[Purely]

Hey RS,

I am attending SFU in the following fall semester, and I have a few questions about first year courses. Out of all the math courses, which one would be the best to take (if I didn't take calc in highschool). For English, how are are tough/interesting are ENGL 101 and 105? Lastly, is CRIM 101 or CHIN 100 good GPA boosters?

Thanks in Advance!

[gearshifter]

Crim 101 with barry cartwright is a gpa booster.

Eng 101 and 105 really depend on the prof, because they choose their own content. so use ratemyprof.

Chin 100 is easy... you have chinese background? lol. But you cant request to get in if you took stuff like mandarin in HS.

[hsh4]

math 157 prob easiest

[TheNewGirl]

Take academic writing. It might not be fun but it will help you boost your grades in other classes by actually knowing how to properly write a paper.

[wuuhoo]

if you do not have a calculus background whatsoever, i would recommend you taking calc 12 at adult ed (free if you grad from hs). It would make math classes that much easier.

If not, math 157 would be the easiest out of the 1st year math

[haha13]

take math 100 if u dont have calc background, it depends on what you are majoring in.... if ur in business take math 157, if ur in science or engineering take math 150 or 151.

crim 101 is easy if you take it at the bby campus with barry, otherwise dont take it

if u are good at writing take engl 101 , if not you can bs ur way through poetry with 105?

good luck!

[Meowjin]

Take academic writing. It might not be fun but it will help you boost your grades in other classes by actually knowing how to properly write a paper.

You have to for any first year english course.

[MindBomber]

You have to for any first year english course.

To some extent, yes, but the basic first year courses focus on essay construction; a poetry course will focus on interpretation and analysis of literature.
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

[d1]

Math 100 is easy as fuck if you need a math12 equivalent credit. I took english 105 my first semester so I don't remember the details of the course; all I remember is that it was shitty - consider english 199; it actually sounds like a useful course that'll help you throughout university writing.

[Meowjin]

To some extent, yes, but the basic first year courses focus on essay construction; a poetry course will focus on interpretation and analysis of literature.
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

I forgot first year english composes of two courses.

While were on topic.

film studies or drama studies?

[Splmash]

Hey RS,

I am attending SFU in the following fall semester, and I have a few questions about first year courses. Out of all the math courses, which one would be the best to take (if I didn't take calc in highschool). For English, how are are tough/interesting are ENGL 101 and 105? Lastly, is CRIM 101 or CHIN 100 good GPA boosters?

Thanks in Advance!

From experience, Math 100 was actually difficult. I consider myself very studious and I ended up with a A- in Math 100. It is a lot of material condensed into a semester. Just imagine Math 12 (HS) all in 3 months.

If you have taken Math 12 (HS), take the Calculus-1 course that goes with your program. Business/Econ is Math 157.

For English courses, all first year level ones are pretty easy. Just make sure you don't do your essays last minute and you will do just fine.

I've also taken the Crim 101 equivalent at UBC, it was fairly easy and very interesting.

General University hints:
- Don't leave everything last minute
- Get to know your T.A.s and professor
- Sit near the front (you are forced to pay attention)
- Find a good place on campus to study (I love the 6th floor of the WAC library)
- And don't get too stressed. Freshman year sucks for err'one!

[Purely]

math 157 prob easiest

if you do not have a calculus background whatsoever, i would recommend you taking calc 12 at adult ed (free if you grad from hs). It would make math classes that much easier.

If not, math 157 would be the easiest out of the 1st year math

take math 100 if u dont have calc background, it depends on what you are majoring in.... if ur in business take math 157, if ur in science or engineering take math 150 or 151.

crim 101 is easy if you take it at the bby campus with barry, otherwise dont take it

if u are good at writing take engl 101 , if not you can bs ur way through poetry with 105?

good luck!

From experience, Math 100 was actually difficult. I consider myself very studious and I ended up with a A- in Math 100. It is a lot of material condensed into a semester. Just imagine Math 12 (HS) all in 3 months.

If you have taken Math 12 (HS), take the Calculus-1 course that goes with your program. Business/Econ is Math 157.

For English courses, all first year level ones are pretty easy. Just make sure you don't do your essays last minute and you will do just fine.

I've also taken the Crim 101 equivalent at UBC, it was fairly easy and very interesting.

General University hints:
- Don't leave everything last minute
- Get to know your T.A.s and professor
- Sit near the front (you are forced to pay attention)
- Find a good place on campus to study (I love the 6th floor of the WAC library)
- And don't get too stressed. Freshman year sucks for err'one!


