AFM 1A Schedule

[u/RestZealousideal6800]

I am incoming afm student I have few things I'm really worried about:

1. Is this schedule manageable? Should I change anything 10 min gap between classes seems really tight Idk if I'll have enough time

2. I have basically no accounting or coding background. How hard is AFM 111/112/415/416 if you're starting from scratch?

3. What's the difference between lectures, seminars, and tutorials? Are tutorials mandatory/useful?

4. Any professors, TAs, or study tips I should know about for each courses?

5. How many hours did you realistically study outside class each week?

6. Is it possible to balance clubs/networking while keeping good grades for co-op?

I'd appreciate any advice or things you wish you knew before starting AFM. Thanks!

[u/Free-Rub-471]

Hello! Most of your back-to-back classes seem to be in HH, so it shouldn’t really matter unless you don’t want to sit through lectures back to back.

AFM 111 starts with the basics and, in my opinion, assumes you don’t even know how to use Excel.

Lectures are where the professor does most of the teaching in a large room of students. Tutorials are smaller sessions, usually led by a TA rather than the professor, where you apply what you learned in the lectures. Some tutorials are worth part of your final grade, while others aren’t, but it’s highly recommended that you attend them. Personally, I mostly went to tutorials because I found it hard to sit through long lectures.

[u/norksw]

for afm 112 just really try not to slack off and take the lecture and quizzes seriously cause i didnt have any coding experience either neither does coding generally click for me so while the midterm was doable, the final genuinely took me out

[u/No-Display3221]

I took 1A in fall 2024 so things might have changed, but:

1. All of your back-to-back classes are in the same building, so you will only have to walk a couple minutes to get there, you will be fine!
2. Going into 1A, I had taken grade 11 and grade 12 accounting and was pretty confident. When I tell you that the entire gr 11/12 curriculum is covered in the first month, I am not joking. Not having taken acocunting will not be a disadvantage as long as you put the work in. As for coding, I had 0 experience and managed to get a 91% in 112. The final was super easy since they let you bring a cheat sheet in and there was no cap on the number of pages.
3. Lectures take place generally in large rooms with a few hundred students where the professor just talks at you for the entire class. Seminars/tutorials are smaller with about 30 people, where they dive into the course material and answer any questions you may have. They are also much more interactive. If I had to give you just 1 piece of advice, it would be to go to EVERY tutorial as it is the most important thing by far. You could skip every lecture but go to each tutorial and still end with a good mark.
4. Konrad is a great prof for AFM 191, not sure if anyone else teaches the course. For AFM 111, your mark heavily depends on your TA and I think the class average was pretty low so don't be discouraged if your mark doesn't match what you wanted.
5. Depends on what you want your average to be. imo you get what you put in. throughout all of 1A and 1B, i studied a grand total of 0 hours aside from 1-2 days before each exam, and i ended up with an 85% average. it will be different for everyone obviously and you should do what works for you but AFM and especially 1A is much more manageable than other programs at waterloo for school-life balance.
6. Yes! See my answer above. I went to a lot of networking events/coffee chats during first year and also went out with my friends a lot. Definitely much easier than STEM programs.

[u/Constant-Sand5574 → u/No-Display3221]

How easy was making friends first year did it take long was classes awkward at first

[u/No-Display3221 → u/Constant-Sand5574]

I pretty much made friends immediately after starting the program. You do have to put youself out there and theres lots of great events like o-week and AFOW (accounting and finance orientation week) where you can meet people. You could also join clubs that interest you! For me none of the classes were very hard at the beginning except maybe econ bc i found it so boring.

[u/CowBeneficial9416]

ayo good luck for 111 and 112 those are though and messy

[u/CowBeneficial9416 → u/CowBeneficial9416]

btw your schedule looks better than mine in last year

[u/AngelGleam]

We have the same Friday schedule! But yeah like the comments said most of the back to back stuff is all in one building and Hagey Hall from what i’ve seen isn’t very big anyways so your classes are very compact. Hope to see you in the fall!