Course Selection

Ontario High School course selection guide and tips.

Posted: 7/15/2024, 8:35:00 AM - Last Updated: 7/15/2024, 8:35:00 AM - Tags:

#highschool

#guide

After recently graduating high school and receiving my OSSD, I've decided to share some of my thoughts on the High School course selection process. I will also be including my grades for my grade 11/12 courses should you be interested.

Grade 9

Congratulations! You've made it to your first year of high school, unfortunately, in terms of courses, you have basically no choice. You will likely be able to choose between Art/Music/Drama and possibly French/Spanish, however, the rest of your courses will be mandatory. With some of these courses you'll also be able to select applied or academic. This part is easy, if you want to go to university, choose academic, if you want to go to college, choose applied.

My courses in grade 9 were:

1. English (ENG1D1)
2. Math (MPM2D1)
3. Science (SNC1D1)
4. Core French (FSF1D1)
5. Geography (CGC1D1)
6. Phys Ed (PPL1OM)
7. Art (AVI1O1)
8. Exploring Technologies (TIJ1O1)

You may notice that I didn't take the prereq for grade 10 math, this was because I was fortunate enough to take an accelerated math course in grade 9 which I completed the year prior. This program was later discountinued but this also helped me have more flexibility and choice so if you have something similar I highly recommending taking it.

I unfortunately didn't have a choice for my Art/Music/Drama course since at this time we were in cohorts/online learning due to COVID-19.

In any case, during this time you should get familiar with how high school works and how to manage your time effectively. Your teachers will likely be more lenient and understanding, however I also noticed the quality of grading and teaching was also much lower. My grades were all over the place from high 90's to low 80's...

Don't worry, you don't need high grades (unless you're trying to apply to international schools)

Summer School

I have mixed opinions about summer school, I took summer school for my Grade 10 English (ENG2D1) and it was fun and not a terrible experience, however, it definitely did not cover everything that the regular course would have. On the other hand, it gave me a lot more "leeway" in the future as you'll see later on, maybe take it, maybe don't.

Grade 10

Grade 10 is similar to grade 9, you'll have a few more choices but again not too many, you aren't required to take French anymore and you'll have some more freedom in tech courses. You'll also be required to take a Civics/Career Studies Course which will be split half and half throughout a semester. You'll also have to take a history class...

My courses in grade 10 were:

1. English (ENG3U5) [96%]
2. Functions (MCR3U1) [97%]
3. Science (SNC2D1)
4. Civics (CHV2O1) .5 Credit
5. Canadian History (CHC2D1)
6. Career Studies (GLC2O1) .5 Credit
7. Core French (FSF2D1)
8. Phys Ed (PPL2OM)
9. Construction Technologies (TCJ2OW)

This year was probably the most fun I had in high school, I was still playing hockey and I was doing quite well in most of my classes. Most notably I did quite well in my 2 Grade 11 Courses with barely any studying, this unfortunately gave me a false sense of security as I would later discover...

In any case I again thought this year was similar, the quality of teaching and grading still wasn't great (though it was still better than grade 9). Most importantly though, I took core french, and this is something I push every student too. For one, if you are good at French and want to learn another language, this is a perfect opportunity, secondly, if you complete this course you're freed up from taking other filler courses such as grade 11/12 anthropology, sociology, etc. This is because you must have a single course from 3 sort of categories. French acts as a wildcard here, it can be used to fill any of the other 3 and therefore allows you to take more courses you're interested in later on instead of filling it with a course you don't care about.

Nothing notable really happened in these courses, I would say that I found Construction Technologies quite fun and interesting. I would also say that I hated history more than anything though that could just be me being extremely biased since I did get a lower grade in it (even though I thought I did quite well).

As a final note for grade 10, your grade 10 grades here don't matter again, I would recommend you do try and do well though.

Summer School

I ended up taking grade 11 Physics (SPH3UO) [92%] since it was literally the only course offered over the summer due to some scheduling issues (I originally wanted to do biology)... I did not do too great here, I do believe I would've done better in the regular course.

Grade 11

Wow, grade 11 already, this is where things start to get serious. You'll have a world of courses to pick from and you'll really have to try if you want to get into top schools/programs. At this point you should already have a general idea of the courses you want to take in grade 12 since you will need to make sure you fulfill course requirements to even apply to some programs.

