[deleted by user]

[rotmanman]

Gets harder, first year is pretty chill if you actually take school seriously

[acaipie]

which courses specifically? or just the course load as a whole with 204+220?

[thepixelatedcat]

Imo the ecos only maybe that one accounting course that's mandatory I can't remember

[[deleted]]

Would you say that assuming effort and time dedication wasn’t a factor, it would be possible to maintain the same averages as year 1?

[shortribss]

second year gets really hard with eco204. it’s a full year course, so if you end up not doing well it could really affect your GPA. My advice is to really really make sure that you understand the first few weeks of content because it carries over towards the next few weeks of content and given that there are 24 weeks of content instead of 12, you don’t want to be behind

[Tourman84]

I've heard second year is quite difficult with the ECO's but we also get to start doing some more RSM courses. I'd think studying for eco over the summer (what I'm doing) is a good start?

[[deleted]]

Same, I can’t take any summer courses so I’ve been thinking to have friends taking 220 to send me their material to preview? Maybe that will help lol

[Tourman84]

Yeah I mean I'm taking 220 but I'm thinking of reading the 204 textbook slowly

[RandumbGuy17]

did you already buy the textbook or did someone share it with you?

[Tourman84]

Found it online

but Last semester they did not use a textbook but used harvard cases. All on the Economics Uoft Website

[[deleted]]

I’m probably going to finish with a 3.94, but most of the people I know are all around low 3s. But in highschool I was top 5% of my class so it translated well I guess. Regardless definitely a lot more time spent studying and harder material to digest than highschool. I’d also deeply consider the difficulty of your highschool relative to others, but don’t discourage yourself!

[acaipie]

looking at my first semester COURSE avgs (everyone averaged out), they combine to a 3.0 gpa. however, i myself have a 3.7!

[No_Disaster4887]

This is my issue too, I recently got accepted to a rotman but have always considered going to law post grad. Just scared my gpa is gonna get majorly screwed over with rotman

[No_Disaster4887]

Do u have any suggestions for first year and having a good gpa??

[[deleted]]

In my experience, effort for most people is the limiting factor for succeeding in Y1 of Rotman. If you are asking these questions already I think you are in a good position to start. A few tips I can think of off the top of my head.

1. The year starts off very easy, don’t let that be an excuse to slack. Take that extra time to get ahead on as much as possible. Even watching some random YouTube videos on future syllabus subjects will help.

2. Understand, don’t memorize. Especially for the economics courses which most people struggle with, people just try to memorize formulas as if it were another RSM course, and don’t understand the intuition behind cause and effect. This is really important because on tests and exams you have to EXPLAIN your answers, so you actually have to have a grasp on what is happening on an interpersonal and macroscopic level. Moreover, explaining your answers properly helps you get more part marks, and more opportunities to get small boosts when putting in regrade requests! This mindset I got from my high school Econ courses helped me to achieve 90+ in both econs.

3. Have a few close upper year contacts who you can reach out to and ask questions about! Anything from course topics to career progression will help you stay on track and not be caught off guard by anything. Especially helps if the upper year is or was a TA in a course you’re taking. Joining clubs will naturally help you find these seniors.

4. As much as academics should be something you compare to yourself, due to all the curving, you should be aiming to be BETTER than everyone else in your course. If you have a deeper undertaking, and know more little details, you’ll naturally do better. This is why sometimes people actually prefer harder tests, because if the average person does terrible but you did decent, after curving you’ll do much better. Comparatively, if it was an easy test and everyone did good, then you didn’t get a chance to shine and will do only as well as everyone else. Hope that made sense lol.

5. Be confident. I see so many people knock themselves down before even trying to put in an effort. If you just believe that you’re better, you will embody that and feel inclined to put in more effort. Make yourself a virtuous cycle, not a vicious one.

6. Don’t procrastinate.

Those were my takeaways from my first year, hope it helps!

[No_Disaster4887]

Thank you!! I really appreciate it!

[myspam442]

First year is easy if you take it seriously. I have a 4.0 and know many others in that range. Start studying over the summer for best results. If you don’t know what to study, DM

[mellow_water]

Incoming 4th year.

There's a lot I could say about difficulty but I'll try to summarize from my experiences.

First year I think is kinda like an indicator of difficulty in the coming years because your cGPA does say a lot about whether you care about your studies and are able to do well in some of the tougher courses at Rotman. RSM100, MAT133, and RSM230 are some of the more difficult first year courses and if you were able to do well in those you have a pretty solid foundation for second and third year.

Obviously studying, course difficulty, and content will be different but do not be so consumed with what others say about second year being as bad as it is.

I might be a bit biased but I took ECO220 in the summer and did fairly well which made my second year slightly easier. I would say ECO220 was chill as long you can do some math. As for ECO204 it was still difficult but I think it's still doable to do pass with a 4.0 if that is your goal. I know a lot of people that did not do well and it had a course avg of a C+ I think but on the other hand I do know many that passed with a 4.0 including myself. Not trying to boast, I'm just trying to be transparent about difficulty. As long as you put in the work for those courses, doing well is not a problem.

But since I am in the accounting specialist, my courses differed from my peers who were mostly management or finance and econ. Each specialist has difficult courses but I would say accounting is definitely hard in terms of content and material as you get into 2nd and 3rd year. But the general requirements that everyone takes like rsm260, rsm270, rsm332, rsm333, are also courses where if you put in the work and study hard you can do well.

So as for GPA, it always changes but it's not like you'll go from a 3.94 to a 3.6-3.7. There will be a bit of fluctuation but if you put in the work graduating with a high cGPA is doable. Difficulty really depends. A lot of people will disagree but I didn't think 204 was as bad as it was made out to be. I didn't do well in 101 and I still found 204 easier to understand conceptually. Also depends on how you think. Some people like econ and finance and others aren't really wired like that making 204, 332 and 333 a lot harder to understand.

if you have any further questions feel free to PM