What I learned from my second year as a Physics Major

Introduction

I recently finished my second year as a physics major. There are many things that sucked and I had to endure, but I also had amazing experiences and learned a variety lessons. In this article I’d like to share with you my experience, including how I felt regarding difficulty and what was included in the course-load. Bellow is a summary of this article, it’s a bit of a monster so feel free to jump to any section that most interests you. Or you can read the entire article and get the whole picture.

Table of Contents:

• How I diversified my course-load & why
• My 2nd Year Experience
• Tips & Lessons
  • Educational journey
• People/Socialization/Connection
• Grades vs. Learning & Acquiring insight or skills
• Study lessons

Diversified Coarse-Load

Over the summer of 2023 I completed an internship in medical physics. One of the core things I learned from this experience is that office jobs, especially those in conventional environments aren’t for me. I need nature, I need movement, I need the freedom to follow a vast spectrum of curiosity, instead of being pigeon-holed into one small niche. At this exact time, with a little inspiration from Paul Rosolie’s jungle episode on the Lex Fridman podcast, I started planning a trip to Peru, and slapped on a minor in Biology to my major. This minor in biology helped me stay sane throughout my 2nd year. Even though I really like math and physics, only eating-sleeping-breathing is suffocating for me. They are just one aspect of human knowledge, nature, and the sciences as a whole. I’m not someone who can restrict my curiosity solely to that world. I’m fascinated in how everything comes together, how the aggregate of human knowledge in different categories can be used to solve problems and to create. The impressive thing about simply adding a Biology minor to my degree, is how much internal resistance I had in carrying out the decision. The fear of messing up my education, and changing my perception of what I though I wanted to be in the future was immense. Growing out of a previously self-identified purpose (which for me at the time was to become an astronaut w/ a phd in astrophysics). Adding this biology minor symbolized a big change for me. I know this is a challenged faced by many people. We’re so worried about changing the course of our education, especially if it’s unconventional. The truth is if we’d just follow our intuition and take leaps of faith, we would be more authentically able to pursue our curiosities, which pour over into a more authentic life.

Lesson #1

Don’t be afraid to grow into new goals, sometimes letting go of a goal in order to pursue another is a testament of maturity and developing your own authenticity.

For me in my education, this meant expanding my course-load into biology and environmental subjects. It meant shifting my academic goals from purely wanting to pursue a phd in astrophysics and becoming an astronaut. Instead, the concept of biomimicry, and combing the sciences seemed to be a more fitting future pursuit (which I might pursue as my masters). This focus away from a strict defined path in physics & astronautics has allowed me to begin making room for a more wholistic lifestyle (pursuing side hobbies & projects, travel, cooking, gardening & foraging, developing relationships, exercising, reading & writing, etc.). All of which is more me, and allows me to connect more to myself, while also contributing more to society in a unique way.

My 2nd Year Experience

I learnt a bit about my academic gas-peddle this school year. I went peddle to the floorboard first semester and then realized that lighter pressure on the gas peddle was more appropriate for my second semester. First semester I completed 3 courses in physics, 1 math, 1 biology, and an environmental politics course. Second semester I completed 2 physics, 1 math, and 1 biology course.

Physics definitely gets harder in your second year, you begin taking multiple physics courses simultaneously, plus the labs become a lot more thorough. Modern Physics & Wave-Optics have heavy lab components, and at Carleton this is when we begin using Matlab for our analysis and Overleaf for writing our reports. This adds quite a bit to your overall lab-work: anything including coding always does. Honestly the hardest part was managing the lab reports ON TOP of everything else. By far I found them to be the most challenging and time-consuming part of my course-load. Taking 2-3 physics classes simultaneously also leads to some challenging overlaps in problem sets. If your time isn’t managed accordingly, you become susceptible to an academic drowning.

My other physics courses were Astronomy, Thermal Physics, and Electrodynamics. Astronomy used a very crappy textbook in my opinion, it was very unclear and unnecessarily complicated. Which is too bad because it’s one of the subjects I find the most fascinating. I think this would have been a much more interesting class if it had a better textbook and more contextual/interesting lectures. Thermal Physics was rough because we started off with statistical mechanics. For 2nd year physics humans who’d never taken a stats class before it was a bit of a shock. However I did find the content quite interesting beyond the bulk shock of statistical mechanics. Electrodynamics was my favourite physics class up to this point in university. It was also the first class where we got to apply multi-variable calculus, which I found pretty cool. Most people disliked this course because of it’s difficulty, but I think that’s because you have to be thorough to understand all the material. In my opinion textbook reading was especially important for this class. We used “Introduction to Electrodynamics” by Griffiths, and this is one of the best textbooks I’ve read up to this point. Especially since it describes complex concepts so quickly & discretely in a digestible manner. Needless to say, electromagnetism is pretty cool, and it’s a class that underlies every-other physics class, so it’s also pretty important.

