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I found it to be a big transition going from year-long courses to 4-month courses. In high-school, we went at a much relaxed and slower pace, to get a true appreciation and solid understanding of the material. Here, the professors waste no time and get down to business. They'll say, oh we have two minutes left...let's start 9.4 then.
How do you guys feel about this, has anyone experienced this before?
Oops, should have said non-semestered in my title.
University of Lost Hope, Broken Dreams and Tattered Souls - Sanitational Engineering '08
Self-help: I am taking Engineering, but Engineering isn't taking me.
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me. i personally like semesters because then u get half a year of pretending that bio/physics never existed 
Math/CA Waterloo '13
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i've been to both semestered and non semestered schools (sem in grades 9 and 10 and non sem in 11 and 12. funny thing is that it's the exact reverse for my sister) and i actually find the latter more difficult. it's hard to juggle 7 or 8 difficult courses at once, especially if they're really different (e.g. a social science course and a science one together). i don't find the pace here any slower than at my old school; in fact if anything i'd say our workloads are heavier...we get the same amount of classes in double the time period as everyone else so teachers assume they can just shove in extra assignments too
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I'm at a semestered school where we finish the curriculum (the book in about 3 months) straight,
1 month is wasted 'preparing' for exams or for some sort of final activity.
Our chem teacher wants to finish the curriculum in the next 2-3 weeks and I don't know what were going to do after seeing as the exam is on the 25th of June I think. I guess this prepares me for fast paced learning (*cough* memorization *cough*)
UTSG Life Science 12'
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I'm at a semestered school also. I can't imagine going to a non-sem. Especially if you have a really hard year.
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12
Stong Rez
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yeah the more stretched out the course is, the more time there is for the teachers to shove in "projects" and useless supplementary assignments and fluff that only serve to increase workload, lower your mark, make you forget the previous things you've learned, and confuse you as to which things will be tested and which won't.
Math/CA Waterloo '13
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Semestered schools are the best, mainly because you get to focus on the subjects at hand, instead of 8 different ones. Additionally, it more closely resembles university, which is better in the long run. You're also forced to learn how to understand material quickly if you want high mark. Just my two cents.
UWO 2012 - Biological & Medical Science  UWO > Every other school
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don't you take like 5 or 6 courses in uni though? at least non sem students are better prepared in terms of juggling more courses at once
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anniepoohh wrote:yeah the more stretched out the course is, the more time there is for the teachers to shove in "projects" and useless supplementary assignments and fluff that only serve to increase workload, lower your mark, make you forget the previous things you've learned, and confuse you as to which things will be tested and which won't. haha and I thought semestered schools are bad...
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I like semestered schools when compared to the year-long courses. For one, you're able to get through it at a good pace, without it going too fast or too slow. For another, if you don't like the course you know you're only stuck with it for four months 
Carleton University Class of 2012, Honours Bachelor of Arts
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anniepoohh wrote:yeah the more stretched out the course is, the more time there is for the teachers to shove in "projects" and useless supplementary assignments and fluff that only serve to increase workload, lower your mark, make you forget the previous things you've learned, and confuse you as to which things will be tested and which won't. I didn't find it bad, put in some effort and you can do relatively well (e.g 85+).
University of Lost Hope, Broken Dreams and Tattered Souls - Sanitational Engineering '08 Self-help: I am taking Engineering, but Engineering isn't taking me.
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mine is non-semestered.
it's a bit of apain having 8 exams at once, but the individual classes are shorter.
I have 6 classes in a day, and each are 50 minutes so it's pretty bearable.
Oh, but calculus and functions is a pain in the beeehind in a non-semestered school.
"My parents live in Ohio; I live in the moment." -himym.
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Miss wrote:mine is non-semestered.
it's a bit of apain having 8 exams at once, but the individual classes are shorter.
I have 6 classes in a day, and each are 50 minutes so it's pretty bearable.
Oh, but calculus and functions is a pain in the beeehind in a non-semestered school. How is it hard? You have 8 months to learn it, I have 3 months in my school system (finish course in 3 months 1 month of review + projects). We finished the entire Algebra & Geometry book for Vectors etc.. in a month and a half. What I think would be harder in your system is English seeing as you'd have more assignments etc.. but maths/sciences are WAY harder when youve only got 3-4 months to learn the exact thing.
