When choosing your courses, make sure you have all the required compulsory courses as early as possible. (aim to complete them before grade 11!! It’s going to make your life a lot easier)
Apart from compulsory courses, it doesn’t really matter what courses you take or what marks you get for Grade 9 and 10 as electives, as marks don’t count for university, and they are rarely needed as prerequisites for other grade 11 courses that aren’t covered by your compulsory ones.
The most important thing is that you actually understand the math and maybe science concepts, as they build up over the four years.
Courses marked (C) are compulsory, (E) are electives.
Grade 9
Lunch period: P3
Your compulsory classes include English, Math, Science, Geography, PE, and French. You’ll have 2 electives for you to choose.
Highly recommend you to prioritize fulfilling the requirements here, specifically in your first year you’d want to complete your 1 arts course requirement because it would be significantly harder for you to pick up a skill as the courses become a lot more difficult in the upcoming years.
ENL1W1 English (C)
First English course of high school (unless you’re in ESL)
Teachers:
- Ms Barbu: classic passive aggressive English teacher. Final marks range varies a lot, really depending on whether she likes you. No phones, no airpods.
- Marks: 69
- Mrs Taylor: gives out free food. also passive aggressive, more so aggressive, pressures students a lot.
- Marks: 79
MTH1W1 Math (C)
First Math course of high school, you should be okay if you had a solid foundation in elementary
Teachers:
- Mr Kutloglu: very nice and chill teacher, good at explaining math, probably the best one in our school, checks in on each person so don’t mind asking him questions, work is light.
- Marks: 93
- Mr Yang: chill teacher, but bad at explaining. Hard tests with no multiple choice, marked same or next day, very easy exam.
- Marks: 89
SNC1W1 Science (C)
Easy Science course, a lot of projects and some self learning. The course is split into Chemistry, Physics (Electricity), Biology and Earth & Space.
Teachers:
- Ms Tang: nice teacher, speaks Canto and Mando, one of if not the best Gr9 Science teachers. She’s strict, has high standards that might stress you out at times because it seems like she’s mad when you do something wrong, but trust me, you ARE at the wrong. Reflect on your mistakes and fix them. She’s not a harsh marker, she just wants you to grow up.
- Marks: 90, 93
FSF1O1 Open French (C)
If you’re new to Canada, this will be your only option for a French credit. If you did not take all 5 years of French (Grade 4-8), you can choose between Open French and Core French. Unless you actually enjoy learning French, then pick Open French. You learn ABCs, greetings, numbers, colours and all that easy stuff. You can always take French in the future as one of your electives if you find yourself enjoying Francais.
Teachers:
- Ms Campanotti: very energetic and lenient marker, exam takes 10-20 mins to finish and you can leave early. Yes phones and yes Airpods.
- Marks: 93, 100, 85
FSF1D1 Core French (C)
Way more difficult compared to Open French. If you struggle with listening, choose Open. Topics include describing looks, ordering in a restaurant and Francophone stuff.
Teachers:
- Madame Carlow: good teacher
- Marks: 75, 93
CGC1D1 Geography (C)
It’s boring but you have to take it, as long as you pass you’re good.
Teachers:
- Ms Butler: kind of strict, you do get a lesson or two walking around the neighborhood for some assignment.
- Marks: 83
- Ms Keystone: make sure your assignments follow her requirements exactly, i.e. don’t put a graph on a slideshow if she asked for a map.
- Marks: 82
- Mr. Kraemer : Super chill, has a rather easy curriculum compared to other teachers, do your worksheets and watch some documentaries, the tests are straight forward.
- Marks: 94
PPL1O Gym (C)
You spend two weeks playing one sport, and one day each week using the weight room. Depends on the teacher for how much fitness testing you get throughout the course.
Teachers:
- Mr Weber: normal PE teacher, nothing special
- Marks: 81
- Ms Shin: Super super nice teacher, sweetest teacher in school. Gym classes are always really fun (even for me who genuinely HATES exercises). Remember to wear your gym clothes, and try your best (doesn’t have to be good at a sport) and you’ll get a decent mark! There were 2 projects (1 for sexed, 1 for finals).
