With a physics degree only go to a uni where you will be inspired

[fabsuk]

I am currently at kings college london physics department and have found the biggest reason i am having problems is because when the lecturers speak
they don't speak clear and concisely and they usually have a foreign accent and stress there syalubuls incorrectly.This coupled with the fact of bad lighting in lectures and bad seating. I thought the reason physics was so hard was because i was dumb

I have found out though recently that the reason i am finding it so hard was simply because they made the lectures boring.Yes they were saying all the material but the way of teaching is very bad and they put you off.

Comparing kings to M.I.T is ridiculous and i would strongly suggest top unis in america for science as they don't make it so dull when it is really fascinating.

Listening richard feynman also is a good way of inspiring u

However i have found not go to lectures and doing the work myself more inspiring than the uni itself. This should not be!

 

[michealsmith]

hey what's the area around kings like ..is it good?
anywayz just do ur own work with ur own books..and make a complaint about thyhe lighting...if others agree..and talk to ur year rep about..it.
which feynman vid did u watch...? or listen too ..btw have u seen this one.. http://heyfeynman.com/ ... and i think ur over estimating what universites about and what lectures are about...r u the only one not finding it interseting...more than 50% of ur class or? ...
howd u know wat mit is like..did u ask ur mate who goes there or ur lectuerer ..? and how wud u change the lecture course so that it wasn,t?
i think if u want to be inspired probably best to try public ...i think lec course r mostly to do with wat u need to know..than for inspiration...and what do u mean by being inspiring?


srry for writing so much ..and babling on ...answer my questions...
thanks.
micheal

 

[fabsuk]

Kings is in the strand. The reason why i went there was because i wanted to do a year abroad in the u.s and they had an exchange not because i wanted to go to kings. They have berkely,ucla,usd. However i have decided not to do it since i could not bear to come back to kings after a good year abroad. I will probably just go on holiday there instead and see if i like it and do something for masters if i can.

My impression of uni and what it is there for is not to teach you but to stimulate you. If you find no stimulation then u cannot learn. You could say that the stimulation must come from yourself but it is sometimes very hard to listen to some lectures who speak in a monotone voice and use white chalk with few pictures and speaks for hours.

U end up falling asleep and not listening. Put it this way think of your favourite subject that you feel passionate about and get someone boring to explain it.What will happen is probably what you find interesting will turn boring. This is why a lot of people get turned off by science.

From my experiences though you have to teach yourself the best ways of learning effectively and that is by using pictures/lots of colour and whenever you write notes you highlight key points that you may find hard.
So ideas stick in your memory.

Physics doesn't have to be just for geeks. If i think back from my days at school the best classes i ever took where the ones where i respected the teacher who took an interest and showed enthousiam in the subject that the whole class could see.

True lecturers don't have teaching as there chief aim but if they have a reputation at bad teaching then students won't go.

A few people have said to me how can you make physics interesting its physics?

Sadly this is what happens when you are in an unstimulating environment.

Watch a lecture by professor lewin at M.I.T. Its on the website. Sadly my class feel electromagnetism is dull but i really enjoy it but not because of kings.

oh btw i watched the horizon video of feynman.

 

[3trQN]

The MIT Lectures are great, and if you miss something cruicial or your concentration wanders on a tangen for a few seconds, its of no matter because you can skip back in time and pick up where you left off :P

A luxury you don't get in realtime :)

 

[michealsmith]

well that sounds great ..its time to be realistic now..your lecturers can't all be as good as whoever you want them to be as good as, and they can't all be inspiring and your lecturer's can't all be fun and you can't find everything in physics fasinatingYou have to get through the nitty gritty stuff 1st then when your done then you can be inspirered.Give me an example how would you make classical mechanics inspiring?.Have you been to lectures at other universities in lodon..kings is quite small isn't it.
Lot of ppl get bored in lecturers not just you ...well i haven't seen those MIT lectures that you talked about ...i haven't seen the horizon video..which one is it i think it might be in the books ..surely ur joking etc...

 

[fabsuk]

What i am trying to say if ur bored stiff in a lecture then no matter how hard you try ur brain goes on tangent. Not all lecturers have personality which is what I am trying to and if u do have a personality then its very difficult to listen someone who doesnt. It happens time and time again that people can repeat stuff over and over again yet it won't stick but someone else can say the same thing and it sticks.
It is hard to believe that some physicist have a vivid imagination when they wear grey wool jumpers and eat hobnob buiscuits. I recently bought a blackboard at home and i lecture myself.

Come on surely some physicist could realize the science of getting ur point across.IE SPEAK LOUD CLEAR,SLOWLY and STRESS KEY WORDS

The worst lecturers are the one who keep giving u a rhetorical question when u ask a question. The ones who like to think they are clever, and they want to trick you. What are your thoughts.

 

[michealsmith]

Some r very arrogant and "try and trick u" but some arent...and all lecturers can't be exciting...u just have to plough through ...the r people not machines ...
some don't even speak english properly ...
u can't expect it to be the way ur saying...
and i don't see wat u can do about it ,,,all u can change is urself
...btw OMG U BOUGHT A BLACKBOARD WHERE I WANA GET ONE OF THOSE ...MY MATES GOT A WHITEBOARD..HE DOESNT KNOW WHERE TO GET THEM,,B-DAY PRESENT...