Just finished my first term at McGill. Any questions?

<p>Hello everyone, I've just finished my first term. I think I can answer questions regarding courses and stuff reasonably well if you guys need any help.</p>

<p>I took 4 courses this term - Math 141, Math 133, Econ 208, MGCR 211</p>

<p>That's about three different faculty's - science, arts and management. So, I have an idea of how courses work in these faculty's. Feel free to ask any questions. I imagine many of you will take some or most of the above courses so if you have any specific questions about them, shoot away.</p>

<p>Hi, so did you take Math 141 because of placing out of Math 140 by taking AB Calc in high school? Im a U.S student so I just took the AP Calc AB exam today, and if I were to get a 4 or 5, would you recommend taking 141, or the 150/151. I understand the 150/151 is harder. Does the same thing apply where you can place out of 150? Do you think that I should just take 141 instead because I have not taken BC Calc? Also, does the splitting of the courses work somewhat seamlessly with AB to 140 as 141 to BC? And one last question regarding math (sorry), I read that you cannot take 141 if you have taken 133 beforehand, I will be a Biology major and does 133 entail statistics, essentially, is it a stats class that needs to be taken for a Bio major?
If I were to come in as a U0 student but have potentially 15 credits, would that mean I would be U1 after my 1st semester? And if I were to place out of Bio 111/112, would that mean I would take 200 level courses? Do you know if Biology majors require any more math classes besides calc and a stats course? Thanks so much and sorry for the barrage of questions!</p>

<p>Yeah, I took Math 141 directly. I skipped Math 140 with advanced credits.</p>

<p>I would avoid taking the Math 150/151 route. Its significantly harder and not really worth it in my opinion unless your a math major. Math 141 in its own right is considered a killer course here, there are huge lines of students who rush to advisers at the end of the term once they’ve failed the course. You’d be surprised at how many people find this course hard, its just how mcgill does it I guess.</p>

<p>Math 133 isnt related to 141 at all, they’re completely different so you cant skip one by doing the other. Math 133 covers Vector Geometry and matrices basically. There is absolutely no stats in it.</p>

<p>If you come in as U0, you will stay U0 till the end of the year regardless of how many credits you came in with. But technically you can consider yourself a U1, its just that your record wont reflect that.</p>

<p>As far as I’m aware Biology majors here take the same route as other sciences. Namely Math 140/141/133. As Far as I’m aware Stats(Math 203) is not specifically required for a biology major so its not compulsory.</p>

<p>This term about 50% of all students failed Math 141 and the majority of the rest varied from just passing to reasonably good. I’m one of the few who managed an A in this course and I can tell you its no walk in the park. Be Careful of this course, it’s ruined countless students GPA.</p>

<p>You shouldn’t be worrying about Statistics if you want to as an elective. Infact if I had time I would take statistics just to raise my GPA. The course is fairly simple and straightforward.</p>

<p>Thanks. Yea Math 150/151 was just curiosity, I do not want to make my life harder than it needs to be. If Calc wasn’t compulsory I would prefer not to take it, but alas it is. Are there any other alternatives to 141? Or no? Did you find that skipping Math 140 made it harder for you (in terms of High School AB curriculum to McGill Calc)? And thanks a lot for your response, very helpful!</p>

<p>No alternatives for 141, its basically a weeding out course which separates those who can handle math and those who cant. Many majors regard it as a pre requisite for entry.</p>

<p>Skipping 140 in my opinion helped me quite alot. 140 is hard aswell and goes into topics which you will never require in your major and in Calculus 2. I can summarize what you need to know from 140 to do 141. Basically make sure your clear on the techniques of differentiation, L’Hopitals Rule and a basic understanding of limits. Nothing else is required.</p>

<p>Even after getting an A in 141, I dont know how to answer 3/4 of the questions in the 140 final. My Adviser actually laughed when I told her this. That should tell you how much of 140 is actually required.</p>

<p>Don’t be scared at all of not doing 140, many here dont and get by just fine.</p>

<p>Awesome, thanks so much</p>

<p>was MGCR 211 okay as a course? or does one have to put in a huge amount of work/effort to do well?</p>

<p>MGCR 211 Typically consists of 3 quizzes worth 15% each. 5% for homework problems and a 50% final exam.</p>

<p>The class average for the first quiz was 78, the second quiz had 61 and the third quiz had 70.</p>

<p>You have mandatory homework assignments due at the start of every single class. </p>

<p>Overall, an enjoyable class. I highly recommend taking it with Prof David Farber, hes an amazing prof and very passionate/funny.</p>

<p>It’s easy if you do the homework assignments because well the quizzes and final totally use the same thing.</p>

<p>I never took an accounting course in my life before and this was the first one and I liked it. I think if it was any other prof though I would have considered it a boring class.</p>

<p>The trick to these classes is to do your absolute best because they are going to curve it at the end ( most likely curve it down ). At McGill 85+ is an A but you need like a 90+ to get an A for this course in management.</p>