- #1
John Jacke
- 12
- 0
I'm currently a double major in physics and mathematics. I am about to finish mathematical physics, mechanics 1 (not "general physics 1"), linear algebra, and an intermediate physics laboratory course. This summer I will be taking a programming course for applied math and PDE and in Fall I will be taking Quantum theory A, Mechanics 2, advanced physics lab or complex variables, and a language course (requirement for all degrees at my school). I'll be honest with you and say this semester was really difficult for me. The courses were not intimidating, but this is the first time I've ever been challenged in this way. Mathematical physics was taught by an old man about 85 and he is getting so old that he can not hear (literally wears a hearing aid) or comprehend what the students ask in class. He posts about 20-25 pages of lecture notes one or two days before class and we are expected to learn them completely and come to class and ask questions if needed. However when we ask a question he will talk over us or basically do some sort of hand-waving to avoid answering our questions because (I suspect) he forgot a lot of the material himself and only remembers the concepts behind the mathematics and not actually how to apply it. He blatantly stated in the beginning of the semester that he was not going to teach, he was only going to answer our questions about the material if we had any. Therefore I had to learn the entirety of mathematical physics via youtube on top of my other courses and eventually just got worn out and annoyed at the lack of communication of material between professor and students and nearly gave up halfway through. Intermediate lab was easy but the lab reports would be about 12-20 pages and take ~12 hours to complete including data analysis. Linear algebra is linear algebra. Mechanics on the other hand is the one I am doing the worst in. I lack most of the physical intuition that other people have in my courses and therefore I need to work harder than others to do well. During the height of the semester I would literally spend the night at school and stay up until 4am and sleep on a couch in the physics building after drilling physics for up to 10 hours straight and then go to class at 9am. Even with this I made a C+ on my first exam and a C- on my second exam... my overall grade right now is around a C+ and my final is in two weeks. I really love physics and I do not want to drop the major especially because I am so close to finally taking a course in quantum mechanics which I've wanted to do since I was in high school. I'm afraid I don't have the ability to complete this degree AKA I'm afraid I'm just plain stupid. On the other hand 90% of my classmates have formed groups and work together to solve problems and complete homework sets and I am one of the few who work alone which obviously makes it a bit more tough. I can not work with other people because when other people are around I can not think clearly. Any advice?