hey there,

I am a first year kin student and was wondering which is easier, MATH 1LS3 or MATH 1A03. I know that kin students are taking both, even though the new MATH 1LS3 is supposed to be for science students. I was wondering which would be easier, since I heard MATH 1A03 was like grade 12 math.

Thanks in advance

math 1LS3 is probably oen of the best courses i've taken this year. i hated math before, but dr. lovric teaches it in a way that you're guaranteed to start liking it. and the test questions are all taken from, if not very similar, to the courseware questions. math 1ls3 is your best choice

I'm in Kin too, and I took 1A03. You only learn one new thing (integrals) that you didn't already learn in high school, but it's still confusing if you don't go to class/don't pay attention/don't do practice problems. We had a weekly quiz, and the questions were normally taken directly from the textbook (some changed a few numbers). I did really well in the course, but many people found that the profs either went too fast or were hard to understand.

Definately take math 1LS Dr. Lovric is amazing...he made me love math..I couldnt stand high school math...

I just finished 1A03, it was certainly interesting, although my prof was not very good and I ended up teaching a lot of the material to myself using the text. Advice: If you're not planning on taking math related things later on, just take 1LS instead.

I'm also in kin, and I took 1A03, but I'm planning on minoring in math. If you don't have similar plans, I would recommend 1LS

If you're only planning on taking one math, then 1LS3 is perfect. The course starts with straight lines, and works its way up to integration. It's a very easy course. I got a 12 without any real effort.
On the other hand, if you want to continue in math, then 1A03 is a much better choice.

Do you think 1LS3 will still prepare you enough for 1AA3 math?

I took Math 1A03 last term and based on the course outline for Math 1AA3 this term, it seems that the material is an add-on to integration as the course continues from chapter 7 onwards, which is where we left off from last term. I don't know if that helps but today the professor reviewed the various ways to integrate (partial fractions, substituion, integration by parts, trig. substitution). I think if you had a decent, solid basis for integration it would be okay.

Is the textbook necessary for LS3?

personally, I found doing the textbook questions really helpful. Some people are fine without doing them too. It depends on how much practice you need.

Originally Posted by sinthusized

Do you think 1LS3 will still prepare you enough for 1AA3 math?

1LS3 does NOT prepare you enough for 1AA3. i took 1LS3 during the year and am now taking 1AA3 during the summer, and even with the help of people who already took this course, and a lot of time to focus exclusively on math without being distracted by other subjects, i'm having a really hard time with it--not the new concepts, which i understand fine, but the things we should have already learned--integration techniques such as partial fractions, trig substitution, etc. in 1LS3 we spent forever on things we should have learned in grade 9, and then we learned integration in the last week--as a result, i'm not very good at integrating things--we only learned substitution and parts methods, and even those take practise to become really good at. if you're planning on taking any other math courses, then you should definitely take 1A03, whether or not you're good at math--because if you do 1LS3 because you're bad at math, and then take 1AA3, you're going to have an even harder time with it!

Originally Posted by nerual

1LS3 does NOT prepare you enough for 1AA3. i took 1LS3 during the year and am now taking 1AA3 during the summer, and even with the help of people who already took this course, and a lot of time to focus exclusively on math without being distracted by other subjects, i'm having a really hard time with it--not the new concepts, which i understand fine, but the things we should have already learned--integration techniques such as partial fractions, trig substitution, etc. in 1LS3 we spent forever on things we should have learned in grade 9, and then we learned integration in the last week--as a result, i'm not very good at integrating things--we only learned substitution and parts methods, and even those take practise to become really good at. if you're planning on taking any other math courses, then you should definitely take 1A03, whether or not you're good at math--because if you do 1LS3 because you're bad at math, and then take 1AA3, you're going to have an even harder time with it!

Is the math help centre not open during the summer?

^^Nope. TA duties aren't assigned to grad students over the summer since so few Math courses run at any given time. There are like 5 TAs, which aren't enough to man the Math Help Centre.

However 1AA3 should still have a TA who can help you out. Ironically, it seems like most people find integration to be the easiest part of 1AA3...

nerual, if you need any tutoring or extra help, I'm a grad student. PM me and I'll give you my MSN address and I can help you out (I'd help for free over MSN, or for a fee I'd come down and meet you at Mac for tutoring).

no it is NOT necessary,
you can always borrow other ppl textbook, which my friend did,
and for our year, the teacher gave us assignments online which were not summative to practice
most of the practice questions are IN THE COURSEWARE which you buy at the beginning of the year
and I agree, if your in KIN your probably not going to pursue an upper level math program since the only degrees in kin are sciecne or social science
if your planning on minoring in math take 1a03, but why take a hard course when its not necessary