Guide to First-Year Engineering Courses at UBC
In the first year of engineering at UBC, all students take the same set of courses from the standard timetable (STT). In this article, I will provide a comprehensive overview of each course, including its contents, difficulties, and potential challenges.
Typically, your semester will follow a structure similar to the one outlined below, although some Standard Timetable (STT) variations may interchange PHYS 170 and APSC 160. It is recommended to aim to take APSC 160 in the first semester and PHYS 170 in the second semester as indicated here. This is because Math 152, which is only offered in semester 2, helps you learn PHYS 170 contents better; and the coding skills learned in APSC 160 are useful in designing your claw for APSC 101 in term 2.
Note: Most people take an English course (typically WRDS 150) and an arts elective during the first year. They are not included here because I had credits so I just skipped them.
Another Note: This is my experience taking first-year courses in the 2022-2023 year. Please note that curriculum changes can occur over time, and the specific courses you will take may vary based on the academic year you are in. For example, in our year, there were significant modifications in Math 100 and Math 101 compared to previous years. Therefore, it is essential to have a look at the most up-to-date curriculum and course offerings for accurate information about your specific academic year.
General Advice
I took IB Math HL and IB Physics HL so I learned a lot of content prior. The biggest jump for me is the amount of homework for every class. Sometimes it for real feels like there’s no time to study because we are just doing homework all day. Try not to skip every class like me and build a strong foundation throughout the year rather than cramming before exams. The content is not hard in my opinion, there’s just a lot of content to cover in a relatively short amount of time. Use UBCGrades to check the averages for your classes to get a good understanding of the difficulty levels.
In addition, good exam-taking skills are also vital. You need to be both fast and accurate, especially during midterms when exam times are very short. In my experience, UBC doesn’t give that many part marks for incorrect answers.
Semester 1
Math 100
Difficulty: ⭐
Math 100 teaches you how to do derivatives along with a little bit of optimization and multivariable calculus. If you did IB or AP like me this is essentially a review. Contents are much easier too. The multivariable calculus part was super hard and teaches you about saddle points, Newton’s law of cooling, and crazy year 2 math, but none of it showed up on any exams.
- Resources:
Workload:
- Weekly math questions
- 2 practice exams for participation marks
- 5 written group assignments
Exams:
- Only 1 final worth 50%, consisting of 10 easy questions and 3-4 hard questions. Many questions were pretty similar to assignments and past exams.
Study Recommendations:
- Make sure you can do the weekly math questions with ease.
- Grind past/practice exams and review group assignments prior to finals.
- Group assignments are worth 20% of your final grade and they mark it very harshly. Make sure someone in your group knows latex.
APSC 100/101
Difficulty: ⭐⭐
APSC 100 in term 1, and APSC 101 in term 2. They are meme courses that teach you the roles and responsibilities of an engineer and what an engineering design process might look like. You also gain hands-on experience designing cardboard chairs, autonomous claws, etc. It is a meme course because the exams are multiple choices only and all of the choices make sense. So at the end of the day, it’s essentially a test on reading comprehension. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you actually experience it yourself.
Workload:
- Weekly screencast and online quizzes
- Monthly engineering projects (Cardboard chair competition, bike lane design presentations, etc.)
- Some engineering projects, notably the Rainwater Treatment System in APSC 101, take a really long time to complete. It all depends on how helpful your teammates are.
Exams:
- 1 midterm and 1 final, all multiple-choice. I have gotten better marks not studying than studying. Just make sure your reading comprehension is on point. They scale the exams really hard.
Study Recommendations:
- Watch the weekly modules carefully and do a couple of practice exams prior to exams. A good night’s sleep and not overthinking is sometimes more important. A lot of it is honestly common sense.
- Taking initiative in team management and keeping your group organized is very important because the deadline for projects is often alongside midterms for your other classes and stress can quickly build up.
CHEM 154
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
CHEM 154 is essentially Chemistry 12 on steroids. You learn some stoichiometry in the beginning and slowly transition to equilibriums, thermodynamics, kinetics, and electrochemistry. I am not very good at chemistry nor am I interested so the course felt very hard/tedious for me. Each unit by itself isn’t hard at all but there are just too many units.
Workload:
- Weekly workbook questions
- monthly lab writeup
Exams:
- 1 midterm and 1 final, some short answer questions and some long answers.
Study Recommendations:
- Begin your studies early, complete all workbook questions, and ensure a thorough understanding of the material after reviewing the answers.
PHYS 157
Difficulty: ⭐⭐
Physics 157 teaches you about thermodynamics and waves and will be your first university-level physics. You will learn that a heat engine is the exact opposite of a refrigerator and how waves can be used to measure space compressions. Honestly, the hardness deserves a ⭐⭐⭐ but this insane YouTube playlist exists. Professor Raamsdonk is the goat.
