How to discern between hobby and passion?

[robotkid786]

I’m a first year student (Maths & Physics), I’m learning the material on my own (distance learning) and I’m struggling with a first year grade average in these subjects between 60 and 70. The top score at my school is 85+. I’m not going to get that in the first year much less will I manage during the latter modules.

Is physics best left as an interest? I have nothing else going for me career wise. I wanted to go to UK’ ICG in Portsmouth for PhD Cosmology. I’ll need 70 average overall.

I just feel like the science will get harder and harder. And I won’t be able to cope

Any advice is appreciated for slow starts to degree physics

 

[BillTre]

Don't let things intimidate you.

Looking forward in your academic development can seem daunting at times.
However as you get further into your subjects of interest, things will knit together into a more coherent and understandable mass of knowledge.
You may come to look forward to what you can next accrete to your own personal knowledge base.

 

[PeroK]

I’m a first year student (Maths & Physics), I’m learning the material on my own (distance learning) and I’m struggling with a first year grade average in these subjects between 60 and 70. The top score at my school is 85+. I’m not going to get that in the first year much less will I manage during the latter modules.

Is physics best left as an interest? I have nothing else going for me career wise. I wanted to go to UK’ ICG in Portsmouth for PhD Cosmology. I’ll need 70 average overall.

I just feel like the science will get harder and harder. And I won’t be able to cope

Any advice is appreciated for slow starts to degree physics

It's tough on your own, without people to discuss things with or guidance from staff. You could post a homework problem on here and let us see what level you are at.

 

[robotkid786]

Thank you. I appreciate that understanding of my situation. I'll definitely do that when I get to the Physics problems, for sure. Right now most of my learning is just the basic mathematics; calculus for the most part. The detail orientation of things like integrals annoys me a lot and the carefulness of it grinds my gears the wrong way.

Core Physics (the module which will actually delve into proper physical problems isn't till the year after next).

Don't get me wrong, I love playing with mathematical notation and ideas or whatever best describes the manipulation of symbols. But it feels so unrelatable sometimes that it gets disheartening. I think that's the major issue, perhaps I need to log onto this forum and see others doing the same as me, so I feel like I'm part of a community.

thank you to you both for your input

Edit: I also chose to study an irrelevant module in statistics and that has absolutely shattered my interest in academic mathematics, because to me, that is not mathematical - they aren't built off strong rules. It's all upto interpretations which has dampened my enthusiasm for the Core Maths modules i'm currently studying alongside it. I think i'm mixing up my view of Maths because of this statistics module (at least what of it, I have done thus far)

 

[bryantcl]

I'm guessing you're in the UK based off your original post and you'll need a first or 2:1 for graduate school. When studying the math you'll need for physics try focusing on learning rather than the grade. Hopefully this change in mindset will serve you well.

Best of Luck

 

[robotkid786]

I'm guessing you're in the UK based off your original post and you'll need a first or 2:1 for graduate school. When studying the math you'll need for physics try focusing on learning rather than the grade. Hopefully this change in mindset will serve you well.

Best of Luck

Thank you, I'll try my hardest on the learning

 

[PeroK]

Thank you. I appreciate that understanding of my situation. I'll definitely do that when I get to the Physics problems, for sure. Right now most of my learning is just the basic mathematics; calculus for the most part. The detail orientation of things like integrals annoys me a lot and the carefulness of it grinds my gears the wrong way.

Core Physics (the module which will actually delve into proper physical problems isn't till the year after next).

Don't get me wrong, I love playing with mathematical notation and ideas or whatever best describes the manipulation of symbols. But it feels so unrelatable sometimes that it gets disheartening. I think that's the major issue, perhaps I need to log onto this forum and see others doing the same as me, so I feel like I'm part of a community.

thank you to you both for your input

Edit: I also chose to study an irrelevant module in statistics and that has absolutely shattered my interest in academic mathematics, because to me, that is not mathematical - they aren't built off strong rules. It's all upto interpretations which has dampened my enthusiasm for the Core Maths modules i'm currently studying alongside it. I think i'm mixing up my view of Maths because of this statistics module (at least what of it, I have done thus far)

To be honest, I'm not sure what you are talking about specifically. What does "detail orientation" mean? And I don't understand what you are saying about statistics.