UTSG Life Science 12'
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LMAO. Taiyab wrote:I found it to be a big transition going from year-long courses to 4-month courses. In high-school, we went at a much relaxed and slower pace, to get a true appreciation and solid understanding of the material. Here, the professors waste no time and get down to business. They'll say, oh we have two minutes left...let's start 9.4 then.
How do you guys feel about this, has anyone experienced this before?
yup, happens in my chem class every time we always purposely distract my chem teacher (usually by asking him a question about engineering--and then he'll go on a rant about how great it is for 30 min, or talk to him about korean stuff--he's korean) so that he can;t teach. but then whatever we don't have time to cover in class we have to learn at home...so I guess we're only digging our own hole but distracting a teacher is soooo entertaining though.
UTSG Life Sci 2012
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scarboro wrote:Miss wrote:mine is non-semestered.
it's a bit of apain having 8 exams at once, but the individual classes are shorter.
I have 6 classes in a day, and each are 50 minutes so it's pretty bearable.
Oh, but calculus and functions is a pain in the beeehind in a non-semestered school. How is it hard? You have 8 months to learn it, I have 3 months in my school system (finish course in 3 months 1 month of review + projects). We finished the entire Algebra & Geometry book for Vectors etc.. in a month and a half. What I think would be harder in your system is English seeing as you'd have more assignments etc.. but maths/sciences are WAY harder when youve only got 3-4 months to learn the exact thing. the thing with me though is that if i've got only math/sci courses to focus on i do so much better on tests and exams since the stuff is so much more recent. it's harder to remember a unit you did 8 months ago as opposed to a unit you did 3 months ago. math and science are all about practise
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Redrose27 wrote:scarboro wrote:Miss wrote:mine is non-semestered.
it's a bit of apain having 8 exams at once, but the individual classes are shorter.
I have 6 classes in a day, and each are 50 minutes so it's pretty bearable.
Oh, but calculus and functions is a pain in the beeehind in a non-semestered school. How is it hard? You have 8 months to learn it, I have 3 months in my school system (finish course in 3 months 1 month of review + projects). We finished the entire Algebra & Geometry book for Vectors etc.. in a month and a half. What I think would be harder in your system is English seeing as you'd have more assignments etc.. but maths/sciences are WAY harder when youve only got 3-4 months to learn the exact thing. the thing with me though is that if i've got only math/sci courses to focus on i do so much better on tests and exams since the stuff is so much more recent. it's harder to remember a unit you did 8 months ago as opposed to a unit you did 3 months ago. math and science are all about practise Thats true.. I even have trouble remembering 4 months before let alone 8 months before lol... I guess in non-semestered schools you've got to constantly study, you cant leave it for the last minute.
UTSG Life Science 12'
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^ very true. and things pile up, especially with teachers assuming since you've got so much time they can give you even more assignments (forgetting that 7 other teachers are doing precisely the same things).
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scarboro wrote:How is it hard?
You have 8 months to learn it,
I have 3 months in my school system (finish course in 3 months 1 month of review + projects).
We finished the entire Algebra & Geometry book for Vectors etc.. in a month and a half.
What I think would be harder in your system is English seeing as you'd have more assignments etc.. but maths/sciences are WAY harder when youve only got 3-4 months to learn the exact thing.
The new calculus and vectors course does not cover "the entire Algebra and Geometry textbook". It leaves out some very important (and challenging) elements from the old course.
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Sillybulanston wrote:scarboro wrote:How is it hard?
You have 8 months to learn it,
I have 3 months in my school system (finish course in 3 months 1 month of review + projects).
We finished the entire Algebra & Geometry book for Vectors etc.. in a month and a half.
What I think would be harder in your system is English seeing as you'd have more assignments etc.. but maths/sciences are WAY harder when youve only got 3-4 months to learn the exact thing.
The new calculus and vectors course does not cover "the entire Algebra and Geometry textbook". It leaves out some very important (and challenging) elements from the old course. The ONLY part we left out was Induction. *which is probably the hardest part* I'm not sure how the old course MCB4U was, but, a few kids in my calc class that took it last year say MCV4U is a bit harder.
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My school is non-semestered but we do the FUN/CAL semestered.
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