Hello!
I am glad I could help. I would be more than happy to answer your other questions.
-I'm not interested in doing summer school, so will it still be possible for me to complete all of my electives by the end of second year?
It depends what medical schools you are going for. Some universities like McMaster have no course prerequisites to get into their medical school. Others like UofT require a couple courses. If you are applying to a lot of universities to increase your chances, it means you would have to do more electives that qualify you to apply to these medical schools. I suggest you look up your options and make a list of medical schools you want to apply to. Then make a list about what each school requires in terms of courses, MCAT, grades... etc.
- how much elective space do we get each year?
You seem to be intersted in finishing your prerequisites in two years so I'll tell you about the electives you have in the first two years of your dregree. In your first year you have to do 5 kinesiology courses and a calculus course which means you have 4 electives first year. Second year you have to do 6 kinesiology courses and a stats course so you have 3 electives second year. I was told by a professor that they will be changing some of these in the future so it is possible you will have more space to do electives. But if things stay the way they are, you have about 7 electives in your first two years.
- also many med school such as the UofT med school wants "full course equivalent" prequisities so what does that mean and are all of McMaster courses considered "full course equivalents"?
I don't think so. My understanding is that a full course equivalent would be equal to taking a course for a full year. Mcmaster offers courses you finish in one semester so to do the equivalent of a full course you do two McMaster courses. For example, to do one full course of chemistry you would have to do CHEM1A03 in one semester and CHEM1AA3 in a following semester and that adds up to a year of chemistry which is a full course.
- how hard is the first year in kin and is there a lot of workload?
It is not hard in terms of the ability to unerstand the material, but some of the courses have a larger workload than others. I would say that out of the 5 required kinesiology courses, the two courses in anatomy and physiology are the most demanding because they are all about memorization. The easiest course (to me) by far was nutrition. The other two courses (Motor control and Learning/ Physical activity and health) were medium load courses. On top of these courses I did a calculus course which is required to get your kin degree (you can do it first or second year, but not any later than that). The calculus course was also very demanding because you have to practice a lot to do well. Overall the work load was ok. What made my first year hard is that I used my elecctives to do chem/bio/phy. Trying to combine kinesiology courses will only science courses made me go through a lot of stress. If I were you, I would take some science courses in the summer even if I could fit them in the school year because it would make you less stressful and more able to get the gpa you want for medical school.
- is there any "office" I can call at McMaster who can give more insight into prerequisites in med school?
McMaster does not have course prerequisites as far as I know, they only want a high gpa and a high score in MCAT (CARS section). If you want more information about McMaster requirements or about using McMaster courses to fulfill othe school's requirements, I suggest you call and ask for the phone operator to direct you to someone who could help you with that. And check the McMaster website too, its pretty useful.
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