The two math courses I completed were multi-variable calculus & mathematical methods. I loved multi-variable calculus, it’s where math seemed to become highly applicable to understanding reality. It’s essentially math in 3-D space… super cool and very essential for describing different types of field vectors (Electric & Magnetic). Whereas mathematical methods was a strange combination of math concepts necessary for upper year physics & engineering courses. The applications weren’t too obvious, which made the course a bit more of a bore. It included Laplace transform, series solutions to ODE’s (Ordinary Differential Equations), Fourier series, partial differential equations, and Fourier transforms. Which are essentially tools for solving & understanding different types of ODE’s. Looking into the applications of these concepts would have made the course a hell of a lot more interesting.

In addition to physics and math courses I started a minor in biology and took an environmental politics course. First semester biology (cell biology) was quite challenging, lots of content is squeezed into a short period of time, and test application questions of the content was more challenging than I expected. Whereas second semester (Ecology & population analysis) was a lot more simple, manageable, and overall more manageable for the brain. Although first semester was quite difficult, I’d say the content was more intellectually stimulating. I also took and environmental politics course that was a nice change from my normal course-load. There was an amazing field trip I took part in at the start of the semester that takes place at lake Tomogami. It was truly one of the coolest experiences of my life. We canoed, portaged, line danced, learned from indigenous peoples, had campfires, ate amazing food in a very communal way, and listened to live music (one of those musicians being our prof Peter who absolutely rips on the accordion). To say the least this set the tone for the class. I became very familiar with Canadas environmental & political climate, and got to have some really interesting conversation about things I knew nothing about. In addition, the analytical research essay for this course challenged me to the brink. But I learned a lot about analytical writing, which I was quite proud of.

In my first semester, even-though I had 6 courses going on, I began pursuing more social outings. I went on some field-trips into the wilderness, and took-part in a few parties. To say the least, this put me very far behind, leading to a never-ending sprint towards each deadline for all my classes. It was a semester of being fully enmeshed in the school world. Although it was absolute chaos, I’m glad I did it, because I had some pretty cool experiences.

In my second semester, I took it much slower with 4 courses. Even though I decided on a lighter course-load, it still came out feeling close to my first semester. This is because I filled that extra time with deeper studying (more thorough textbook reading), a more time consuming lab (wave & optics), alongside my first serious romantic relationship. I slept alot more than first semester and also didn’t worry quite as much about grades. It was stressful, but it didn’t put me as much on the brink of collapse as first semester. 4 classes a semester is a much healthier option for anyone attempting to balance school, work, and a decent personal life.

Tips & Lessons

In this section I’m going to break down the key tips and lessons I learned from this school year.

Educational Journey

Lesson #2

Don’t try to sprint through your education

We seem to have this very strange notion that we need to get through our education as quickly as possible. Either to enter the job market quickly or to rapidly make our way into higher education. I’ve come to recognize this as a silly notion. The purpose of education isn’t “to just get through it”, it’s to attain the skills, the knowledge, and the perspective to deepen your own life experience, alongside opening up job opportunities and ways to be useful in the world. Rushing thorough your education leads to multiple unwanted consequences:

1. Only reaching the shallow depths of a subject rather than truly being able to dive deep and explore curiosities or in-depth details.
2. It makes the learning experience less enjoyable. Constantly feeling like you have to rush learning, especially in subjects that can be technically difficult and time-consuming to understand, is one of the most frustrating states I’ve experienced as a student.
3. It makes you more prone to grade chase than to learn in the first place. Which defeats the whole purpose of education.

As mentioned above I’ve adopted a 4 course semester approach to my education in order to avoid all these pitfalls. This further allows me to follow my curiosities, and enjoy other parts of life for a more fruitful experience.

Lesson #3

Take courses outside your degree path bubble

Taking courses outside of your subject of choice is amazing for diversifying your knowledge and types of connections. This allows you to mingle with completely different groups of people, focused on completely different subjects, exposing you to a variety of perspectives. It has allowed me to enter more sociable circles: especially as a physics major. But it has also allowed me to add more creativity and multilateral thinking into my studying. Simply plowing away at problem sets, math problems, and coding can suck the life out of you. But if some language learning, essay writing, and discussion groups are thrown into the mix, I find this switch-up liberates my brain from all of its STEM strain.

Lesson #4

Don't have a fixed educational path & goals

Don’t set in stone your longterm educational goals. Most of us decide we want to pursue something before we ever get a taste for what it’s really like. I started my undergraduate in astrophysics with the expectation that I was going to become a Phd in astrophysics. Not only did I realize that I didn’t enjoy the real work behind astrophysics (crunching numbers and data on computers), but I had such an attachment to the outcome of that goal that I could barely stand changing it. When in reality, growing into yourself, and maturing is an act of changing and realigning your goals as you find your more authentic self. Therefore, don’t be afraid to change what you do, it’s apart of the process.

