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How to build a conflict-free schedule

You are now ready to build your personal course schedule. You are encouraged to do this well in advance of your registration start time. This will allow you to complete your registration much more quickly and give you the best chance of getting into the courses and sections of courses that you want.

  Note
Scheduling Basics

 
  • The online Course Timetable lists the courses scheduled for this academic year. 

  • Some courses are 6-credit, full-year courses (September to April) and most are 3-credit courses offered in the first term or the second term.  Music and Human Kinetics also have 1.5-credit courses in their programs.
  • All courses have 150 minutes of classes per week, some in two 75-minute timeblocks, some in three 50-minute timeblocks, and a few in one 150-minute timeblock.
  • You will register in all of your courses for this academic year: first-term, second-term, and full-year courses.
  • Some courses have two or more sections. Sections are unique instances of courses that are identical except that they may be offered in different timeblocks and often with a different professor. You can choose whichever section will fit your schedule.
  • The section of a course is denoted by two digits following the colon after the course number, and each section of a course also has a unique course reference number (CRN).
  • Some courses have lectures and labs associated with them. If a course has a lab section, you MUST register in both the lecture and the lab at the same time. If you forget to include a lab section when you try to register for the lecture section, you will get a Co-requisite Error and will not be enrolled in the course.

 

Mapping out your Course Schedule

Your objective is to find sections of courses that fit into your schedule and do not conflict with the sections of other courses in which you want to register. Here's how...

1

Use the timeblock grid for each term to build your schedule.

These are included in your Registration Worksheets resource.

2

Use the Course Timetable to determine when each of your desired courses is offered.

  • Start with the courses that are most important to you.

  • On the Course Timetable, click on the academic subject for your course choice.

  • Note the timeblocks associated with the section of the course in which you want to register.

3

Add courses to your timeblock grid.

  • In the appropriate timeblocks on your worksheet, enter the subject code, course number, section number, and CRN for your first course choice.
  • If there is a lab connected to your course, you must add both the lab and the lecture to your worksheet grid.
  • Repeat the process for each additional course in which you want to register.
  • As you add each course to your timeblock worksheet, make sure that it does not create a time conflict with other courses already on your schedule.
  • Important: Note that there are two columns of timeblocks for each day of the week – a column of 50-minute timeblocks and a column of 75-minute timeblocks.  Your courses cannot overlap between two columns of the same day.
4

Build a schedule for the full academic year.

  • Complete the timeblock worksheets for both terms.
  • Be sure to include full-year courses on the worksheets of both terms.
  • Your final schedule will normally have 30 credits of courses, with 5 courses in each term.  (Exceptions exist for Engineering, Human Kinetics, and Music students.)

Registration Help Centre

By Email Only: nsr@stfx.ca

The registration help centre will be in operation and will respond to email from June 10 through August 30.

Hours of Operation are Monday - Friday 8:30 am to 4:00 pm Atlantic Time

For registration issues after August 30, please email the registrar's office: @email

Please include your full name and Student ID number in all correspondence.