Thanks for the replies! I am a Business student, and I meet the requirements to not take Math 100 Many of you suggested Math 157, but I was wondering would Math 150 (Calc 1 with review) be easier? as it has review and I don't have previous experience with calc?

[mc.]

If you cant take 100, how can you take the others?

Just go with Math 157, 150 covers more stuff and is 4 credits i think..

Anyway if you start struggling, just go to the workshops, they are open for a ridiculous amount of time and you end up making friends with people that are always there.

[haha13]

take 157, math 150 covers way too much material as its the only math course with 4 credits.., honestly it depends on ur prof, just always keep up with the material and always preread as theres alot of shit to memorize

[Ikkaku]

I forgot first year english composes of two courses.

While were on topic.

film studies or drama studies?

For langara right? I did 1130 which is film, and I thought it was fairly interesting. I took it with Peter Babiak, but a lot of people dislike him.

[liukb]

Sorry to threadjack lol, but is anyone in the HSCI program? Just transferred to sfu and in the hsci prog for the fall, how difficult/easy would you say it is, and any recommended teachers and courses? thanks

[haha13]

hsci is relatively easy compared to other science programs, the hsci program can basically be majored in arts so thats why you see half of the students in the classes are from arts. the 100 courses for hsci are easy, read ur text book, keep up with the prof, preread, you should manage an easy B.

[Jer3]

math 157 but math 100 if you don't have the prereq's for 157. 100 is so damn easy its not even funny. got an A+ with not much effort. don't take it unless you absolutely have to (i had to since my HS math 12 mark was off by 1%). 157 itself is not that difficult, just a lot of practice. derivatives start showing up in upper level bus/econ classes so if your planning to go that route, make sure you pay attention in math 157.

[buffon]

How hard is econ 105 and what prof would be an easy one for that class?

[buffon]

bump :)

[Purely]

^ I heard Seong Choi is okay for econ 105. Check rate my prof. Is it better to take Econ 103 first before taking econ 105?

[Purely]

I noticed ENGL 199 says prerequisite: 12 units. Does this mean I need to complete 12 units before taking it?

[wuuhoo]

I am currently retaking econ with Choi. He isnt bad. Funny and very approachable guy. His accent can be a factor. Midterms are all tutorial questions and from lecture notes.

I took 103 before 105, and I wouldnt say you need to take 103 before 105, as both courses teaches very different material.

103 -Individual/market Demand and Supply and firm Production
105 - Dealing with Canada as a whole. ex; total expenditure, inflation, unemployment rate etc

I honestly like 105 than 103, but it is different among people

You will need to have 12 credits before taking engl 199. My advice if you want to take it, -just take one eng course in sept so you get a feel of what is demanded in an intro eng course in uni

[Purely]

Hey guys..my course registration date is at 9:30am, and I am going to register into ENGL 105. The problem is I am worried my English 12 provincial mark will drop me to below 75%, so I registered for the LPI for July 16th. I was wondering if anyone knows when is the last date to complete the FALx99 requirement to officially enroll into writing intensive courses such as ENGL 105 in the following fall semester? Will SFU immediately remove me from ENGL 105 when they check my provincial mark?

Thanks

[Atsui]

They'll give you some time to submit your LPI marks before taking you out of the class. It's still pretty early so you don't have to worry that much.

As for lower division requirements, I would recommend taking PHIL XX1 and MATH 157

[KittShelby]

anyone know anything about ENGL 104? It's on "prose genres". It seems interesting to me. Is it easy? The other english course i plan to take is ENGL 199. I plan to take that online though. Is that a good idea? Also, should I take ENGL 104 online as well?

thanks

[Thrice]

Take MATH 157 over MATH 150. I had no calc background and suck at math, but managed a C+. But most people find 157 to be pretty easy. MATH 150 is brutal. I took it in my second term, only to drop it in the second week because there is A TON of homework, and none of it counts for marks, but you have to do it because a weekly quiz is taken directly from the hw questions. And 8:30am classes four times a week sucks.

ECON 105 was way more enjoyable than ECON 103, but both classes were fairly useless IMHO. They are required though, so not much choice.

For ENGL classes I took 102 and 105. 102 is poetry and I got an A in it, but I know a lot of people in my class struggled a bit. Tiffany Werth was an awesome prof. 105 I took with David Coley, who was absolutely hilarious and made it a really enjoyable class. Didn't really get to know my TA and never went to office hours, so I didn't do as well as I'd hoped on my papers, but the final was easy. Got to bring in all of our texts with sticky notes and writing on them, so you can prepare for the expected essay topics.

