I apologize if I made it sound like there are no schools that have more thinking-based questions – I was making a generalization, and I am certain there are schools like yours which do more than just promote memorization and problem types. It's great to hear there are schools out there promoting thinking and challenging students more thoroughly.

On the other hand, I am a grade 12 student and I disagree with what you said about there being no thinking and understanding taught in high school. In my school for example, tests and assignments are marked according to categories: Knowledge, Communication, Application, and Thinking. With the first category being the basics and the last category being the hardest part of a test and what differentiates the 95%+ with the 80% students. The Thinking questions are different from the types usually found in textbooks and homework in that they force you to think outside the perimeters of the curriculum and figure out a solution not many others will get. I would also like to highlight that I am not in an IB program or anything like that. My high school is actually Regional Arts Program dominated and many would often assume that it doesn't do well academically. I don't know if that is true or not since I have never been to another school. I'm just saying that perhaps what you said about high school being just memorization and facts were/are true at some point or some place. But it certainly is not the case in high schools everywhere.

To be honest, most decently challenging courses require critical thinking to some degree, including philosophy. Even in philosophy, while you should be thinking critically about the material you are learning, it's not like you are "forced" to, if that makes sense. Even up to my third year philosophy courses, at least half your time is spent learning known theories.

I think the best thing to do is look for topics that you find so interesting that it makes you want to critically think and explore them. Maybe that's philosophy for you, but it might not be. Some people, like biologists, find that in biology. Feel free to try out different topics and see what really peaks your interest.

Actually, I think a first year 65 average is pretty standard across all universities for first year science courses. The averages don't go up to 70 until 3rd year and 4th year.

On average student marks drop 15% from high school to university, but this does not mean everyone drops 15%. Some students drop a lot, some drop little, some stay the same, and some do better. It depends on the student.

Definitely, there is a lot of self-directed learning in university. Yes, the professor teaches, but because the material is harder than high school, you need to spend time on your own thinking through the material so that you can understand it.

what do you think is the reason apert from the students,

do you think the profs arent as good?

did you think most of your first year was self teach?

got any advice for me ant other entering first year?

I am really thinking, if the marks are that bad at york as well.. I might as well go to U of T and get those marks lol..

I wouldn't really worry about the types of marks you hear about the tests and stuff. At least for first year (and even second year I imagine), most science courses at York will curve the grades to maintain a ~65 average after the exams are over.

I personally thought that though the material is the same in universities, the marking style is better at york, thus giving a higher mark to its graduates.. but 30% is so little, even for york :