Physio can be incredibly helpful. The exercise sheets exist because they genuinely do help people with their problems - especially lower-body joint problems, they're often exacerbated by your muscles not working in quite the right way!
I wouldn't say it sounds like a cartilage tear, but IANAD.
There's no harm in doing some prehab exercises while you wait for an appointment to see if it helps: try quadriceps and hamstring stretches, massage your hamstrings, calves and quads (the entirety of your quads!) using a partner, or your bodyweight on top a foam roller, lacrosse ball, or anything like that - lots of vids online for this sort of stuff. Muscles nearer the knee especially. No harm to be done as long as you don't put any extraneous forces on the joint itself and focus on the muscles.
More like "sounds insane that I started uni so long ago!"