Lesson #5

4 classes a semester is cool

I personally think that 5 courses a semester, especially in STEM, is over-kill. It’s a standard that is rooted in the idea of “getting through” your education as quickly as possible. When in reality it forces an educational environment of survival, rather than curiosity and exploration. In my opinion dropping your course-load down from 5 courses to 4 allows you to get more out of your studies. Not only can you dive deeper into subjects you find interesting, and have time to truly digest this knowledge, but you allow extra room for other areas of your life to exist: hobbies, exercise, health, and relationships. This is one of my newfound tricks for a more well-rounded education.

People/Socialization/Connection

Lesson #6

“Wasting” time with friends or in conversation can help study endurance and motivation

For the majority of my first 2 years in university, leisure time, especially with friends, felt like a waste of “productive” time. I’ve recently come to learn that it’s actually necessary for avoiding burnout. I’ve had many days that were filled with lethargy up until the point where they were transformed by a great conversation. All of the sudden my day is pumped with energy. My brain took up strict productivity policing over my time the last two years. To an extent it guiltily still does, but I’ve had the opportunity to intervene and teach myself how to view it differently. It’s as if you have to work it out of your system like you would use exposure therapy to overcome a phobia. It’s practically a phobia of wasting your time, falling behind, and falling short of what’s most likely an unrealistic expectation.

Learning to enjoy the act of living is deeply intertwined with having quality social interactions and connections. “It’s not just the destination or the journey… but the company” is a quote I’ve come to appreciate. So much of quality experiences, memories, and action comes from your relationships with other human beings. It’s who we are as humans, and it’s a source of our success as a species. Long story short, good company is essential to a good life, as well as balancing productivity.

Grades vs. Learning

Lesson #7

Good grades ≠ actual learning

This is one of the largest problems I see in University. As students we start off starry eyed and ready to learn. But by the time we get to our 2nd to 3rd assignment or test we start striving for grades instead of knowledge. This causes a number of problems. Firstly, you slowly blind your own curiosities, your eyes become fixed on your progress report. Not only is this a pathetic state of being, but it defeats the entire point of learning. The point of learning is to develop knowledge, either to attain perspective, or a specific skill for the purpose of application. That should be motivating enough, but instead we get stuck in the dopamine feedback-loop our education system is infatuated with, which are grades.

Learn for the sake of living, doing, and thinking. Not so you can check your phone every-week and base your resting self-esteem upon how close some silly numbers on your screen are to 100. It’s a silly system, it’s rudimentary and outdated. You’re better off following curiosity and wholesome learning approaches. To discuss the subject with peers and professors. To simply work hard for the sake of pursuing knowledge and it’s application. For the sake of being a human being that can use their brain. That should be motivation enough. That’s what true education means, as opposed to this twisted business masquerade monopolized by “educational” institutions that is draining the bank accounts of the youth.

Here’s an example of what I mean. I’ve achieved an A+ in quite a few courses, and yet by no means do I feel that I understand the true meaning or applications behind some of them. Most notably my math courses: Linear Algebra I & II, Differential Equations, and Mathematical Methods. These courses simply teach you what to do, not the history of the mathematics that came before it, there is no contextualization of this knowledge in history. Worse than that, the courses and textbooks barely even mention where it can be applied, which is the main point of learning the subject for anyone in engineering, science, or computer science. Grades are for the most part your professors curriculum's interpretation of your knowledge. Therefore, it is a subjective assessment. Depending on how lucky you are amongst the broad quality spectrum of professors, their curriculums interpretation may be down-right broken. In that case you shouldn’t give a rats ass about that grade on your phone. Care about the knowledge you can actually apply, the knowledge that gives you perspective, and the knowledge that makes your brain burn with passion and curiosity.

Studying Process

In this section I will share advice targeting what I learned about the process of studying. Some apply specifically to Physics courses, but most of them apply to all studying.

Lesson #8

Study for labs like they’re exams it will save you time

This is one piece of advice specifically for Physics courses (and possibly chemistry courses). I know in many other courses like Biology, Earth Science, and Geography labs can be figured out on the spot without much consequence. This is not the case for most people in Physics, there is just too much to consider. The more you prepare and study for your experiment, it becomes exponentially easier to execute the experiment and write the report. Here is a laboratory structure I try to follow:

