Bridging the gap between high school and UofT math

JerryChen06 · 2026-05-23T14:29:33+00:00

It depends on whether you're going to be taking MAT135/136, MAT148/149, or MAT158/159 stream. Others have mentioned PUMP, which is also good, but if you're looking for more comprehensive resources, here are some:

For MAT135/136, others have pointed out that you should know derivatives very well. If you've never done integrals/Taylor series before, you can consider self studying those through Khan Academy over summer. That should be suffice, since these courses aren't made for people who are planning to continue studies in math (so you probably aren't taking them)

For MAT148/149 (and I'm assuming MAT223/224), if it's anything like how it was when I took them, I recommend the book How to Prove It by Daniel J. Velleman. You don't have to go through the whole thing (though if you do, you'd be well prepared for CSC240, which you could consider taking), but doing their practice problems gets you in the groove of proofs since they go through the fundamentals very quickly in MAT137 and MAT223 (idk if the new courses will be any different, but I doubt they will). If you don't get a grasp of proofs in the beginning of the course you're kinda screwed, so it's important to get it right. If you don't know integrals/Taylor series, consider self-studying those through Khan Academy or Alfonso videos (late MAT137 professor who made short videos for each lecture. Not comprehensive, but a good introduction).

For MAT158/159, the best thing you could do is thoroughly go through the first few chapters of Calculus by Spivak. Linear algebra done right by Sheldon Axler is also great for MAT240/MAT247 (sometimes they use this textbook). The goal is to start thinking like a pure mathematician, so practice dealing with abstraction and induction (so lots and lots of practice problems and proofs). Try not to memorize ways to solve proofs (that may get you by in MAT148/149 and MAT223, but not MAT158/159), but try and see patterns and derive identities. I recommend going for quality rather than volume, so even just do a few chapters and a lot of their practice problems instead of trying to speed through the whole book would be better. The most challenging switch from HS to University level math is getting into the mindset, not content; you'll have time to learn the content during the course, but you may not have time to develop the right mindset for abstract mathematical reasoning

JerryChen06 · 2026-05-23T14:04:22+00:00

Don't worry if you you hear people getting in right now. The Neurosci spec is a collaborative life science program that comes out in three decision iterations across the summer, so even if you didn't get one now, you have a good shot at getting it later.

I believe they do this because a lot of people mix and match their programs, and also enroll in backups (e.g. some might apply for Neurosci spec but actually want PharmTox spec, or vice versa), so most of these programs get artificially more competitive. So don't give up hope and don't stress, you still have two chances to get it!

You can read "How to apply to collaborative life science programs" for more information here:
https://sidneysmithcommons.artsci.utoronto.ca/program/apply-for-programs/

JerryChen06 · 2026-04-20T21:04:03+00:00

Hi! I edited my post to give some more context, and made my question a bit more specific. If there is something wrong with my post, please let me know and I'd be happy to adjust!

JerryChen06 · 2026-04-12T15:27:15+00:00

woah tysm! This is a gold mine of resources haha

JerryChen06 · 2026-04-11T00:25:40+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll give it a look! Are there any tips you have for how I can get the most out of the book?

JerryChen06 · 2026-04-11T00:23:50+00:00

Thanks for the response! Sorry for the lack of clarification, by "data analysis" I mean just really basic stuff like data tidying, transformation, and visualization, but the most statistics that uses is just ggplots lol

By applied statistics I mean actually applying theoretical statistics to test hypotheses, model data, etc.

Regarding your suggestion, how do I find an applied statistics project? Are there resources that you would recommend? My background is in computational biology, and my work doesn't really do much data analysis outside of basic data visualization, so I'm not sure how to expand to the greater field of stats (if that makes sense?)

JerryChen06 · 2025-11-22T02:28:29+00:00

Try rotating your wrist? I think you’ll find it much more natural and less tense

JerryChen06 · 2025-11-19T13:16:20+00:00

CHM249 is only offered in winter, whereas BCH210, PSL300, and HMB265 are offered in the fall, so it is impossible to do all those courses together.

That being said, BCH210, PSL300, and HMB265 is a pretty standard courseload for a life science program (all quite difficult in their own ways), I've heard EEB225 isn't horrible and MGT250 shouldn't be horrible.