[Thrice]

Holy crap, take ENGL 105! Budra is using awesome texts this term. The Time Machine, World War Z, The Road, Player One... I'd take that class in a heartbeat. But that is six novels in one term, which for a first year can seem overwhelming (then again, I had the same amount to read in my first English class).

If you want to take ENGL 101 in Surrey, Poyner-Del Vento seems to have some good selections too, and you might have read one or two already. She has 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games, and Never Let Me Go. I've heard Reder is a good prof, but Aboriginal Fiction does not interest me at all.

[PhilosophyMajor]

Yeah take 157. It's not hard at all. I never did calc in high school and still got an A- in that course.

[KittShelby]

I'm taking Econ 105, CMPT 120, Geo 111, and Geo 100 for 1st semester. Do you think its a good idea to take 2 Geo courses? I heard Geo 100 was ok but Geo 111 is hard. I really want to find another easy 1st year course to replace Geo 111.

btw, i'm taking geo courses cuz I plan to transfer into Business and then do a joint major with Geography. But I'm not sure yet, I might do the Joint with Computer Science instead so that's why I also took a CMPT course to see how I like it.

I really hope I will be able to transfer successfully to Bus cuz if I don't, I might be screwed. Also, I'm cramming all the Bus requirement courses into 1st year so that I can apply for transfer during my summer term this year( i plan to take all 3 terms).

[Thrice]

I'm taking Econ 105, CMPT 120, Geo 111, and Geo 100 for 1st semester. Do you think its a good idea to take 2 Geo courses? I heard Geo 100 was ok but Geo 111 is hard. I really want to find another easy 1st year course to replace Geo 111.

btw, i'm taking geo courses cuz I plan to transfer into Business and then do a joint major with Geography. But I'm not sure yet, I might do the Joint with Computer Science instead so that's why I also took a CMPT course to see how I like it.

I really hope I will be able to transfer successfully to Bus cuz if I don't, I might be screwed. Also, I'm cramming all the Bus requirement courses into 1st year so that I can apply for transfer during my summer term this year( i plan to take all 3 terms).
If your plan is to transfer into BUS, I'd take MATH 157 and get it out of the way. Just be warned though, transferring into Business isn't the easiest thing in the world. Your GPA in the nine lower division courses has to be a minimum of around 3.15 to 3.20 to get in. That is easy for some, hard for others. I personally transferred in with a 3.25 in the nine lower division courses. Would have been a lot higher, but I'm not into quantitative shit so I got a C+ in all of MATH 157, ECON 103, and ECON 105. I was saved by getting an A+ in BUS 272 and As in BUS 237 and BUS 251. If you are okay with quantitative stuff, you should be fine getting in. If you are indeed interested in the transfer, I would recommend taking MATH 157, ECON 103 or 105, a 100-level English class, and GEO 100.

And if you want to apply for Fall 2012 enrollment (finishing up your 9 required lower division courses by the end of the Summer 2012 term), I'd definitely take my advice. If you keep your current schedule, you'll get to take no electives for the spring and summer terms (two ENGL or PHIL courses, ECON 103, BUS 237/251/272, MATH 157, BUEC 232). Then again, I did it the same way as you did. I took ENGL 105 in my second term at SFU (Spring 2010). Then in the Summer 2010 term I took BUS 251, BUS 272, ENGL 102, and ECON 105. In the Fall 2010 term I took BUS 237, BUEC 232, MATH 157, and ECON 103. That fall term was not fun, with three quantitative courses in one term, but my transfer was accepted without having to do any retakes, so that was good.

[Datsun]

Protip: Don't take English poetry (should be 102). People who actually enjoy poetry come out of that class hating it.

[Thrice]

I went into that class hating poetry, and walked out loving it. Then again I had an absolutely fantastic prof (Tiffany Werth).

[KittShelby]

If your plan is to transfer into BUS, I'd take MATH 157 and get it out of the way. Just be warned though, transferring into Business isn't the easiest thing in the world. Your GPA in the nine lower division courses has to be a minimum of around 3.15 to 3.20 to get in. That is easy for some, hard for others. I personally transferred in with a 3.25 in the nine lower division courses. Would have been a lot higher, but I'm not into quantitative shit so I got a C+ in all of MATH 157, ECON 103, and ECON 105. I was saved by getting an A+ in BUS 272 and As in BUS 237 and BUS 251. If you are okay with quantitative stuff, you should be fine getting in. If you are indeed interested in the transfer, I would recommend taking MATH 157, ECON 103 or 105, a 100-level English class, and GEO 100.