1. Read through lab manual & lab notes
   1. Write down any questions about theory, procedure, and write-up
2. Research your experiment. At this point I like to integrate lab report notes into my own notes if necessary. I’ll read the lab report first (step 1), then do my research and notes (step 2), then I’ll add any leftovers that seem to be of importance from the lab manual.
   1. Watch youtube videos on the experiment
   2. Read about the experiment, and the theory/discoveries it lead to, in your textbooks
   3. Take notes
3. Start the lab report before the lab
   1. Create a lab report checklist
      1. Key things to include in introduction
      2. Types of analysis you think you need to complete for you data
   2. Setup your data collection software
      1. If using excel: prepare your tabs & data columns, imbed equations beforehand if necessary
   3. Actually start writing your report
      1. Write your introduction, since you should already know the theory for the experiment.
4. Show up to your lab at least 15 minutes early to ask leftover questions
   1. Or send emails w/ questions a couple days before your lab (especially if your lab is back-back with another class)

Lesson #9

Sometimes you have to revisit applications after finishing a class

I believe that knowing the applications of a subject is essential to truly understanding it. Application is when knowledge is it’s most useful. But in university, often you lack the time to dive deeper into applications of a topic because you’re too busy trying to stay alive. I think this is a shame, but nonetheless our reality as students. That’s why I suggest revisiting your class subjects, either during your fall/winter breaks or during the summer. The purpose of this is to tie things back to reality. Especially in STEM we get lost in technicalities, equations, mathematical solutions, and programs forgetting how it relates back to the real world. When you connect things back to the real world, you welcome more purpose into your learning and studies. You also foster more opportunities for curiosity. Here are some ideas on how to explore knowledge applications:

• Browse wiki, articles, youtube, and documentaries on the subject (or books if you’re willing to dive deeper)
• Write an applications essay or letter for that class/subject
  • This may horrify some of you STEM humans but it’s a great way TO SEE WHAT YOU REALLY KNOW about the subject. Writing to learn is a powerful tool, and believe it or not it’s especially important in science and mathematics.
  • Introduce the subject and it’s importance, contextualize it in history, explore the beauty of it’s parts, argue why we need it and how it can be used. Maybe even end with predictions on it’s future and how it may be used (if at all)
• Create your own experiments or research (if you lack the resources maybe reach out to professionals in that field for advice, guidance, or a research position)

You can explore this in so many different ways. Whether academic or creative. You can draw/paint/design a map of the subject with illustrations. You could create podcasts or videos discussing the subject either in monologue format or with friends. The possibilities are endless. I truly think this is an aspect of learning that university fails to implement. It’s partly because this comes from the individual. This is where you have to decide to take your education into your own hands and actually make something of it. This is you inputing knowledge, chewing on it, and outputting a unique processing of the knowledge. Most of us never truly make something of our knowledge. We simply store it like tombs in our brains, only to get plaqued over and filled with cobwebs. Instead, be someone, create something with your knowledge. It’s what makes you human.

Lesson #10

Take advantage of office hours & help/tutorial centres

This is one thing I regret most from my past 2 years in university: not going to office hours. There are different dimensions of benefits that come from these activities.

Starting with Office hours:

1. If you have questions from class and you have a good professor you can properly sit down with them so they can clarify a concept.
   • In an ideal world I myself would go to a couple prof office hours everyweek and ask my questions from class.
2. You establish a better relationship with your professors. Not only does this open up the floor for having interesting conversations, but it also expands your networking. This is key for getting future recommendation letters, research positions, and possible making a great friend.

Now tutorials & help centres are a different story. They help you cut down on unnecessary struggle when something in an assignment or project just doesn’t make sense. It could be that the professor wrote the assignment in an unclear manner, or you’re just individually getting stuck. Often when I’ve ran into these situations, the more hours I “put-in” on my stuck-ness, I progressively get diminishing returns. This is where tutorial centres (or office hours if you have a good prof) come in to save you bucketloads of time. Sometimes professors just write questions in a shitty way, making you interpret them incorrectly. Much of the time badly worded questions can only be correctly interpreted if you have more experience in the subject. Talking with someone who’s more experienced than you can nudge you in the right direction, while saving you ungodly amounts of time. Whether that be in physics, computer science, engineering, etc.

A big thing that helps in general is starting early. It’s impossible to get help if you only leave yourself a day before a deadline to do so. Here’s my trick:

• Start early → Find Q early → Ask Q early → implement answers on-time

*** Q = questions

Lesson #11

You don’t always have the time to take thorough notes for all of your classes

This is a frustrating one. I’ve found that there is usually at least one class I have to sacrifice every semester. This is usually a combination of the class being too ambiguous in it’s curriculum, or having a bad prof and/or textbook, which in order to overcome requires too much extra time. This is especially true if you’re doing 5 courses a semester, and is one of the reasons I’ve switched to 4. For many of these courses I try my best to do semi-thorough overview notes, because I don’t have enough time to dive into the textbook and other content.

The end

This was a school year littered with new lessons and perspectives. I’m very grateful to have learned so much, and I hope you can learn something useful from my shared journey. If you have any thoughts, criticism, or tips of your own comment below! I'd love to hear them.