Workload:
- Weekly reading quiz
- Weekly online Mastering Physics questions or written worksheets
Exams:
- 2 midterms and 1 final consisting of some multiple-choice and some written questions. Multiple choices are worth a lot of marks and if you mess up just one you lose like 6% on the midterm. The final was pretty light though and perhaps that’s why our average this year was the highest compared to past years.
Study Recommendations:
- Watch Professor Raamsdonk ’s YouTube and fully understand it
- Make sure you do all the Mastering Physics questions by yourself, it’s only worth a few percentages it’s much more beneficial to mess up now than during the exams.
- Grind practice and past midterms
APSC 160
Difficulty: ⭐
Definitely the most enjoyable course in the first term. APSC 160 teaches you how to code in C and is the only flipped classroom in the first year (you learn the material at home and the professor goes over the main points in class). You do not need prior coding experiences to exceed in this course and watching your code run for the first time can be very exciting. Most of the class time is used for homework which means you have minimal workload at home and you can leave class fairly early once you finish.
Workload:
- Weekly screencast and coding assignments
Exams:
- 2 midterms and 1 final. The first midterm was easy, the second midterm was hard, and the final was easy. Just make sure you can write code fast because the exam is a bit tight on time.
Study Recommendations:
- Watch the screencast and do the code assignments on time and by yourself.
Semester 2
Math 101
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐
Math 101 teaches you how to do integration for the first half of the course and series for the second half. The integration part was a review from IB but definitely not the series part.
- Resources:
Workload:
- Weekly math questions
- 2 practice exams for participation marks
- 5 written group assignments
Exams:
- No midterms and 1 final worth 50%, consisting of 10 easy questions and 3-4 hard questions. The past exams were not very useful given the large amount of curriculum change this year.
Study Recommendations:
- Same as MATH 100
- Math 101 has less overlap with high school material compared to Math 100, so it’s beneficial to practice with CLP 2 questions for additional preparation.
Math 152
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Math 152 teaches you linear systems, which is very important in understanding PHYS 170 and ultimately mechanics. The first half consisted of vectors and matrices and was much easier than IB Math HL. The second half consists of eigenvalues and matrix algebra which are all difficult conceptually. You also learn Matlab basics throughout the course. If you have not studied vectors and planes before I suggest you start learning a bit prior to the start of the course, especially if you are not good at imagining 3D planes. A lot of my friends had trouble understanding at first.
Resources:
Workload:
- Weekly math questions
- Bi-weekly MATLAB labs
Exams:
- 2 midterm and 1 final. The midterms were ok but the final was super super super hard.
Study Recommendations:
- Same as MATH 100
- Review your exam markings. There are many different methods of solving linear systems and your TA marking may not be aware of your methods.
PHYS 158
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The hardest course in the first year. PHYS 158 teaches you circuits and magnetism. There are a lot of contents and none of them are easy, so definitely start studying early. Even if you did horrible on your first 2 midterms, don’t give up because if you did well in the final the professor replaces your final course grade with your final exam grade. (Note: this is true for my year I’m not sure about yours)
Resources:
- Watch this goated Youtube Channel on any topic you don’t understand
Workload:
- Weekly reading quiz
- Weekly Mastering Physics or Written Homework
Exams:
- 2 midterms and 1 final they are all very brutal
Study Recommendation:
- Learn material early and fully understand mastering physics and written homework problems. They will be hard but do it on your own because it is far better getting bad marks on assignments than bombing the exams which are worth almost 80% of your final grade.
- Make sure you fully understand all the written examples in the textbook. They are pretty similar to the questions you will see in your exams.
PHYS 159
Difficulty: ⭐
One credit physics lab which teaches you the various experiment methods. Very high class average with low workload given that most of the work is done in class time. To excel in this course you need to understand what the TAs marking want from you, which is a clear lab report that includes all the criteria. Getting a good lab partner also helps a lot.
Workload:
- Weekly lab quiz
- In-class lab write-ups
Exams:
- No exam just one final lab writeup worth 20% of your grades
Study Recommendation:
- Finish your experiment fast and write fast. Include as much detail as possible and conduct more trials if there’s time for more accuracy. The TAs don’t really mark you based on your answer but on your process getting to your answer.
PHYS 170
Difficulty: ⭐⭐
PHYS 170 teaches you how to draw free-body diagrams and calculate the different forces within them. It is not too hard because the questions on the exam are very similar to past exams. There are only a few types of problems and once you grind some you basically see it all.
Workload:
- Weekly mastering physics
- Weekly tutorial
Exams:
- One midterm and one final worth 90% of your grades
Study Recommendation:
- Learn to draw nice free-body diagrams and start studying early.
And that’s it! Try your best and have fun : )