Optimizing Study Time: A Second Year Student's Experience in Chemical Physics

[malawi_glenn]

then by how much do you intend to finsih ealier by cramping your credits?

since I have swiched university and program, I'll be finished 1year after my plans ;)

 

[Hydrargyrum]

Why settle for less than being the next Newton?

I didn't attend much high school - I went to college early; however, when I was there, I studied at my own pace. I was quite the fan of reading my entire textbook then sleeping through most of the lectures. Needless to say, I didn't make many friends with the staff.

However, I suggest that you study your math and physics intently - go beyond the class if they are boring you. I think that these high school classes are good for one thing only, knowing where the pace of the slowest kid is - that way you can blaze ahead.

I do go beyond my classes. I'm teaching myself calculus and it's pretty easily sometimes, much easier than algebra. And the Newton part, I know no one is going smarter than him or Joseph Lagrange, so there's no point in trying to be.

 

[BioCore]

I have always wondered something, how is it that people like Einstein, Max Planck, and all those other great scientists generally absorbed the material so well. Did they really do so many questions or did these guys just fully understand and master the concepts somehow.

The reason I ask is that I have heard this from many Professors and I sometimes tend to believe this. If you constantly keep doing questions, all you will be learning is how to do those specific types of questions, but will not be able to apply your "knowledge" to other question forms.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

In response to BioCore:

Guys like that tend to develop larger than life persona's and history's and one hear stories about them never doing work and such but I'm sure they worked extroardinarily hard and were a little lucky. However, I think a big part of people like that as well is that they LOVED their field and couldn't get enough of it so even though they may not have been "studying" they were often increasing their understanding (einstein used to, apparently, read maxwell's original work "for fun").

As for me I never studied in high school and in undergrad I worked maybe 5-10 hours a week and went to maybe 30% of my classes (I had some crap teachers and classes were so early). And my grades weren't great but they were enough to get me into grad school. I haven't started my masters yet but I imagine I will study a fair bit more since I will be confined to a kind of 9-5 environment with TAing and such. (and mandatory classes). I also, however, love learning about physics and math in my free-time, I just hate in undergrad classes where you really don't LEARN about a field of physics you just understand the 3 to 4 problems that the prof did on the board and regurgitate them come final. (i.e. after taking E&M I didn't feel like I understood a thing about it and had absolutely no physical intuition for it but I could solve for the electric field due to a cylinder, a ring, a sphere etc. like nobodies business).

 

[uman]

I'm pretty sure teaching yourself calculus counts as "studying".

Also, calculus is easier than algebra? You must not have a very rigorous calc book...

 

[uman]

Also, there's a quote "if you shoot for the moon and miss, you'll still land among the stars". I forget who said it.

The point is that although I promise you will never be as good as Isaac Newton, that doesn't mean there's no point in trying to be.

 

[vladittude0583]

My Opinion

I have always wondered something, how is it that people like Einstein, Max Planck, and all those other great scientists generally absorbed the material so well. Did they really do so many questions or did these guys just fully understand and master the concepts somehow.

The reason I ask is that I have heard this from many Professors and I sometimes tend to believe this. If you constantly keep doing questions, all you will be learning is how to do those specific types of questions, but will not be able to apply your "knowledge" to other question forms.

I am a physics major myself after much time spent being a medicine and pharmacy major. Ultimately, I realized just how much I love science and mathematics especially in the field of physics. During my years spent working on prerequisite courses such as Biology and Chemistry for medical/pharmacy school, physics was the only course that actually challenged and forced me to study for my grades; I ultimately made A's in both General Physics I & II along with Physics w/Calculus I & II. The prerequisite courses for medicine/pharmacy were easy A's for me and never thought of them as challenging nor were they actual courses requiring much intelligence, except in the form of memorization; physics on the other hand forces you to think more logically and critically in terms of the physical world and how it undermines Biology & Chemistry along with all the other disciplines of mathematics and science.

Anyhow, in regards to your question about how does one really learn physics, etc. I have noticed in my years doing undergraduate physics courses, you really must have an imagination along with the mathematical intuitions necessary in solving physics problems. Its different if one person has equations in front of them and just solves physics problems by plug & chug compared to one who really understands the principles of physics and how it applies to the problem itself. Understanding and imagination is the key to winning over in Physics. I will tell you right now that I have helped several people with their physics studies and that the one thing I always tell them is that you have to think logically and also ask yourself if the answers make sense. This type of feeling is just something one develops who has a passion for physics and not for one that just needs to take the course because it is a requirement. I for one have a passion for it and therefore feel more close to the subject than the average person. Its kind of a relationship thing... lol

Another thing too is the mathematics. Many will tell you that mathematics is the language of Physics, however, you must have a general knowledge of the mathematical rules and its implications in the calculations for physics to make sense. Anyhow, that is all I have to say for now.

