- #1
ThereIam
- 65
- 0
This is going to be a difficult question to phrase, so bear with me.
I recently graduated with a B.A. in physics and was extremely fortunate to land a sweet internship in R&D. It's a physics job. I'm probably going to try to go to grad school (I plan on applying next fall).
The thing is, while I love physics, I do not feel like a physicist. What I mean is, I still find plenty of calculus problems intimidating. I do not recall of the top of my mind all of Maxwell's equations (I probably only recall a couple, really, like the few that you learn earlier in an undergraduate degree). I feel like at this point I probably couldn't explain inductance more than qualitatively. I had to look up L'Hopital's rule to remember what it was. I find that most problems from Griffith's textbooks are exceptionally difficult if not beyond my ability (usually I muddle the math). My recollection of thermodynamics is nearly nil - I remember no equations pertaining to multiplicities and entropies, etc. I remember that Fourier's "trick" gives you the coefficients but not how to do it.
Do I just suck? I'm not stupid. I think I'm just way out of math shape. I picked up physics because it was fascinating and I knew I'd never have another opportunity to study it, but I was never really into math or science until my senior year of high school, when I took a physics course I liked.
6 months graduated from undergraduate physics, were y'all way better? Do I just need to study my *** off? I struggle with what I even need to have memorized, ready to go, and what is okay for me to have to look up. That kind of thing.
I recently graduated with a B.A. in physics and was extremely fortunate to land a sweet internship in R&D. It's a physics job. I'm probably going to try to go to grad school (I plan on applying next fall).
The thing is, while I love physics, I do not feel like a physicist. What I mean is, I still find plenty of calculus problems intimidating. I do not recall of the top of my mind all of Maxwell's equations (I probably only recall a couple, really, like the few that you learn earlier in an undergraduate degree). I feel like at this point I probably couldn't explain inductance more than qualitatively. I had to look up L'Hopital's rule to remember what it was. I find that most problems from Griffith's textbooks are exceptionally difficult if not beyond my ability (usually I muddle the math). My recollection of thermodynamics is nearly nil - I remember no equations pertaining to multiplicities and entropies, etc. I remember that Fourier's "trick" gives you the coefficients but not how to do it.
Do I just suck? I'm not stupid. I think I'm just way out of math shape. I picked up physics because it was fascinating and I knew I'd never have another opportunity to study it, but I was never really into math or science until my senior year of high school, when I took a physics course I liked.
6 months graduated from undergraduate physics, were y'all way better? Do I just need to study my *** off? I struggle with what I even need to have memorized, ready to go, and what is okay for me to have to look up. That kind of thing.