose it depends on the program, though.
Honours BMSc Specialization in Medical Science UWO '09 Bachelor of Pharmacy Alberta '13 ???
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 451
Location: London (UWO)
|
quester wrote:mynameismattgotmlgo wrote:Word to the wise---if you don't absolutely love physics and/or you don't plan on taking any further physics courses, take the lowest level physics possible. hahahaha i don't even know where i'm heading off for next year but i'm already planning my 'non-physics' route... it's not an appealing course for me. I kind of liked physics in high school, but I still took the lowest of the four first-year physics courses Western offers. It was boring as hell, and it almost seemed like a negative learning experience, but I got a sense of joy from hearing students taking more difficult physics courses complain about how difficult they are. Don't let the easiness scare you away... I'd recommend taking easy calculus too, if you have the opportunity.
Honours BMSc Specialization in Medical Science UWO '09 Bachelor of Pharmacy Alberta '13 ???
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/10/2008
Posts: 67
|
mynameismattgotmlgo wrote:
In fact, I had one professor who would tell us to "unlearn" everything we were taught in high school, simply because he felt we weren't taught those topics (genetics) well enough/in the right way by our high school teachers.
We actually had our guidance counsellors tell us in grade 11 (when we were picking classes for grade 12) that universities do not necessarily like kids to come in with basic knowledge of calculus and super-advanced sciences. For one, students like that tend to "assume they know stuff" and skip a lot of lectures (ascribe it to first year naivety), and they tend to fall of the waggon eventually as they are taught poorly in high school. Now, our guidance counsellors were not always the most reliable sources, so this should be taken with a grain of salt, but to some extent it makes sense. I've had an opportunity to watch an actual first-year calculus class before attending it and it beats my calculus class right now by a landslide. We are not being taught any logic behind calculus - just algorithms on how to solve problems. Teach: So, you have a 1/sqrt(something) to the power of blabla. What do you use to find the derivative? All: Chain rule! Teach: Why does the chain rule work? All: ... Not exactly my definition of solid knowledge. I guess I wouldn't rely on my high school knowledge too much. Yes, it's good to know relatively what you're talking about, but it's like the thing in grade 10 when they tell you Bohr's model of the atom is the right one and then you go into advanced chemistry and the teacher tells you they lied to simplify.
|
|
Rank: Student Body President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 1,210
|
some of the graduates from my high school have come back and they're almost all without fail at the top of their math classes at UW. Meaning most get 90s, or, at least, high 80s/low 90s , in UW math (in the eng, compsci, and pure-math focussed streams no less). So it definitely meant that they used their high school math skills to their advantage, but it depends on your school as well and how well it taught you.
|
|
Rank: Student Body President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 1,210
|
malilini wrote:
I guess I wouldn't rely on my high school knowledge too much. Yes, it's good to know relatively what you're talking about, but it's like the thing in grade 10 when they tell you Bohr's model of the atom is the right one and then you go into advanced chemistry and the teacher tells you they lied to simplify.
gah haha i know! I was in grade nine/ten learning all those models of the atom, with a sister who had already done grade twelve chem smiling and telling me not to focus too much on those as they'd tell us it was all wrong in a couple of years. i didn't believe her because i thought she was just messing with me turns out she was right 
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/10/2008
Posts: 67
|
Redrose27 wrote:gah haha i know! I was in grade nine/ten learning all those models of the atom, with a sister who had already done grade twelve chem smiling and telling me not to focus too much on those as they'd tell us it was all wrong in a couple of years. i didn't believe her because i thought she was just messing with me turns out she was right Haha, yes, it's hard to understand sometimes that teachers lie  I remember, when we were talking about orbitals and sub-orbitals, the teacher put up a picture of S, P, and D up on the projector and this kid screamed from the back "You're lying! Ms. [teacher's name] told us they were circles!"  I don't think he ever really caught on the whole concept of quantum theory (or at least the butchered version they serve to us).
|
|
Rank: Student Body President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 1,210
|
the hybridization diagrams with the pi and sigma bonds still confuse me. i'm hoping those turn out to be lies too so i can just conveniently forget them 
|
|