 

[ok123jump]

I have always wondered something, how is it that people like Einstein, Max Planck, and all those other great scientists generally absorbed the material so well. Did they really do so many questions or did these guys just fully understand and master the concepts somehow.

The reason I ask is that I have heard this from many Professors and I sometimes tend to believe this. If you constantly keep doing questions, all you will be learning is how to do those specific types of questions, but will not be able to apply your "knowledge" to other question forms.

I support what has been said by the previous posters.

I would also like to add that Richard Feynman talks in-depth about his view of problems and how to view scientific results in his book "Surely, you must be joking Mr. Feynmann". You should check that out.

 

[tronter]

ed witten did all the problems in his textbooks. I don't think he was a child prodigy. Shows you that practice really makes a difference.

 

[Proggle]

Balance is, in my opinion, the key to success. I'm a 4.0 physics/math student at a well-recognized school, and study about 5-10 hours a week.

The human body is not a machine for studying, but one with many complicated needs and desires. I have found that when I study instead of exercising, sleeping well, eating well. spending time with friends and family and doing mundane activities once in a while, my academic efficiency rapidly diminishes. When I feel well and motivated, I have a much easier time acquiring information and understanding concepts. My concentration and creativity for problem solving also seem to be much better.

So in general, I would say it's better to maximize the efficiency of your study time rather than cramming in more than 20 hours a week. A few hours where you are really concentrated and feel the motivation to learn can be much better than forcing yourself into long study sessions and missing on other important activities for your person.

 

[bravernix]

Balance is, in my opinion, the key to success. I'm a 4.0 physics/math student at a well-recognized school, and study about 5-10 hours a week.

The human body is not a machine for studying, but one with many complicated needs and desires. I have found that when I study instead of exercising, sleeping well, eating well. spending time with friends and family and doing mundane activities once in a while, my academic efficiency rapidly diminishes. When I feel well and motivated, I have a much easier time acquiring information and understanding concepts. My concentration and creativity for problem solving also seem to be much better.

So in general, I would say it's better to maximize the efficiency of your study time rather than cramming in more than 20 hours a week. A few hours where you are really concentrated and feel the motivation to learn can be much better than forcing yourself into long study sessions and missing on other important activities for your person.

You are definitely right that balance is necessary to be successful. However, most people studying physics and math will need to put in more than 1 or 2 hours a day to get a 4.0. Either you are extremely gifted, your program is not rigorous, or you are still a first or second year student. Generally, it is not hard to "cram" in 20 hours a week of studying and even take weekends off. I can guarantee that if you go to graduate school you will not be successful studying an hour a day.

 

[Nick M]

I just finished taking Calculus II, Physics II, Chemistry II, and Linear Algebra this past spring.
Understanding Calculus II and Chemistry II was fairly easy - an hour of reading and an hour to complete the homework sets (per lecture). Linear Algebra took a couple hours to comprehend the reading for each lecture, but once I understood the material the problems could be completed in about an hour (each lecture). Physics II was a beast. At least 2 hours of reading and 2 hours of problem sets for each lecture.

So with 3 lectures for each math class and 2 lectures for the sciences (the other parts were labs that required about 2 hours outside of class) I spent about 30 hours a week to keep up. This got me two A's and two A-'s (a 3.8, with a 3.9 cumulative).

I normally get everything done by Saturday morning, leaving the weekend to decompress. One weird thing I do is to keep a list of topics being covered in my classes on my iPhone. I'm constantly reviewing these lists and re-explaining the material to myself. This system really helps bring everything together. Sometimes people catch me talking to myself going over the material verbally - sometimes even using hand gestures (haha). I usually just tell them I'm okay so long as I don't answer myself.

 

[bravernix]

That sounds about right to me, Nick M!

 

[rootX]

I also spend same amount of time (about 5 hours per day and 20 hours over weekend)
I lose lots of time while going and coming to classes - eating food. Also sometimes, it gets way hard to concentrate but I just keep on going.

I don't read a lot but I just keep on solving problems from my textbooks. I don't pay enough attention to lecture notes (they just teach us basic things - so I need textbooks to get stuff in depth and confront difficult problems. More problems you see, better you get at solving them )

I think it is very hard to get really high marks if you want balance in your life. All people around me have so many other commitments

 

[ekrim]

I pretty much just do homework and leave studying til the night before the test. It's a horrible system since I understand nothing until the test comes around, but it's worked so far. When I'm busy with research in the lab, TAing, or homework, actually understanding the material gets pushed aside.