It's not clear whether you are struggling to complete problems correctly, or whether you don't like what you are doing. In many ways, the latter would be more of a concern.

Note that you can post maths homework on here if you want to.

 

[CrysPhys]

I’m a first year student (Maths & Physics), I’m learning the material on my own (distance learning) and I’m struggling with a first year grade average in these subjects between 60 and 70. The top score at my school is 85+. I’m not going to get that in the first year much less will I manage during the latter modules.

Is physics best left as an interest? I have nothing else going for me career wise. I wanted to go to UK’ ICG in Portsmouth for PhD Cosmology. I’ll need 70 average overall.

I just feel like the science will get harder and harder. And I won’t be able to cope

Any advice is appreciated for slow starts to degree physics

The title of your thread is, "How to discern between hobby and passion?", which means how to detect the differences between a hobby and passion. My first thought was, "Well, a hobby can be a passion." But upon reading your post, it's clear that you've phrased your question incorrectly. What you are really asking is, "How do I know whether I am good enough to pursue a career in physics?", where "pursue a career" means "land a job earning income" (assuming you're not independently wealthy).

So you should step back a bit from your current struggles with courses and reflect more on your future goal. If it is to pursue research in cosmology, then you would limit yourself to professorships in universities and positions in some national labs. Thus you would need to a complete a B.Sc. in Physics, followed by a M.Sc. in Physics (likely, but not always, according to the UK posts here), followed by a PhD in Physics, and then followed by one or more postdocs. After all that, there is no guarantee that you will actually land one of the limited, highly-competitive research jobs. If you don't land one, you will need to pivot to something else.

Are you prepared for that possibility? Will pursuing your passion in physics for one phase in your life, without a long-term career in it afterwards, be OK? Will you be prepared to move on to the next phase of your life?

 

[robotkid786]

To be honest, I'm not sure what you are talking about specifically. What does "detail orientation" mean? And I don't understand what you are saying about statistics.

It's not clear whether you are struggling to complete problems correctly, or whether you don't like what you are doing. In many ways, the latter would be more of a concern.

Note that you can post maths homework on here if you want to.

I think I’ll be okay. I just found out the university I dreamed of going to as a teenager is available for part time studies in MPhil format - I’m sticking to this pathway, the first post was probably what I needed most to hear. Intimidation is what I’m dealing with, thanks for the post anyway

 

[gleem]

there is something I do not understand. You are taking a physics course but are not doing "proper" physics problems. Is this a conceptual physics course? You also said that you are having issues with calculus seemingly too abstract for you.

Typically university physics majors start with at least a proper calculus-based physics course with a significant problem load. It is useful for science majors to take calculus concomitantly with an applicable science course so that they see the relevance of calculus to the physical world.

I think it would be of value if you found someone to help you plan your course sequence.

 

[CrysPhys]

there is something I do not understand.

You're not the only one. Previous post:

To be honest, I'm not sure what you are talking about specifically. What does "detail orientation" mean? And I don't understand what you are saying about statistics.

It's not clear whether you are struggling to complete problems correctly, or whether you don't like what you are doing. In many ways, the latter would be more of a concern.

I'm also puzzled by the OP's remarks on calculus and statistics. Doesn't bode well for someone aspiring to be a physicist.

However, the OP has cherrypicked the response that they were looking for, and is not interested in further guidance:

I think I’ll be okay. I just found out the university I dreamed of going to as a teenager is available for part time studies in MPhil format - I’m sticking to this pathway, the first post was probably what I needed most to hear. Intimidation is what I’m dealing with, thanks for the post anyway

 

[symbolipoint]

However, the OP has cherrypicked the response that they were looking for, and is not interested in further guidance:

We shall see what we shall see.

