- #1
torquemada
- 110
- 0
I'm pretty confused at the moment. I am doing great in my first year of calc-based physics, and when I read the text (I finished it before I even took the course lol), it was hard, but I plowed my way through and in the end looking back I thoroughly enjoyed it. That's also why I'm probably doing so well: it's low pressure when you've read the text in its entirety and have understood most of it before even stepping into class day 1 of the term. However I'm taking a look at the advanced physics texts, and I am just not excited about them. Compared to first year physics, there is a gargantuan jump in depth and difficulty. Not just in the jumbles of equations and symbols (stuff that would be cured by taking the requisite math methods courses) but in the formalism, logic, and description in the texts. Teaching myself this material is like pulling teeth (e.g. Marion and Thornton). So my main question is: why do I hate this stuff?
Is it A) because I am trying to learn the wrong way by teaching myself something that you really can't learn on your own (unless you are a genius), and I should wait and see how I feel during advanced physics courses with a live professor before I judge whether this is for me?
Or B) would I be bored and not interested even if I acted like a normal student and didn't feel the compulsive need to teach myself all of the material before taking the course (an OCD based on fear of failure, for those who were wondering), and my lack of enthusiasm for the upper level stuff is simply indicative that physics beyond the first year just isn't for me?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Is it A) because I am trying to learn the wrong way by teaching myself something that you really can't learn on your own (unless you are a genius), and I should wait and see how I feel during advanced physics courses with a live professor before I judge whether this is for me?
Or B) would I be bored and not interested even if I acted like a normal student and didn't feel the compulsive need to teach myself all of the material before taking the course (an OCD based on fear of failure, for those who were wondering), and my lack of enthusiasm for the upper level stuff is simply indicative that physics beyond the first year just isn't for me?
Thanks for any help you can provide.