summerheaven

I'm freaking out about school right now. This past month, my marks in many fo my classes dropped like a rock.

I'm in grade 11 right now and I'm currently taking:
English 11 (A)
Graphics 12 (A)
Biology 11 (Not sure but I did bad on my last test... may be a C+)
Chemistry 11 (C+, I was getting a B but I did horrible on the last test)
Beginners Japanese 11 (A)
Math 11 (B, just barely)
Socials 11 (A)
Physics 11 (Not sure but it may be a C+)

I'm trying to get into pharmacy... I've heard that it's crazy hard though. I really don't know what to do. I don't really even want to take pharmacy, it's just that I absolutely do not know what I want in life.

These are the classes I'm planning on taking next year:
English 12
Math 12
Biology 12
Chemistry 12
Japanese 11
History 12
Comparative Civilizations 12
Service Block

Some people say that I should take calculas but I suck horribly at math. Some say that Calculas counts for nothing, it won't even lower my GPA but others say it DOES count and I'm confused.

I'm not taking any summer school courses but I'm starting to think I should so I won't have a heavy work load. I will have 5 provincials next year if I choose that schedule but I'm sure i'll ace English and History so I only have Math, Bio and CHem to worry about... the problem is that they are all very hard courses.
If I were to take summer school, which courses should I take?

I really want to look into other careers so I can change my mind before I dig a hole too deep to get out of. I looked deep inside of me but I can't find what career I want. Does anyone know if any career aptitude tests out there (that are free? google only gives me ones that you have to buy or totally bogus ones).

Can someone tell me more about pharmacy and the requirements and stuff? Also, any universities that are good for it? Of course I would love to get into UBC or SFU but I really don't mind going out of the city (North UBC, UVIC, etc).

Also, can someone tell me more about satellite universities (UBC's or SFU's)? I've heard that they are way easier to get into. Is there science faculties there?

CarolineClap

I'd have to do some research into the different school's question, BUT in short answer, Pharmacy is not going to look at your grade 11 or grade 12 marks. I'm no expert in Pharmacy, although you could probably look up the entrance requirements pretty easily on UBC's website and see what is required to get in. If it requires math, I would definitely recommend taking calculus in grade 12. Math 12 used to include calculus back when I went to highschool (yes, I am old...haa), but they stopped it around 2000. My bf just took math 12 and not calculus. When he took Math 100 at UBC, he got a D! The teacher simply assumed they all knew calc (and he didn't really speak english which didn't help).

In terms of what you want to do in life, you don't have to decide yet!!!! I just finished law school, but I thought I wanted to be a highschool teacher until 2nd year university. Then that summer i thought I'd try the LSAT and see what happens. I'm really glad I did, and things seem to have a way of working themselves out.

Long story short - see what the requirements are for areas you are interested in broadly. E.g. sciences - make sure you are taking core science courses in grade 12 to prepare you for university. You will pretty much review grade 12 chem in the first week and a half of first yaer uni chem!! Keep your options open and gradually specialize more and more throughout university.

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CarolineClap

Oh, one more thing: 5 provincials isn't that bad. I took six back in the day, so you can do it!! Esp. since english and history seem to be going really well. Then you can focus on the other courses more.

__________________
www.medprep.ca

summerheaven

I've been thinking it over and now my courses will be like this:

SUMMER:
English 12 (Online)
Biology 12

SCHOOL:
Chemistry 12
Math 12
History 12
Comparative Civilizations 12
Japanese 11
Service Block
Interior Design
(And one more class... any suggestions?? I can't take a free block unless I have 5 provincially examable courses, right?)

And I'm going to take calculas the summer after my grade 12 year.

Is this a good idea?

Mahgolh

--Ill tell you about my past experiences which may or may not help you out....First off i was panicking about what i wanted to do, and I still dont know but i know it has to do with sciences and maybe medicine so as long as you know the general area then you know what courses you'll take in university because they will be fairly the same (ie most courses are the same up to year 3 for biochem/chem and some other majors)
--pharmacy is tough to get into, but as far as i know at ubc they dont consider your high school grades, you have to take first year courses which are prerequisites and then you take the PCAT, which you may take in first year or second year, the material they test will be similar to high school stuff so make sure you know it you will be admitted based on PCAT score and your prerequisite averages. high school marks will count though because you will need tthem to get into university in the first place
--it is a good idea you are taking biology 12 in the summer ( i did the same). many teachers tend to go through much more detail and required for the provincial and you waste your time on all these projects/assignments, but in the summer it is much easier, due to the time constraint you mainly focus on the examinable stuff and when i did it my unit tests were previous exam questions which made it very easy to ace. you have to commit to it though as you will have a test every 3-4 days probably but if you run into trouble go to http://www.learnnowbc.gov.bc.ca/ where you can access free tutoring 6-10 pm sunday through thursday and you can access study buzz which is basically designed for preparing you for unit tests/exams
--- as far as I know there arent really restrictions on spare blocks, at my school ppl were taking only 4 courses so they would show up to school every second day but you have to be careful sometimes spares are useful if you use it to study but sometimes they can make you lazy. on the other hand if you take another course then it could make it harder for you to do as well on your other courses
-calculus, i took it in my grade 12 year and was doing fairly well but i dropped it before the course finished cuz i was too lazy to study for the final. BUT it is not a requirment for university. there is a course identical to high school calculus that you take in university, and a second course which follows it (if your in sciences).

wow, i wrote a lot, im just having trouble falling asleep..hope you find some of this useful

play_wit_fire

at my school you need 4 prov courses... ask your counsellor?

Annie =)

it depends on the school, most require 3 other provincal examable classes besides English 12. I took Comp Civ and off the top of my head Cap and SFU accepts them as a provincal examable course (it doesn't have one) and i found it to be the easiest course in my whole grade 12 year.

If you don't know what you want to do, i think post secondaries offer the "general studies" options. I know there;s that option of the Arts but not so sure about the Sciences. As for Pharamacy, i don't think they look at your high school marks right away. You have to go do your pre-reqs before you can actually take the classes. Im sure SFU have science faluties, and UBC for sure since a few of my friends are planing to do family practicing at UBC or taking the pre-reqs for it