My courses in grade 11 were:

1. English (ENG4U5) [96%]
2. Advanced Functions (MHF4UP) [92%]
3. Phys Ed (PAF3O1) [92%]
4. Chemistry (SCH3U5) [91%]
5. Physics (SPH4U1) [93%]
6. Computer Science (ICS3U1) [96%]
7. Biology (SBI3U1) [91%]
8. Computer Engineering (TEJ3M1) [99%]

This year was probably one of the most stressful years I've ever been alive. Between juggling Hockey and Basketball, working in many clubs, as well as volunteering, I had basically no time at this point in my life. This was poorly reflected in my first semester where I did poorly relative to previous years. I also took it upon myself to try some advanced placement courses (Calculus AB and Computer Science A) since I heard these were doable and could help me explore some of my interests.

This unfortunately gave me Chemistry, Grade 12 Physics, Advanced Functions (AP) and English all in the same semester, suffice to say, I was not prepared for this. Chemistry was always one of my weak points so this didn't really make a difference, however I struggled in Physics and Advanced Functions. I did relatively well in English however due to my advanced functions course being in preparation for Calculus AB, we ended up having unit tests nearly every week (We finished the course in about 2 months). This, paired with the fact I was also self studying Computer Science A did not help.

Thankfully mentally I was still happy and doing well, and in my second semester I did much better, achieving my first 99% in a grade 11 course.

Here is where I thought the quality of teaching and grading got much better, apart from ICS3U1 teacher I thought all my teachers were for once truly passionate about the subject they taught and they truly helped me a ton. I would also say that I found Computer Engineering quite fun, however, depending on your teacher you may want to avoid this course.

I will also add that you should do some research and see which teachers are good and which are bad, this can make a huge difference in reflecting your true grades and understanding of the course. Some teachers just don't care and will look for any reason to give you a bad grade, this was dully noted when one of my teachers took off a full mark out of a 12 mark project for not using 3 spaces instead of 2 to separate some output (They then refused to answer my emails about it). They finally caved in at the end of the year saying they would change it but since this was exam review day they never changed the mark.

University Applications

Here is where your grades do matter. If you do truly bad in a course I would recommend looking at options to retake it or study up and prepare heavily for grade 12.

University's will use your grade 11 courses as a predictor to what you'll get in grade 12. Basically, if you get a 96% in some course, they'll expect you to get a 96% in the grade 12 equivalent. This makes it extremely important if you're doing early admissions since this is the only way they can really judge you as a student (apart from AIF's).

Sciences

Generally Students end up taking 2-3 of the sciences, especially if they want to go into engineering, my thoughts were that if you're good at memorizing and understanding how processes and systems work, biology is probably for you. On the other hand if you like calculations and math, take physics, if you want a bit of both, take chemistry. Make sure you do plan out which ones your taking though as the grade 12 courses require you have to have the grade 11 equivalent.

AP Sidenote

Advanced Placement for those of you who don't know is a program where you can take what the US Collegeboard thinks a university would teach in first year. You should note that this has 0 effect on Canadian University Applications. I took these courses because I was interested in them, I ended up scoring a 4 and a 5 in AP Calc AB and AP CSA respectively (Out of a max score of 5). My only advice here is if you are truly interested or you already have a great grasp on the foundations of these courses, take them, otherwise I would avoid them.

Grade 12

Finally, this is it, your final year of high school, here is where you should truly strive to do your best. You won't have as many courses to choose from since at this point all grade 12 courses need prereqs to be taken and can only be overriden if the teacher or head of department agrees. You will also be applying to university during this time so make sure you have everything sorted out here.

I took the following:

1. Data Management (MDM4U1) [100%]
2. Chemistry (SCH4U1) [92%]
3. Computer Engineering (TEJ4M1) [100%]
4. Computer Science (ICS4U1) [97%]
5. Calculus and Vectors (MCV4U5) [99%]
6. Cooperative Education (TEJ4M8) [100%]

This year was my best academically (thankfully...) and I was able to achieve 3 100's in Data, Computer Engineering, and Coop (This was pretty easy though...) I was also super close to getting 100% in Calculus and Vectors but I'm not complaining. This also ended up granting me our schools Academic Excellence Award which was a nice touch.

This was one of the most interesting years for me academically since I was finally only taking courses I was truly interested in (minus Chemistry, sorry Mrs. Kelly...) Overall I had a great time, I found and refined my studying methods to a point where I was able to quite well in most of my courses. I also found that I was able to balance my time much better and in the meantime I also had fun clubs and activites to lead.

The teachers in my final year of study were also hands down some of the best I've ever had. I feel I can say this because even though I ended up with some lower marks in some courses such as Chemistry, I still felt like I learned a ton and actually looked forward to the experiments/some of the content we were learning. My best tip here is to make sure you have a good relationship with your teachers. At this point they're looking to help you do well and they'll be more than happy to help you out.

Conclusions/Final Thoughts

I hope this guide was helpful to you and helped make some choices regarding your high school courses, in any case your teachers and guidance counsellors can always give you further advice and you should never be afraid to ask them.