- Mark: 96
AMI1O1 Instrumental Band (E)
Recommended to take with AMR1O1, which is Repertoire Band, running one day before school for around 45 minutes and one day after school for 2 hours. It’s not a typical course but you’ll have fun playing music. Retests are allowed, and highly encouraged for playing tests.
Teachers:
- Mr Hindel: Cracks a lot of jokes in class, really really fun.
- Marks: 94
HIF1O1 Family Studies (E)
You learn about the structures of different families and you get to cook. Boring and project-based except for the cooking part.
Recommended Summer School: CHV2O1 Civic and GLC2O1 Careers
Grade 10
Lunch: P4
Most people say this is your best year in high school, having a set group of friends and a year away from stress that is early application marks and uni apps. Make the best out of your grade 10 year and lock in for grade 11. Join clubs and explore your interests this year so you know what you might want to take / pursue in the future. It will be harder to pivot once your courses are picked out and you need to fulfill other requirements to pursue other programs.
ENG2D1 English (C)
Focused on mythology and 12 Angry Men, but some teachers somehow do not follow the curriculum.
Teachers:
- Ms Gibb: less passive aggressive than most English teachers
- Marks: 84
- Ms Strauss: very high pitched voice but very nice, not a hard marker, one of the best english teachers you can get.
- Marks: 93, 89
- Ms Cipolla: really nice teacher, genuinely cares about how you’re doing!
- Marks: 90
MPM2D1 Math (C)
A slight increase in difficulty compared to Grade 9, make sure to complete homework, and that you understand factoring and the trigonometry concepts.
Teachers:
- Ms Bhagani: picky marker because “would you rather lose marks in Grade 10 or Grade 12”, will not look over your culminating before submitting
- Marks: 88
- Ms Wong: really good teacher, gives hints during a test. She will specifically star a hard question and rephrase it in tests. She proactively asks how you’re doing. Easy tests but hard exams.
- Marks: 7x
- Mr Yeung: Bad at trigonometry. Doesn’t really know what he’s doing sometimes, tests are not too hard, but you might need a tutor or else you’d be clueless.
- Marks: 90
SNC2D1 Science (C)
Similar Science course as Grade 9, just simple overview to prepare you for specific Science courses in Grade 11.
Teachers:
- Mr Rajah: Super chill and fun teacher. His tests are straightforward, not difficult.
- Marks: 95
- Ms Leung: She now works in the Student Success room, so you know she’s a supportive teacher. She teaches well, and talks a lot about her and her kids. The biology section is split into body systems and taught by student groups.
- Marks: 97
CHC2D1 History (C)
A really fun and interesting course about WW1 and WW2.
Teachers:
- Mr Davidson: a really passionate teacher and enthusiastic speaker. Tests are reused so if you know someone in a previous period, make sure to ask them for details.
- Marks: 96, 90
- Ms Miyauchi: One of the sweetest teachers at school. Super duper nice, teaches well. History itself is boring for many, but the tests are not difficult. Just pay attention during classes before the test as she will go through what was covered and what you need to and not need to study (helps a lot).
- Marks: 98
CHV2O1 Civics (C)
Taken together with GLC2O1 Careers. You might take Civics the first half of the semester, then Careers in the second, or vice versa.
- Mr. Taylor: He talks a lot. Pretty chill. Civics is boring but perhaps not anymore since there are so many controversial political topics worth discussing in class. Talk to him!! Complete your work, just pass and you’re good. (1 test, 1 culminating project, a few marked assignments)
- Mark: 93
GLC2O1 Careers (C)
Super chill course, there are some tasks you have to complete, but generally this is more of a “Get to know yourself better” course learning about finding a suitable career that matches with your personality (you do MBTI test), strengths, values and interests. Also prepares you for interviews and writing resumes & cover letters.
- Ms. Gibb: teaches most Careers classes, really nice teacher
- Mark: 96
BEP2O1 Business (E)
If you’re planning to take one and only one business course, this is it. You get to sell food to your friends, skip class and block hallways.