And if you want to apply for Fall 2012 enrollment (finishing up your 9 required lower division courses by the end of the Summer 2012 term), I'd definitely take my advice. If you keep your current schedule, you'll get to take no electives for the spring and summer terms (two ENGL or PHIL courses, ECON 103, BUS 237/251/272, MATH 157, BUEC 232). Then again, I did it the same way as you did. I took ENGL 105 in my second term at SFU (Spring 2010). Then in the Summer 2010 term I took BUS 251, BUS 272, ENGL 102, and ECON 105. In the Fall 2010 term I took BUS 237, BUEC 232, MATH 157, and ECON 103. That fall term was not fun, with three quantitative courses in one term, but my transfer was accepted without having to do any retakes, so that was good.

wow, thank you so much for your reply. very helpful.

It's too late to change my courses now, almost every course is full. I purposely didn't take Math in 1st term cuz i suck at math. I'm currently getting tutored from math 10 to 12 and calculus. My tutor planned out for me so that I will be at starting calculus stuff at the end of December. That way I can take math in 2nd semester and hopefully won't have any problems with math 157. My math sucked since grade 9, so that's why i must review from grade 10.

In terms of English/PHIL courses, which 2 would you recommend I take for the requirment? I've decided on ENGL 199 online already. Heard it was very easy taking it online. I need one more english course. Which would you recommend? Also, were there any presentations/public speaking things you had to do for your english courses? I don't like presentations...

I'm still kind of mad that I have to take GEO 111 now. Cause I've heard it's tough. I can't find any other courses to replace it with either and I can't drop it cause I must have 12 units in order to take BUS courses in 2nd term. Do you remember what GPA you must have for ALL your courses combined? I know for the 9 LD courses its ~3.19.

Thanks a lot again.

[Thrice]

wow, thank you so much for your reply. very helpful.

It's too late to change my courses now, almost every course is full. I purposely didn't take Math in 1st term cuz i suck at math. I'm currently getting tutored from math 10 to 12 and calculus. My tutor planned out for me so that I will be at starting calculus stuff at the end of December. That way I can take math in 2nd semester and hopefully won't have any problems with math 157. My math sucked since grade 9, so that's why i must review from grade 10.

In terms of English/PHIL courses, which 2 would you recommend I take for the requirment? I've decided on ENGL 199 online already. Heard it was very easy taking it online. I need one more english course. Which would you recommend? Also, were there any presentations/public speaking things you had to do for your english courses? I don't like presentations...

I'm still kind of mad that I have to take GEO 111 now. Cause I've heard it's tough. I can't find any other courses to replace it with either and I can't drop it cause I must have 12 units in order to take BUS courses in 2nd term. Do you remember what GPA you must have for ALL your courses combined? I know for the 9 LD courses its ~3.19.

Thanks a lot again.
Probably smart. I struggled with Math 10 to Math 12 as well, and going through MATH 157 wasn't very fun and I struggled.

I'd recommend 199 and either 101 or 105. Whether or not there's a presentation is up to the individual prof. Some will just have tutorial participation, some you'll have to present something. I had no presentation in ENGL 105, but I did have a presentation in ENGL 102. But if you don't like presentations, you better start working on that... a large portion of Business classes have presentations. You should also get used to working on group assignments and papers, because those are incredibly common as well. Also, I don't know where you heard that about ENGL 199. It's probably the hardest of the 100-level English classes, but it's the most useful and will help improve your writing.

Overall GPA doesn't really matter. I think to stay in business you need to maintain a CGPA of 2.4 or something, which isn't very hard. You just need to worry about getting in first, which is around 3.20 in those nine courses. Good luck, I hope it all works out for you!

[Thrice]

Also, if you're planning on doing Business I recommend you to sign up for Beedie FROSH! It's a great way to learn more about the Beedie School of Business, as well as get to know hundreds of other first year Biz students. Registration should start soon, the website is just taking a bit to get set-up. The link sends you to the 2010 page for now, but it'll be the right one for when the 2011 site goes live in the next few days hopefully. http://www.sfubiz.ca/frosh/

[wuuhoo]

hey kittshelby

First of all, dont rush things. Its not the smartest idea. I rushed my BUS courses, and Im on the verge of either getting in or not. So dont end up like me, and just take your time.

Second, it would be nice if you can take math 157 in the fall, but since you struggle with math, dont take it til spring +. I would take econ 103, an english, and either CMPT or your GEO courses. The thing is you should try to adapt to the university setting and get comfortable first.

The CMPT and GEO courses can be used towards your WQB requirements, so they are not a waste.

BUT most importantly, dont rush things :)


Joint BUS with GEO major -- investment/stock route? :fullofwin: