Is My Course Schedule Too Much to Handle?

[JasonRox]

Calculus I (5 hours)
Linear Algebra I (4 hours)
Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry (2nd Year) (4 hours)
Physics - Mechanics and Waves (5 hours a week, 8 hours every other week)
Accounting for External Reports I (2nd Year) (3 hours)

If not, I'm replacing Geometry with Macroeconomics.

It seems fine to me, but some say it's insane. I spent 2 years doing an Accounting program, and it bored me to death, near the end. I have an Accounting class there, and that is or hope to be a "bird" course. Physics also doesn't look bad at all, and Calculus seems fine too. My only problem is Algebra since I never took an Algebra class before, and Geometry. Algebra is a first year course that requires any two high school maths, Algebra isn't even on the recommended list. Geometry requires any University Math credit, so this seems like something anyone can enter if they are interested.

Remember, I wouldn't be here if I hated Math and Physics, so studying should be fun, and challenging.

Note: During the Accounting Program at College, I took 7-8 classes per term, and did my correspondence Calculus on the side the first year. I also worked full-time and tutored part-time. I rarely took notes, and they ranged from 5-10 pages per class, per term. All I did was show up to class, participate in class, and review for about 30-60 minutes for tests/exams. I still made the President's Honour Roll, while doing this busy schedule. If I compared myself to other students, I did nothing but go to class, and everyone else studied forever. Accounting is boring the hell of out me, and Physics/Math started to grow on me when I took the Calculus course about 18 months ago, and it is still growing.

Any advice is appreciated. Please give similar personal experiences of your own.

Note: I will talk with Profs, and maybe other students before deciding 100% on this schedule although I'm confident it should be fine.

Note: I am also worried about the classes going to slow, and boring the hell out of me for that reason.

In the end, I have no clue what to expect.

 

[Integral]

Assuming that the Linear Algebra is the usual introduction to matrix operations it should be pretty straight forward. If you are lucky the Calculus and Physics courses can be pretty complementary but both can be homework intensive.

 

[JasonRox]

Introduction to finite dimensional real vector spaces; systems of linear equations: Gaussian elimination, matrix operations and inverses, determinants. Vectors in $$R^2$$ and $$R^3$$: dot product and norm, cross product, the geometry of lines and planes in $$R^3$$ Euclidean n-space, linear transformation for $$R^n$$ and $$R^m$$, eigenvalues and eigenvectors; selected applications and use of a computer algebra system.

That's the description.

It sounds fine. I know about vectors dot products and cross products.

Calculus seems like the samething again, but with some added material.

Geometry is basically Euclidean, and an introduction to transformation geometry. The only thing that freaks me out is the proofs. They are not so hard, but they are so boring. I understand proofs are important, but I hate just proving one triangle is similar to another.

Accounting sounds easy, like I said earlier.

Physics is introduction stuff again, with added material.

Obviously the questions will be more challenging than those in high school, but that's fine. Otherwise, it seems totally fine.

 

[Nenad]

what school do you go to?

 

[JasonRox]

I'll be going to Brock University, Ontario.

Why is that?

 

[check]

"If you can throw a rock, you can go to Brock!"
lol, jk I'm sure it's a great school. I know some people going there... I just heard that expression from someone before who was against applying to Brock for some reason...silly. hehe.

But yeah, sounds like quite a bit to me. Good luck.

 

[JasonRox]

I thought it was "If you can walk and talk, you can go to Brock."

That's pretty much from 80's, and it is still around. As long as they teach me what I want, and answer all my questions, I don't really care where I am.

It seems doable to me.

 

[Nenad]

lets just say, if you were going to some certain different schools, you would not be able to deal with that workload. I am not bashing Brock U. But there are harder schools out there, and that kind of workload seems impossible. But good luck to you.

 

[JasonRox]

I don't see the difference really. If your goal is to just know enough to do well on exams, well some schools might be easier, but my goal is to fully understand the subject at hand. My letters of recommendations from former teachers explained that even though my grades are exceptional I still go beyond what is needed to know just to satisfy my thirst for knowledge.

