Physics Undergrad Struggles to Retain Knowledge

[LyleJr]

I am a Physics undergrad with 3 semesters left. I just finished my first QM course this past Spring and did very well and enjoyed the class greatly, but I find that information is already starting to slip away from my memory banks, as it were. It's so much to take in and to be honest, we only covered the first 4 chapters of our textbook (Griffiths).

I know repetition is my best friend when it comes to retaining knowledge, but it is a bit daunting especially considering I want to continue on to grad school in a theoretical research field. I have this fear of getting accepted into a program and then making a fool of myself because I have forgotten so much.

No real question here, just venting.

 

[A. Neumaier]

Read the same material from different sources and relate what you read in a new source to what you have seen already in the previous ones. This helps to create connections that are not so easily forgotten.

 

[LyleJr]

Read the same material from different sources and relate what you read in a new source to what you have seen already in the previous ones. This helps to create connections that are not so easily forgotten.

Thanks! I have been doing something similar, at least with QM, by supplementing my reading with lecture videos from MIT. It really does help.

 

[WWGD]

Or just hang out in sites that discuss QM questions and have a QA format and just reading the posts alone should help keep them fresh.

 

[Hendrik Boom]

Did it emphasize the differential equations or the algebra? If the former, have a look at Dirac's book and see how the algebra leads to the calculus.

 

[LyleJr]

Did it emphasize the differential equations or the algebra? If the former, have a look at Dirac's book and see how the algebra leads to the calculus.

I think it did a decent job at both. The entirety of Chapter 3 was spent formalizing the material within Linear Algebra, but again we only did Chapters 1-4 which was just less than half the book.