<p>After receiving transfer credit towards requirements at UVa and CLAS, the only classes I have left to complete are the humanities/social sciences and foreign language requirements. Because of this, the next two semesters will involve finishing up these "reading intensive" classes. For the fall, I will be taking an intro to Sociology, Intro to Philosophy, Intro to Buddhism and foreign language class. Will taking these particular courses, presumably reading intensive, be too much for my first semester at UVa? Should I switch out one of the classes with something lighter?</p>
<pre><code>I know that having a balanced schedule is important, but my greatest concern is being overwhelmed by too many classes of heavy reading. Thanks for the help! :)
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<p>From what I've heard, Soc and Buddism will be cake and if you've got Mitch Green, you only have to read Engaging Philosophy. As far as the language class goes, if you're taking like CHIN 101, you're screwed, but the other languages aren't that bad.</p>
<p>Sounds easy. The only areas where you can have "too many" courses are naturual science, engineering and math, particularly if you have a lot of labs.</p>
<p>^^^lol. Take a look at ehiunno's courseload and see what cav's talking about.</p>
<p>Problem sets are a waste of time and labs are miserable.</p>
<p>no lie, cav does have a point about labs and problem sets. I have done everything I can to avoid labs, and I think I'll only need one or two to graduate thank God. Problem sets are annoying as crap once you do the same kind of problem 10 times. In some classes they aren't bad because it will just be a few different kinds of problems, but in others you will have 10 TEDIOUS problems that you have to solve the EXACT same way.</p>
<p>It drives me crazy... if I did it once, I don't have to do it 10 more times to prove to you I can do it. The ones with a few different problems can be fun though. You really get a sense of accomplishment after you finish a tough one.</p>
<p>I used to think 1 hour 30 minute labs were bad. I am going to hate life after a 4 hour orgo lab. Nooo!</p>
<p>I haven't yet the foggiest idea what you do so long in a college lab that is so time-consuming ... needless to say, the AP exams did not prepare me for any of that, beyond cheesy demonstrations and conclusion-making.</p>
<p>You work, do experiments, analyze results, and learn your classes' concepts hands on. Labs, I think, are vital to understanding material, as long as the lab is run efficiently.</p>
<p>Well yes, but to what extent do college labs differ from high school labs? (And I'm talking about well-run high school labs. I shan't even discuss the poorly-run ones, ugh.) Is most of the time spent doing experiments (say, in chem for example, waiting for things to boil, siphoning things off, measuring molarity, taking an endless time with the microscope if the thing won't focus etc.) or doing analysis?</p>
<p>They're 110% different. And the majority of time is spent taking measurements, with some analysis, then you do the majority of the analysising outside of lab in reports and such.</p>
<p>ehiunno, you did IB right? How do college labs compare to IB labs?</p>
<p>never had any of both. My IB labs were a huge joke, I had no HL science classes(school didn't offer them). Physics major only requires one lab, so i'll be taking that much later.</p>
<p>Lucky you! The Chem HL labs were absolutely terrible. Spend a week designing the lab, then get graded on the scientific accuracy, then get graded on creativity. If all went well, you'd get the lab done in a couple of hours, then spend another 4-5 hours doing analysis (including hand drawn graphs, no computer graphs for them). We did 2 labs a week, worst class ever.</p>
<p>Ya, IB was just a really miserable, tough experience, especially in labs where you have to write highly detailed reports.</p>
<p>HL Chem labs were laughable compared to HL Math IA's. Good god. I spent like 35 hours on a report just to get a 13/20.</p>
<p>There's a reason I stayed well clear of Math HL...</p>
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especially in labs where you have to write highly detailed reports.
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<p>That sounds like paradise when most teachers don't seem to value highly-detailed analysis in general.</p>
<p>IB was only paradise if you consider the heat of hell nice. If so, you don't need to worry about a high power fan ;)</p>
<p>I know what you mean jask, those HL math IA's were a beast. I think I got 20 on one of them and I don't remember on the other one... the problem for the second one wasn't very interesting, but the first one was a cool problem.</p>