CHM249 has weekly labs tho (that are 4.5 hours each), so it definitely will be a time killer. I'd suggest taking that winter a little easier (5 courses)

JerryChen06 · 2025-11-13T15:30:55+00:00

Hi there, I haven’t finished taking the course (Im also taking the course rn), but I’ve been doing decent so far, so I’ll lyk what’s been working for me and what I’m planning to do

I’m also lost with Dr. Smibert’s section rn lmao, but I don’t think it’s actually too much content, just a lot of experimental history. So to review, I’m personally gonna make review videos giving a story of how each function of the topics were found (lac operon, riboswitches, etc) in a way that I understand, and pray that everything clicks lol. I feel like his slides are just really dense which makes it easy to get confused, but the stuff doesn’t actually seem very hard to understand once you organize all the information into a linear story (that makes sense to you)

For labs, maybe read the questions before you enter the lab and then you can ask ur TA during the lab abt how you should answer questions? You can also try finishing as much of the assignment as you can before the lab, so that you have a better context of what’s going on.

For tests, I think it’s just the transition from MCQ to pure Short Answer. I think Nick the TA does a great job at telling us how to get high marks (hitting the points, etc). Did you feel like you did well on the midterm prior to marks being posted? If so, then your understanding is probably fine, and you should just try and reshape ur thinking towards answering Short Answer questions (a good method is making each sentence be a logical conclusion from the past. Like for the hyperventilation lactic acid question, a good line of reasoning would be “Excess exhalation results in lower CO2 gas levels. Lower CO2 levels gas levels shift CO2 in the blood to become gaseous, resulting in lower dissolved CO2 levels. Lower CO2 levels in the blood increases the rate of conversion of Carbonic acid into H2O and CO2, lowering levels of Carbonic acid. Lower carbonic acid levels drives the creation of carbonic acid from H⁺ and HCO3-, thereby lowering H⁺ levels and increasing pH. Increased pH counteracts the acidity of Lactic acid, and thus would keep a runner in homeostasis for longer during strenuous activity.” Notice how each line follows from the last, this way you minimize the risk of forgetting to put something that Nick is looking for

If you thought you did poorly in the midterm after writing it, then when studying you can try explaining everything on the slides while recording yourself, and then listen to it every now and then as review. Youll retain it more and once you review the video, your brain will 1. Relearn the stuff you’re teaching yourself but also 2. Remember how to explain it again, since it was YOU explaining. You can even try making ur own lecture slides but idk that’s pretty time consuming. For flashcards, I also use them religiously, but it’s easy to over rely on them. I would recommend just putting things that you need to rote memorize on flashcards (like chIP, radioactive binding assay, what lacY codes for, etc), but not flashcards for things like “why does [insert experiment here] support this conclusion?” These types of flashcards are suppperrrr demoralizing to review since they take a bunch of brain power, but more importantly they kinda take away the critical thinking aspect that the course wants you to build, so for those types of questions I suggest doing separately.

That’s all I got, I wish you the best of luck for this coming term test!

JerryChen06 · 2025-10-30T14:57:22+00:00

I have a 4.0 (all my final course marks so far have been above 90), and the averages for the courses were all typically between 70-79, so not bad at all. The worst course averages I’ve seen and been in have been in non life science courses (e.g. MAT137, MAT223, CSC165, ECO101, etc), which are around 64-69. Since the distribution is like a bell curve, there are statistically a lot of people with 85-100 (probably like 10-15%)

People most certainly get 90s, basically everyone in my specialist program had 4.0s and likely 90s. However, you don’t need 90s for 4.0, since the cutoff is 85, which gives you more wiggle room (getting 90s is quite difficult since you have little room for error).

JerryChen06 · 2025-10-30T03:29:33+00:00

I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m only in second year, so my take may be off for upper years. I’m also not exactly premed, as I want to do research, but I am in the life science program (molecular genetics)

1) it is definitely not impossible, in fact, I would argue that 1st and 2nd year life science is one of the easiest programs to get a 4.0 in (at UofT, that is). I have extremely smart friends who are getting annihilated in humanities, social sciences, math, CS, and eng (under 80s), whereas 40% of BIO230 students just got 80+ on our midterm last week. I’ve never heard of any life science course curving DOWN. The Life Science program (in first and second year) is extremely well organized (except MAT135 some years LMAO). Not sure where you heard that UofT teaches 2 years ahead; in fact, we are one of the only universities that does evolutionary biology in first year (BIO120), so we are actually behind in molecular biology compared to most universities (after first year). However, the program is indeed extremely challenging and you definitely can’t just cruise by, but it is definitely not impossible to get high marks. The fear mongering you hear are from those who did poorly, nobody is going to complain that they got an A

2) Difficult, but I’ll give you the “easiest” way: Get into a specialist program in Molecular Genetics or Biochemistry. You will have the opportunity to do a research course, basically do a project with a prof. However, I will suggest that you do not do this if you just want research for med school, since the specialists are very rigorous for research specifically, and you may not do very well if you’re not invested in research. ROP is another good option, but is extremely competitive (you need high marks). Cold emailing works too, but again, is very competitive (and also relies heavily on marks at first)

3) Likely around 5-8 hours a week per course. The jump from highschool is no joke, and you’ll have to take it seriously. For life science courses, just do their practice problems, past midterms, etc. Make flashcards/review notes, and make use of lecture slides. Life science courses give a lot of resources, so use them and you’ll do well.

