If this is a general question thread, then I'm curious as to whether ASCs are taken in place of a course each semester (in the PhB program) i.e. you take 3 courses and 1 ASC per semester. Or is it in addition to your courses? Also, is there coursework during honours? Are there graduate-level subjects (specifically, physics and math)?
Thanks
It depends. At least three of your ASCs have to be stand-alones, where you do an ASC as a whole course instead of a fourth course that semester. The remaining three (usually in 1st or 2nd year uni) can be add-ons, where you do a fourth course as normal, but part (or all, for PhB Arts) of your assessment is from additional work in the form of an ASC report.
Similarly with coursework - it depends on the discipline. In maths, half your honours workload is coursework (so you do a total of four courses over your honours year). You get to choose the four 3rd/4th year courses or special topics courses that you want to do. Note that in the maths department, these are pretty much the same as graduate courses; the only difference is the assessment.
For physics, you do around 5 courses in first semester, then second semester is purely for working on your thesis. The courses are specific honours courses, and all the other students in those courses are honours students.