 

[symbolipoint]

I’m a first year student (Maths & Physics), I’m learning the material on my own (distance learning) and I’m struggling with a first year grade average in these subjects between 60 and 70. The top score at my school is 85+. I’m not going to get that in the first year much less will I manage during the latter modules.

Is physics best left as an interest? I have nothing else going for me career wise. I wanted to go to UK’ ICG in Portsmouth for PhD Cosmology. I’ll need 70 average overall.

I just feel like the science will get harder and harder. And I won’t be able to cope

Any advice is appreciated for slow starts to degree physics

The bolded question: No. General best choices may be either choose Engineering as a career or choose something as a career which depends on great knowledge of Physics. Other forum members can add to or modify that.

If you are *really enrolled in Mathematics and Physics course and you do not perform well enough, then begin heavy review upon the nearest chance.

*I really do not want to try explaining what that means.

 

[robotkid786]

I’m on a part time course for those of you confused. It means I don’t do every module simultaneously. I study at the rate I can afford to do so

 

[symbolipoint]

Returning to the title and examening it, the basic resolution is explained here:

https://hobbyknowhow.com/whats-the-difference-between-hobbies-and-passion/

 

[Dale]

I think that you may be more interested in a myth of physics than in physics itself.

I think that you should keep an open mind. Take some actual courses and see if the reality matches the myth you have in your mind.

If not, think about what attracted you to your myth in the first place, and from there try to find other things that may actually be closer to the myth than actual physics is. There is going to be a ton of statistics in real physics.

PS consider experimental physics. IMO, we need new experimental results more than we need new theoretical results.

 

[robotkid786]

Whilst I’m pretty sure I know what you mean by myth of physics and whether or not that is the case in my situation; that’s not where the issues lies.

The problem lies in the fact that I dislike learning all the jargon that leads to the eventual conceptualisation of phenomena I’m interested in.

So no, it’s not the myth I’m drawn to, I’m more than happy to learn the mathematics and mechanics needed to understand how a black hole works for example just not enjoying the process enough.

As for stats, I’m avoiding data orientated stuff as much as I can do in order to go towards theoretical cosmology as much as I can. And yes I know data can’t be avoided fully in a science but I’m being reasonable to want to study phenomena without getting too heavy into the statistics as far as my understanding goes.

As for whether I’m doing a real physics course or not, (which others are suggesting) - yes i am, previous students have gone to Imperial, Cambridge and Oxford after doing their undergraduate in this department and have done well in doing so. So that’s not a problem either.

As for sharing problems I have as far as the textbooks go, I can’t because the university specifically disallows sharing material of the course.

 

[jedishrfu]

This is a good time to close this thread as the OP has gotten several good ideas to explore.

Take care @robotkid786

I went through a similar experience in my pursuit of a Bachelor of Science in Physics. The initial coursework seemed far removed from cutting-edge stuff like Cosmology or my General Relativity. My math skills hit a wall in my junior year, as I underestimated my learning speed while working 20-30 hours per week to support my education.

One point of confusion I had was trying to learn Physics from Schaum's Outlines, which are suitable for some problems but weak for a deep understanding of the subject. Often, I found that what the professor taught wasn't explicitly outlined in the related Schaum's Outline. But I squeaked by and got my BS one semester early.

Eventually, I transitioned to Computer Science to learn computational modeling. This field wasn't a focus at our school until five years later, when I decided to pursue an MS in Computer Science.

You will find your way, keep poking at it and something will come up. Don't waste too much time reading popular science books either unless they are books like Susskind's on the Theoretical Minimum for Physics. He covers (CM, QM, SR and GR so far) designed for people still interested in those topics years after they graduated.