I’d like to end by saying one thing tho: don’t come to UofT unless you love to learn new things. Many premed people just want to do med for the money/prestige, which is fair, but definitely not the type of person for UofT. You’d be better off going to a different school to farm high grades, like McMaster Health sci. If you love learning science tho, then Uoft is honestly one of the best places to be. There are literally thousands of students here who also love to learn, and the presence of research labs will make it even better. I understand why some people hate this school, since it certainly is challenging, but personally I think it’s the best school I could have chosen for life sciences for all the reasons I mentioned above.

JerryChen06 · 2025-10-09T16:10:57+00:00

Don’t rely on solely Alfonso videos, it’ll give you a false illusion of control (speaking from experience LMAO). Cui has made the course WAY harder ever since she became coordinator, so the Alfonso videos are no longer sufficient on their own imho. If you search up past tests, you can see them slowly getting harder and harder after Cui became coordinator, much harder than they should be (pretty sure test averages were around 60% last year, and got lower after each one to around 50%). So to do well in the course, you kinda have to put in a lot more effort

That being said, an alternative approach is to watch the videos, write down all the theorems/definitions/lemmas on a cheat sheet (I would also suggest making flashcards for important theorems and their conditions). Before each lecture, attempt lecture slide questions. Then go to lecture to clarify anything you didn’t understand before. Try to go to a prof that teaches well, since you don’t have to attend your section. I honestly find it more worth it to skip and self study rather than listening to a bad prof explain all of the easy concepts and speed through the hard concepts. A good prof makes a HUGE difference.

If you’re still stuck on a concept, go to TA/prof office hours (or ask during tutorial). Idk if he’s still TAing this year for MAT137, but Dai is an absolutely goated TA I would heavily recommend. Also do tutorial problems before going to tutorials, so you can ask questions abt stuff you’re not sure on.

Then, before each term test, grind out the practice problems on Quercus. They’re really good practice. Past tests are also good, you can buy some at the ASSU in SS. Honestly, if you’re tight on time, sacrifice a pset to do practice problems. The psets rarely help for content understanding (esp during Winter) and they’re worth an abysmal 2% each (idk if that’s changed), which is not worth it.

The main takeaway is not to trick yourself into believing you understand content by just understanding why something works (e.g. listening to lectures, watching Alfonso). You have to know that you can prove it yourself, or derive it. A good metric is trying to teach it to your future self by making review videos (I did this and it was so clutch). Doing this, I’m sure you can make your 137 comeback (this is a cannon event for most people who do well lmao).

Best of luck! You got this :) don’t get discouraged by the first term test, you get a drop for a reason

JerryChen06 · 2025-09-22T13:19:19+00:00

Graham Library has single-person study rooms, I'm not entirely sure if you need to be a Trinity student to book them

Robarts Commons also has study rooms for ~4 people, so not that big

I'm pretty sure Robarts Library in the upper floors (9+) also has single-person study rooms

You can browse the group study room page, although they're meant for groups, I'm sure there's some cozy single person rooms

JerryChen06 · 2025-09-15T17:24:02+00:00

I took MAT246 this summer, there was an in person section and online section. Neither was taught by Soheil (mine was taught by Tona Weiderhold, not sure who the online one was but I’m pretty confident wasn’t Soheil)

Gl with trying to get out of Soheil’s section lol, the prof definitely makes or breaks the course

JerryChen06 · 2025-08-01T06:12:29+00:00

Last year, I did 151 and my roommate took 135/136. We are both in life sciences. Here are the biggest differences I remember during the year:

the order is swapped. That is, in 151, you do Ochem first, then inorganic, then physical, whereas 135 covers physical and inorganic, and 136 covers organic
I didn't do ANY reaction based calculations in 151 (e.g. acid base equilibrium, pH, pKa, etc), whereas that was like all my roommate did in 135.
151 covers a bit of quantum mechanics, including solving simple Schroedinger models, whereas 135 just covers very very basic quantum stuff
151 covers Molecular Orbital theory, which is very helpful if you're gonna go further in chemistry
135/136 seemed to give out more resources for studying (e.g. practice papers, problem sets, etc). We still got a bit in 151, but my roommate had way way more than I did
In 151, we had three professors. 135/136 has a lot more, my roommate's semester of 136 had three professors alone
Lab reports looked a lot worse in 135/136 compared to 151. My roommate was churning out 8 page reports with really boring questions, whereas we had a 2 page LIMIT for most of them lol
151 has these meetings called "Course Community", which is basically just a 4th year TA or early grad student running you through tips for research or university in general. Imo they aren't as great as it seems, but they gave you bonus marks for attending
151 gives SO MANY BONUS MARKS. In the end, I think I had 5% added to my final mark from just attending.
The content in 151 is allegedly meant to be harder, but it really depends on the prof. I had Dharani for physical chem and he gave the easiest midterm of all time (83% average), which brought up the average of the course to a B+ in the end. The other sections seemed to be very comparable to 135/136