Teachers:
- Mr. Gandhi: There are a few tests but it isn’t too hard, just memorize some definitions (helps if you connect it with a real world example when studying).
- Marks: 93
HFN2O1 Food and Nutrition (E)
Fun course with a bit of memorizing, you get to cook and bake
Teachers:
- Ms Finlay: Nice teacher who plays clips of TVs and movies that tie into lessons. You can bring notes into the exam, so it’s light. Make sure you follow every step of a cooking lab and clean up thoroughly so that you don’t lose marks.
- Marks: 85
ICD2O1 Digital Tech (E)
You learn Javascript, which is useful for building websites.
Teachers:
- Mr Chan: for the whole semester, you’ll be working by yourself on your laptop with a website called CodeHS except for 1 group project and 1 presentation. He explains the concepts a bit at the start of every lesson and leaves you alone. If you know what you’re doing and finish the code early on, you basically can do whatever. Tests are on Google Form, exams are on pen and paper.
- Marks: 96
- Mr Cohen:
TGJ2O1 Comms Tech (E)
You learn video editing, Photoshop and stuff like that.
AMI2O1 Music (E)
It feels no different from Grade 9 Music. Like Grade 9, taking AMR2O1 Repertoire is recommended. Playing tests are redoable.
Teachers:
- Ms Fabbro: really nice teacher, stricter on ISPs than other teachers, guaranteed 90+ though
- Marks: 95
TDJ2O1 Tech Design (E)
An extremely hands on course, requiring you to write neatly and be creative. You learn how to build apartment models, and also 3D modeling. Great course if you want something crafty in between harder courses.
Recommended Summer School: Co-Op or NBE3U1 English
Grade 11
Right now, you should be standing at about 16 credits or more. Starting this year, you can have 1 spare other than your lunch, sometimes more if you have exceptions but you generally need 7 courses for a full time table in Gr11. You will most likely not have lunch with your friends since you might have any period out of the 5 as your lunch. If you have been slacking off the first two years, it’s time to lock in and get a feel for what studying is like. Grade 11 is hard, but grade 12 is harder. Your performance this year determines your uni early applications success, but other than that, this is really your FINAL year for slacking off.
NBE3U1 English (C)
Heavily Indigenous focused. Not the most interesting English course but you watch a lot of TV shows and movies.
Teachers:
- Ms Barbu: Read ENL1W1
- Marks: 75, 61, 89
- Ms. Keystone: Picky teacher, but not unreasonable. Have high standards, a hard marker. Classes are usually rather chill (except you stress over writing a thesis). She doesn’t stick to the regular department assessments and exams. Her multiple choices can be pretty confusing. Generally an easy marker on tests, but hard markers on essays.
- Marks: 86, 97, 79, 77
- Ms Lim: Easy marker and often have chill lessons, although it can be boring at times but you will mostly be happy with your mark. Especially with essays where she is easy with the markings.
- Marks: 90
MCR3U1 Functions (C)
Harder than Grade 10 Math, but nothing compared to Grade 12 Advanced Functions. Not hard but not easy, do your homework.
Teachers:
-
Ms Mak: picky marker, really nice though, always ask if you don’t understand, tests are hard
- Marks: 94
-
Ms. Afshari:
- Marks:
SCH3U1 Chemistry (E)
Starting this year, you will need a lab notebook to complete your labs, which I would say is one of the most annoying things ever because you copy a few pages for every lab. Other than that, all the chem teachers teach pretty well and it’s not a hard course!
Teachers:
- Ms Twiddy: less yappy compared to Mr Annett, but still a really fun and good teacher. She often splits one lesson into a few, so that you can better understand the concept before moving on. On most days, half the class is a work period. Quizzes count for midterm marks but not final mark.
- Marks:
- Mr. Annett: Learned A LOT, super fun teacher. Teaches you a lot of studying skills as well beyond just chemistry. Tests & Exams are pretty long, don’t try to cram everything the night before (DID NOT WORK AT ALL). Practice solving problems, and be familiar with definitions.
