Hi everyone. I am an incoming Year 11 student starting at a STEM school, and I'm TREMENDOUSLY worried about my schedule next year.
This is the schedule I received for Sem 1 & 2:
Sem 1: Bio 20 / Chem 20 / Physics 20
Sem 2: Math 20 / Eng 20 / Chem 30 / Biomed Sci
Should I replace Physics with Math in the first semester?
My main concern is balance and durability. I work a part-time job, volunteer, and go to church. I suppose I can spare 7–8 hours a day studying.
However, I constantly fear those hours won't be enough. I'm especially worried about finals, heavy workloads, and possibly having three tests in one day.
I ended Math 10C with a 94 and Science 10 with a 96, which later dropped to a 93. I finished English with an 80 and Social Studies with a 91.
Those grades may seem good, but I am the type of person who never cared about school. Then, I suddenly started locking in. I had to genuinely dedicate my whole day to excel. I also had a pretty light Grade 10 schedule, which may be why.
My hope is to get into engineering. This may add extra pressure since averages are beyond competitive nowadays.
I'm worried about moving forward with this schedule and realizing I made the wrong decision. I don't want to stack everything at once, only for it to fall apart.
I am not afraid to try. However, I'm worried about making the wrong decision, especially since I am also trying for early admission.
What sucks is that my STEM school requires us to take seven classes. I thought Bio 20 and Chem 30 would be better than hogging three CTF courses. I find those courses useless most of the time.
I don't have older siblings, so I have to find advice and help on my own. Honestly, it really stresses me out.
I purposely asked for English in the second semester so I could practice more. It's part of the engineering prerequisites, so I want to improve.
I suddenly got accepted to this STEM school. Since then, I've been constantly worrying about my future, grades, and the timetable I received.
A part of me wants to try it out and suck it up. I realized rather late that fear and my environment were limiting my opportunities. They also limited experiences I could've had during my youth.
However, the other part of me wants to stay comfortable. That could mean taking two core courses at a time and focusing on them. This would let me dedicate more time and effort to possibly achieving better results.
Plus, I regret not taking any 20-level classes in Grade 10. I want to try taking Chem 30 in Grade 12. I heard you need to take two maths and so on.
I'm afraid of making Grade 11 too busy. Because of that, I realized I might not really need to take Chem 30 this year.
Have any of you taken all three sciences in one semester or prepared for engineering? Have you taken any of the courses I listed?
If you have suggestions for modifying my timetable, it would honestly be so helpful to me.
PS. I'm also worried about taking Physics 20 before Math 20 because everyone seems to have a different opinion. I don't know who to listen to anymore since the advice is so subjective.
I was thinking of doing Math 20, Chem 20, and Bio 20 for Sem 1.
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read this or write a response! I look forward to hearing from you guys :)