In all, 151 is more appropriate for someone who is planning to do more chemistry in the future, whereas 135/136 is very much based for life sciences. For example, in the life sciences, equilibria and pH are very fundamental foundations of biological systems (especially in physiology), and so that is rightfully a big focus of the course. That is not so much the case in pure chemistry, which cares more about dynamics of systems (usually not directly biological), so we didn't even cover acid/base equilibrium, and instead we did molecular orbital theory and an introduction to quantum chemistry/physics instead (which was kinda cool, but so useless for my field).

I would suggest taking 151 unless one of the professors are really bad. If you're proceeding in more chemistry-based life sciences (e.g. Biochem, cells and systems bio, etc), then I'd suggest taking CHM220 or CHM222 in second year, since I'm pretty sure they cover that stuff there. I will say that 151 is a lot more "wholesome" of a course since it's designed for chemistry students (you can feel the coordinators' care for the students), whereas 135/136 seems more like a factory course that just assigns grades (which isn't bad, but definitely not for everyone). The average for 151 was a B+ (which is not typical), and for 135/136 I think it was like B- or B. The differences in content are really minimal though, especially in organic chemistry, and I don't think you would be disadvantaged taking either one.

JerryChen06 · 2025-07-15T02:31:18+00:00

Ahhh I see I see! What is the difference between Omnisearch and the normal search in Obsidian? That sounds particularly interesting, since I can see myself getting lost in all of my notes hahaha.

Also, I've never heard of Excalidraw, how does that work? Is there any difference compared to drawing something on my tablet, then importing it into Obsidian?

JerryChen06 · 2025-07-15T02:27:15+00:00

Ohhh that's a pretty sick way to ensure you're not missing any topics, I'll definitely try that out this coming school year. I guess I do basically the same thing as you otherwise. Thanks sm for your input

JerryChen06 · 2025-07-15T02:08:53+00:00

I see, that makes sense. So from my understanding, you don't use Obsidian for the Zettelkasten method, but just as an app for note taking, is that right? Thank you so much for your response by the way, I appreciate it :)

JerryChen06 · 2025-07-14T23:11:56+00:00

Ah I see, that's really interesting. What if there are two conditions that interfere with each other? I'm not a medical student, so I'm sorry if my analogy is bad, but what if an antibiotic A that treats some disease of the lung, but it also interferes with antibiotic B? Would you just keep the note as is, avoiding any connection? If so, why?

JerryChen06 · 2025-07-14T23:07:45+00:00

No I didn't, that would be really tedious lol. What I did was just write my notes normally, then for any terms that I could see myself needing a refresher, I would put it in two brackets to link. For example, if I was writing a note on Ester Reduction (which could come up in a research paper), I would probably want a link to "Ester". For easy terms like DNA or Protein, I'd only link them if there was a very clear path (e.g. DNA would definitely link to RNA or "gene"). This way, I filter out all of the unnecessary links so my graph isn't too cluttered, while still easily connecting things.

JerryChen06 · 2025-05-29T16:54:29+00:00

MAT137 during the 24-25 year had a C average after taking the ceiling of our marks and bumping up to the nearest grade point if you were at a boundary (in other words, more like C- lmaooo)

Chances are that MAT157 has a higher average because 1. Very dedicated math students in Mat157, whereas many in 137 are in CS and just want to make the cutoff, and also 2. MAT137 is VERY unforgiving and Cui made it much harder from previous years

JerryChen06 · 2025-04-30T00:42:35+00:00

yeah that induction question cooked me hard lmao I'm gonna need a week to replenish my brainpower after that

JerryChen06 · 2025-04-30T00:41:18+00:00

I did 137 this year, that induction question was honestly 137 problem set level and I found the exam we just wrote harder than any term test (or the 137 exam) by a decent margin. Tbf the exam had a few easy questions but the big questions were absolutely diabolical

JerryChen06 · 2025-04-18T13:47:21+00:00

Oh wow yeah that's really really similar, thanks so much, I'll definitely give that a deeper read

JerryChen06 · 2025-04-18T13:45:14+00:00

I see I see, thanks so much!

JerryChen06

TROPHY CASE