For a future life science student who did fairly well in calculus and physics and will be taking the 1B03 and 1A03, would taking the 1L03 and 1LS3 be a good idea in the sole interest of using them as mark boosters?
And also can anyone comment on the difficulty and workload of the 1LS3 and 1L03?


Thanks a lot!

Both of those courses had minimal workload :'D. It was just four tests and the exam for 1LS3 when I took it in 2010. Physics only has one midterm, but there are tutorials with quizzes in them. It's not hard to do well in those if you have a decent math/physics background.

You will probably need to take physics 1b03 later on in upper years, though, so just keep that in the back of your mind .

Personally I think they're a waste of money. You're paying for these courses, now.

Also, you can't take math 1LS3 and 1A03; they're antirequisites.

I took 1LS3 in my first year and I personally thought it was easier than grade 12 calculus! We covered a lot more topics in high school and the only really new topic you'll learn about is integrals if you haven't already done so. The workload was not bad at all, you just did assignments that pertained to each topic/chapter learned and they were not marked so you could do them at your own pace. Each assignment was maybe 4-6 pages max and the questions were really similar to questions on the four tests. Apart from the assignment package and tests, there were tutorials once a week that were not mandatory but helped nonetheless. I had Baker as the prof and he was alright, he kind of rushed things and his slides were disorganized but I still did well and he's really helpful. My friends had either Clements or Lovric and they said these profs were good too, and just keep in mind that the tests are the same for all profs so no need to worry much about that. The exam was also fair and in your assignment package there are practice tests and exams from previous years. If math is your strong area then definitely take it however don't limit yourself from taking other fun electives outside your faculty!

I haven't taken 1L03 as I'm doing 1B03 right now instead but from what I hear it was very similar to grade 12 physics and was fair.

Good luck with everything!

take ls3 math over 1a03, most people i know that took 1a03 were quite disappointed with their mark. 1LS3 on the other hand is really easy, and unless you decide to minor in math, is probably the easiest way to go. My buddy who did just about as well as me in high school took 1A03 and got a C while i was able to get an A- in 1LS3. Maybe that doesnt mean much to you but really in the end you just need the calculus credit (unless you want to pursue math minor) since im pretty sure that any science course that requires first year calc allows 1A03 or 1LS3 . Dont take 1L03 physics unless you need to, its a waste of time, you'll find the 1B03 physics course draining enough.