Not bird nor anything to do with hardcore science. It's a good elective if you are willing to put in some work weekly for it.

As other reviews mentioned, it often flips back and forth between boring and interesting. Some lectures were straight up common sense, just prolonged to make it sound relevant. Other's were eye-openers, and pretty cool. The content is overall very easy and rather social science based than geography. The tutorials are discussion-based, and you just talk with a group of students (similar to a highschool classroom with a teacher). The marking is TA-based, but I'd assume they all have similar standards. There are some assignments that you complete which are very easy and only marked for completion. Midterms and exams are allowed to be accompanied by a cirb sheet.

Dr. Bedore is very engaging and passionate during lectures. However, her exams and midterms are VERY specific. They can ask you about any statistic, random music bands, colour wheels etc. Sometimes will throw you off.

Take the tutorial stream. This class is not a bird (prof even claims that herself), so you will have to put in some work before the midterms and exam. Personally, I never read the textbook as I had a heavy course load that specific semester and never got the time to, so it can be safe to assume that you can pretty much get away with it (even she pushes you to read). If you have good memory, just brush over the slides then you'll pretty much be set. Include more specific details (statistics, random facts about music, population concentrations etc) your cirb sheet instead.

The material often flips back and forth. There are some lectures I was really engaged in and others I dozed off in. I would say it's an elective course, i am not sure what program the materials would be super useful for (it was very introductory and covered a lot of disciplines).

Prof gave the choice of tutorial, exam, or assignment stream. I would suggest a tutorial stream, it is an easy mark booster as long as you are willing to speak. Study a lot before the midterms, but they are nit super hard as long as you study.

I did not interact with the prof a lot, her lectures were well done. Do not speak loudly in her class or she will call you out. Mostly depended on TAs

Do not rely on the fact you get a study/cheat sheet on the midterms/exams. Make sure you still study.

Overall not a bad course at all. Exams are all based on slides from class with maybe one or two that ask about what the textbook says specfically, but honestly with good guesswork you probably don't need textbook. I thought. The exams are fairly easy, you're allowed a cheat sheet including on the final. You get 3 options for how you're graded (exams + tutorials, exams + assignment, only exams) and thus the exam weight will vary on your choice

For exams make sure to focus on including the specific examples given during lecture, this will be what most of the short answer questions are about. Textbook not super important, sometimes a specific diagram or text box is mentioned in class, just take at these when they're mentioned and you'll probably be fun. Just pick the exam only stream, the midterms & final are fairly easy with the cheat sheet, the assignment is what brought my mark down

This course and this professor were what convinced me that the field of geography was what I wanted to study. It was by far my favourite course in first year and the only course I didn't feel burnt out attending during the last month of the term.

1HA3 is the first step into what the ENVSOCTY experience at McMaster is like. It was a fantastic first impression. Similarly to 1HB3, even if you have no interest towards geography, this course is an eye opener to just how much the world can offer. The course takes a cultural spin on humans and geography.

Dr. Bedore is such a passionate lecturer. She greatly encourages us to challenge our thinking. Very friendly, approachable, and her lectures feel much more like an engaging group discussion. She is a rather difficult marker though. As someone who has taken other courses with her as of 2024, she can be very picky with what counts for full marks.

As long as you are enjoying the content, you will get by and feel encouraged to keep up with the content.