- Marks: 89, 91, 93
SPH3U1 Physics (E)
Unless you need this course for university, do not take this for fun. It is a different beast from the physics unit in Gr10 Science.
Teachers:
- Mr McCumber: lessons are short and straight to the point, most periods are short lessons (usually 15-25 minutes) then working on homework. He’ll always give 2-3 test review periods before the actual test for you to study. Quizzes count for midterm marks but not final mark.
- Marks:
- Mr Yang: heavy Hong Kong accent
- Marks: 71
SBI3U1 Biology (E)
- Ms Choi
- Ms Constas
- Ms DeFreitas
AMI3M1 Instrumental Music (E)
You will begin playing pieces that are meant for universities, which is insane compared to before. However, Trudeau Music is not regarded as one of the best music high schools in Ontario without a reason, so you will do good as long as you also take AMR3M1 Repertoire. Playing tests are redoable.
Teachers:
- Mr Colley: the head of the department. Be polite and smile when you see him. Gives extremely harsh and direct comments, but it is constructive and useful. The course average is like 98, but people who are more talented can get 100.
- Marks: 98
ICS3U1 Computer Science (E)
You learn Java with CodeHS in this course. Based on that, you create games with Greenfoot, a really ancient Java game engine. Answers for CodeHS Unit 1-4.13 are here, do not just copy and paste as teachers can see it.
Teachers:
- Mr Chan: Read ICD2O1
- Marks: 96, 87
COOP (E)
You spend the first one or two weeks learning about workplace safety, writing resumes and all that jazz. The remaining of the semester is you working alongside an actual workplace in the community. People have worked at elementary schools, the local MP’s office, hospitals and clinics, car manufacturing plants and many more. It all depends on what your interests are! You will most likely get a spot to where you apply to.
Recommended Summer School: English
Grade 12
This is the most important year of your life. Whatever grade you got in Grade 11 does not matter. From now on, your Grade 12 marks are the only thing you should care about. Make use of your breaks to study or improve yourself.
This section is severely lacking, so please shoot us a DM if you have any information at all!
SES4U1 Earth & Space (E)
Teachers:
- Mr. McCumber: Super chill. There are 4 units (2 space, 2 geology). For each unit, there are only a few teacher-led lessons (sometimes none). Most of the lessons will be presented by students (you pick a topic and teach the class for 25-35 minutes, and can work with partners if you don’t want to teach on your own for the full 30 minutes). You don’t have to go extremely in depth for the topics, general information with enough details work. He requires you to have at least 1 interactive activity to help students understand (if you do a kahoot, you get 6-7 out of 10 for the first time and lower as time goes, be creative!!) Testable questions are created by students after their presentation, you will have a long list of testable questions, memorize and understand all the concepts there, write word for word on the test and you can get 90% of the marks.
- Marks: 91
ICS4U1 Computer Science (E)
The hardest CompSci course of them all. You actually get into more complex topics, such as object-oriented programming and algorithms. You will redo CodeHS Unit 4 till 4.13 again, which you can find the answers to here.
Teachers:
- Mr. Cohen: Read ICD2O1. He starts the course with a week or two of review, which should recall your Grade 11 Java knowledge. You will have 2 group projects, and some individual projects. Make sure your code and files meet his guidelines, as he uses AI to grade your work, but he claims “the final mark is given by him”. Emphasis on creative freedom for projects.
- Marks:
CLU4U1 Law (E)
Teachers:
- Mr Logan: Overall a chill teacher + grader for the two Law courses he teaches - CLU3M and CLN4U. At the start of every class, we would talk about “Law in the News” and go over stories in the media that related to the law. Every Friday, we would do a “Legal Media Analysis” which was basically just watching a true crime/law-related TV episode/movie. Genuinely a great guy - he also has a law degree so he gives good advice about what it is like to pursue a career in law. As long as you are interested, you will do well. He was one of my favourite teachers at PETHS.
- Marks: 98
CPW4U1 Politics (E)
Teachers:
- Ms Cipolla: She genuinely does care about how you are doing. Coursework just consisted of tests + exam (multiple choice + short answers) and a Model U.N simulation at the end.
- Marks: 94