Path integrals important for undergrads to know?

[wotanub]

I'm going through a whole undergrad quantum book (Townsend) by myself. It has a chapter on path integral QM.

He said in the intro that it can be skipped, but I was wondering if knowledge of this subject is immediately helpful when starting graduate level quantum. I start grad school in the fall and I don't know if I should dedicate a week to the introduction of path integrals, especially if most others won't know it.

I'm pressed for time because I've got 6 chapters left in this book and then 10 E&M chapters. 16 chapters in 12 weeks...

 

[Jorriss]

Most graduate students I know did not see path integrals as an undergraduate.

It would have been useful just because it such an insightful formulation.

If you want a rapid, incomplete, primer to path integrals you could just read lectures 14 & 15 in these notes.

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/tuckerman/stat.mech/lectures.html