I'm not sure if Brock will be great, since I haven't attended a class yet, but I'm sure it should do fine. I would move away for school, but that would involve getting rid of my car, and my financial security just to pay for school, and I'm not ready for that. I have considered York University because of their Astronomy courses, as well as McMaster University for their strong reputation in Science. Again, looking at the course descriptions of all sorts of Universities, they are all the same. So the exam asks you extra questions or more challenging questions(not necessarily true), but you should know how to answer them anyways. You shouldn't prepare yourself for exams; you learn Physics and Math as it was meant to be, which is get a full understanding of it, so any question that passes your lap can be answered.

Comparing schools, especially undergrad since they are essentially the same, is like comparing your mom's recipe to your grandma's recipe when you only tasted the former. How can you judge? You assume your grandma's recipe may be better because of experience, but what about your mom's ability to possibly improve the taste that she fully understood her entire life.

You also can't compare grades. I have an extremely biased grade on my transcript because of my opinion about how the grading system works. I basically bashed everyone from the bottom to the top of the class, and said that grades mean **** because when a student doesn't get what they want they whine, or when a teacher doesn't get what they want they fail you. I said this even though I was one of the top students, and said my 90's don't mean **** because we have nothing to compare it to. You can't compare grades or anything, but only understanding. You can only find out by talking with other students, from other schools, and see how you faired in your learning experience. Also, you probably talked to other students from other high schools before, and made judgements (most likely negative) about their school. Let's say your teacher wanted to really focus on finding derivatives of all sorts of equations, from insanely tedious ones, to the I-did-this-a-million-times ones, and the other teacher wanted to focus on word problems. How do we decide which is best? For the former student, the word problem might be difficult since he didn't pay attention to them since his teacher was focused on a different area of study, but he still got 90% because that was 90% of the exam. The latter student got the same grade, but vice versa. Who's smarter? Both are very important, and the former student would do the word problem with ease with the help of the other student, and the latter student would do the tedious work without any problems if the former student broke it down a little. Again, who is smarter? Probably the student in the corner with an 80% average because he decided to focus on both topics on his own time, and getting a lower average is largely due to the fact that he developped different methods or learned different methods that the teacher disagreed with. It's the same in English, my vocabulary might be fair, but my reading skills can be great. It's kind of like those Lord of the Rings fans that walk around all intelligently about reading a "big" book, like Lord of the Rings. It's just a book to an ordinary reader, but people still brag about doing that "bigger" thing, meanwhile the ordinary reader probably read 4-5 books in the same period. In the end, you can't compare.

If your the student who asks what's on the exam, you are truly not challenging your true knowledge. You will simply exercise what the teacher wants, and get rewarded for that. Within my experience, I did poorly on some tests/exams (normal for everyone), but the teacher wasn't afraid to tell me after class that I did the best. I didn't just stop at writing the proper answer, I also sometimes wrote how that answer was achieved if there was any doubt the teacher would disagree (your work basically). I also showed true understanding about the subject at hand, and most of my mistakes are due to laziness. I hate to list things in the proper "way" or anything of the sort because all care about is that I understand what it says, and others do to. Doing it the teachers way sometimes annoys me because they are normally traditionnal and fit around their needs. As long as my work is down and readable, regardless of format, I don't care about anything else. (I follow steps and what not, so it isn't sloppy work. You might have experienced that some teachers have a "better" way, and you decided to follow or not.)

I would personally settle for 60% knowing my answers are correct and my format does not comply with the teachers traditionnal values than the 90% for wasting my time making sure everything is formatted properly, and given part marks because I did my format correctly.

I really can't argue against other schools, but I can't see how one workload of similarity is any bigger than another. Any school can teach the same material and have a big workload, but this is normally due to the pile of crap the teachers adds for no reason, like giving you 40 homework questions when you should do a lot of studying regardless of what the teacher/prof assigns. So, the teacher skipped a chapter, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look over it. If you have the craving to know everything, and to understand why it is that way and not this way, than teach yourself to fulfill that craving and use your school to help you through the maze. Learning whatever the prof assigns is only preparing for the exam and not for everything you want to know, so you may miss out.

When your prof says you don't need to know about the subject you are inquiring about, for the exam, tell him you aren't here (school) for the exam.