Ontario Course Planning

Goal

Produce an iterable, updatable Ontario (OSSD) Grades 9–12 course plan that:

• Meets graduation requirements, school course-selection rules, and online-learning requirements
• Meets each target university/program’s prerequisites and common Top 6 (12U/M) counting patterns
• Optimizes the schedule based on user priorities (e.g., protect Grade 11/12 workload, front-load difficulty to Grade 9/10, disallow summer school, prefer easier electives for average)

Before you plan: required inputs (ask if missing)

Ask the minimum number of questions needed to fill these. If something is unknown, label it ASSUMPTION.

A) Targets (support multiple)

Record targets in working memory in this structure:

• Targets:
  • University: Program: Campus/Faculty: Notes: <co-op? competitiveness?>

If the user says only “robotics/engineering”, ask whether they mean Engineering (e.g., Mechatronics/Computer/Electrical) vs CS/Math, and whether co-op matters.

B) Student + school constraints

• Current grade; completed / in-progress courses (if not starting from Grade 9)
• Special programs: French Immersion / IB / AP / etc.
• Whether the school allows: taking 12U early, cross-grade enrolment, spares in Grade 12, etc.
• Timetable constraints: typically 8 courses/year (4+4). Confirm whether 7-course years are allowed.

C) Planning priorities (must be editable)

Keep as toggles/weights:

• Workload distribution:
  • pressureFocus: "frontload" | "balanced" | "protect_11_12"
• Summer school:
  • summerSchool.enabled: true/false
  • summerSchool.maxPerYear: 1 (default)
  • summerSchool.useFor: "nonTop6" | "reachAhead" | "repeatImprove" (default: nonTop6)
• Grades/average strategy:
  • maximizeAverage: true/false
  • preferEasierElectives: true/false
• Risk tolerance:
  • planRobustness: "conservative" | "normal" | "aggressive"

Workflow (generate or update a plan)

Step 1 — Build the rule baseline (read references)

Read and apply:

• references/graduation-and-planning-rules.md
• references/summer-school-catalog.md
• references/required-bands-by-grade.md
• references/course-catalog.md

If the user provides new rules or new lists:

• Do not overwrite the files in-place during the chat.
• Clearly list what changed, and recommend writing the changes back into the appropriate references file (see “Maintenance & updates”).

Step 2 — For each target, derive prerequisites + Top 6 logic

For each (University, Program), produce:

• Likely hard prerequisites (e.g., ENG4U, MHF4U, MCV4U, SPH4U, SCH4U)
• Typical Top 6 (12U/M) composition patterns for that program

If prerequisites are uncertain:

1. Provide a conservative default for that program family (CS vs Engineering)
2. List what must be verified and provide web_search keywords/links the user can check

Step 3 — Schedule the 4-year plan

Objectives:

• Grade 9–11: satisfy “8 courses per year” rule if applicable
• Respect prerequisite chains while distributing workload
• If protect_11_12: avoid stacking multiple heavy 3U/4U courses in Grade 11/12
• If summer school is enabled and useFor=nonTop6: prioritize non-Top6 / non-admissions-impact courses (often Civics/Careers) to reduce timetable load

Planning method:

• Lock Grade 12 Top 6 candidate pool (>= 6 courses; ideally 7–8 for replacement)
• Back-plan prerequisites:
  • MHF4U/MCV4U usually require Grade 11 MCR3U
  • 4U sciences usually require corresponding 3U sciences
  • CS/Engineering interest: consider ICS/TEJ/TDJ pathways where available

Step 4 — Standardized output (required)

Output must follow this structure (do not omit sections):

1) Targets & assumptions

• Target universities/programs (multiple allowed)
• Active priorities config (pressureFocus, summerSchool, etc.)
• Key assumptions / items to confirm

2) Prerequisites + Top 6 summary (by target)

For each target:

• Prerequisite list
• Two Top 6 options (e.g., low-pressure vs high-relevance; conservative vs stretch)
• Risks and substitutes

3) 4-year course plan (by grade)

For each grade:

• Course list with: course name + code + course type (D/P/U/M/O/W/etc.) + whether it counts toward the 17 compulsory vs 13 elective credits
• End-of-year cumulative credits: total / compulsory / elective
• Rationale for that year (prereqs + workload distribution + average strategy + interests)

4) Validation checklist

• Graduation requirements met (17 compulsory, 13 elective, 2 online courses, etc.)
• Prereqs met for each target
• Grade 12 overload check (if user dislikes “overload/extra credits”, propose alternatives)

Maintenance & updates (must support)

When the user asks to modify/update anything:

1. Identify which bucket changed:

• Rules: graduation/online requirement, yearly course count, summer school limits
• Summer school: offerings, cancellations, whether a course may be used for Top 6
• Course catalog: add/remove/rename courses, codes, grade availability
• Priorities: pressureFocus, summer school on/off, risk tolerance

2. Apply minimal-change updates:

• Mark impacted grades/courses
• Provide before/after diffs
• Recalculate cumulative credits and Top 6 options

3. If the user agrees, recommend persisting updates into references:

• references/graduation-and-planning-rules.md
• references/summer-school-catalog.md
• references/course-catalog.md

Quality rules (hard)

• Never present uncertain items as facts; label them “TO VERIFY”.
• Course codes must come from references/course-catalog.md unless the user explicitly adds new ones.
• Output must include cumulative credits (total/compulsory/elective) and consistent classification.