How to Get Grade 11 Physics Credit After Starting Post-Secondary
It’s 9:17 PM, and the kitchen table is still covered in the detritus of a week of school: a crumpled receipt for university textbooks, a half-eaten bowl of mac and cheese, my son Liam’s laptop propped open to his program page, the prerequisite requirement circled in blue highlighter. Three months earlier, he’d switched his first-year major from general arts to civil engineering, and we’d missed the fine print: the program required Grade 11 Physics for admission to second year, and Liam had dropped the class in grade 10 to fit an extra creative writing course, back when he planned to be a novelist. “How do I even get a Grade 11 credit when I’m already in university?” he said, stabbing at a cold noodle with his fork. “Do I have to drop out and go back to high school for a semester?”
I didn’t have an answer, but I told him we’d start with the person who would: his engineering program advisor. I’d heard too many stories of students wasting time on random online courses that didn’t count, so the first step was to get clear, official information straight from the source. The advisor got back to us the same day, saying Liam wouldn’t have to drop out—there are three common, accepted options for earning missing high school prerequisites after you’ve started post-secondary.
The first option he listed was night classes at the local public high school. Most public districts offer senior high school credits for adult learners, usually semestered, two nights a week after regular school hours. For Canadian citizens, the cost was only $40 for the whole course, which was incredibly cheap. But Liam’s schedule already had engineering labs three days a week that ran until 6 PM, so getting to a 7 PM class two nights a week would have him getting home after 10 PM every other night, too tired to keep up with his regular university coursework. That option was out for us, but it’s a great fit for students with lighter timetables who need in-person structure to stay on track.
The second option was an introductory 100-level college physics course. Some universities accept these as equivalent to Grade 11 Physics, since they cover the same core content at a deeper level. But this course was three college credits, required weekly in-person tutorials and a final exam on a college campus across town, and cost almost $800—way more money and time than we wanted to spend for a single prerequisite. Liam crossed that off the list too.
The third option, accredited online Grade 11 Physics through the local public school board, was the one that worked for us. The advisor confirmed that any course from an accredited public education provider would meet the requirement, as long as we showed him the course outline first. We found the online learning portal run by our local district, which is publicly run, so there was no weird private company markup. The course was $130, self-paced, so Liam could work on it whenever he had free time, and all assignments and tests were completed online. Before we paid the tuition, we sent the full course outline to Liam’s advisor, who sent back a quick email confirming it would count. That’s the key piece of advice I share with anyone who asks now: always get confirmation in writing before you pay anything. I’ve heard too many stories of students paying for fast, cheap courses from unaccredited private online schools, only to find out their university won’t accept the credit. It’s a completely avoidable waste of time and money.
We enrolled Liam the next week, and he worked on it for an hour a day after his university classes for the rest of the semester, then picked up the pace after finals in April. He finished the whole course halfway through the summer, between his part-time construction job and our annual week-long camping trip. The fact that he already had first-year university calculus under his belt actually made most of the kinematics and force problems easier than they would have been if he’d taken it in high school, and he ended up with an 82% final grade.
Once he finished, we just filled out a transcript request form on the online school’s website, paid a $10 processing fee, and they sent an official copy directly to the university’s registrar. Two weeks later, Liam got an email saying his prerequisite requirement was marked as complete, and he could register for second year engineering classes just like everyone else. No extra hoops, no appeals, nothing. When he got the email, he was on the couch eating popcorn watching the NHL playoffs, he just held up his phone and said “Done” and went back to the game. No big celebration, no drawn-out sigh of relief. It was just a small problem that got fixed.
I’ve talked to a handful of other parents in the last year whose kids have run into this same thing—changing programs mid-degree, going back to school after a few years working, realizing you missed a prerequisite that you need to get into your desired program. The biggest mistake people make is assuming it’s a big enough problem to derail their whole plan. Most of the time, it’s just a few extra months of work, and it doesn’t require you to quit your current post-secondary classes or take on extra debt.
Beyond checking with your advisor first and confirming accreditation before you enroll, the only other real tip is to pick the format that fits your current schedule. If you need structure and don’t mind evening classes, night school is cheap and straightforward. If you’re juggling a full course load or a part-time job, self-paced online lets you work around your other commitments.
Liam just started his second year last month, he’s got all his classes lined up, and he still mentions that extra creative writing class he took instead of physics in grade 10—he says it helps him write clearer lab reports and project proposals than most of his engineering classmates. It wasn’t the path we planned, and there was that one night of panic at the kitchen table, but it worked out. It’s not always a big crisis when you miss a prerequisite. Most of the time, it’s just a small extra step to get where you want to go.
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