MSc Physics at Imperial
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Re: MSc Physics at ImperialIn the first year expect as many as 20 hours a week in contact time. That'll include 1 hour tutorial a week in a group of 4 students, and 1 seminar in a group of about 20 people, as well as 3 hours of labs. They include classworks, where you can do problem sheets with post graduate students available to help. (Many people don't bother staying around for those though).
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Re: MSc Physics at ImperialAs above has said, though it tends to be 6 hours of labs per week.
I count ~20-22 hours of time in all per week, 6 hours of which are labs, one hour tutorial and one hour seminar. Some of those lectures are actually classworks where you are given a sheet of problems and can do them in the lecture theatre with assistance from post grads and the lecturer.
The workload really depends on how much you did at A-Level. If you did Further Maths and lots of mechanics options, you may well find a lot of the first term to be revision, because you end up doing a lot of maths. They obviously have to make sure that everyone has done the basics (particularly with such a diverse intake), and things consequently start quite slowly. As such, there's quite a variation with how much work students have to do.
Later on, as you get to new courses, you'll find the workload pick up. The 'advice', and this goes for most institutions, on the amount of work to be done is one hour outside of lectures for every hour inside. That's quite a volume, and you'd probably find that unnecessary.
It's hard to say how significant the workload is. Imperial has a reputation for a high workload, but I don't think it's too unreasonable. It really depends on the student. You can get away relatively easily in the first year, but it picks up later on. But hey, physics is tough at university!
The lecturers are surprisingly friendly with regards to helping you out, so they can always assist with extra contact time.
General environment: A tough one to answer. It is not the most ... animated student experience. I think it's more that the onus is on the student, rather than having the parties thrown at you. People seem to be more focussed on their degrees than anything else. You will certainly be expected to work hard
Work hard and play hard?!
The research is very well regarded on an international level. The departments quite often give talks about their different areas of research too.
If you'd like, I can email you a copy of my timetables for the first year (PM me)? -
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Re: MSc Physics at Imperial(Original post by Perdiccas)
As above has said, though it tends to be 6 hours of labs per week.
I count ~20-22 hours of time in all per week, 6 hours of which are labs, one hour tutorial and one hour seminar. Some of those lectures are actually classworks where you are given a sheet of problems and can do them in the lecture theatre with assistance from post grads and the lecturer.
The workload really depends on how much you did at A-Level. If you did Further Maths and lots of mechanics options, you may well find a lot of the first term to be revision, because you end up doing a lot of maths. They obviously have to make sure that everyone has done the basics (particularly with such a diverse intake), and things consequently start quite slowly. As such, there's quite a variation with how much work students have to do.
Later on, as you get to new courses, you'll find the workload pick up. The 'advice', and this goes for most institutions, on the amount of work to be done is one hour outside of lectures for every hour inside. That's quite a volume, and you'd probably find that unnecessary.
It's hard to say how significant the workload is. Imperial has a reputation for a high workload, but I don't think it's too unreasonable. It really depends on the student. You can get away relatively easily in the first year, but it picks up later on. But hey, physics is tough at university!
The lecturers are surprisingly friendly with regards to helping you out, so they can always assist with extra contact time.
General environment: A tough one to answer. It is not the most ... animated student experience. I think it's more that the onus is on the student, rather than having the parties thrown at you. People seem to be more focussed on their degrees than anything else. You will certainly be expected to work hard Work hard and play hard?!
The research is very well regarded on an international level. The departments quite often give talks about their different areas of research too.
If you'd like, I can email you a copy of my timetables for the first year (PM me)?Thanks for the replies guys! However I think you may have misread by question, i've applied for an MSc, not an MSci or BSc. I'm in my final year of BSc Physics at Queen Mary (almost finished!) and will hopefully get in to Imperial next year. However your accounts of your first year have allowed me to benchmark with QM, where we had only about 15hrs contact time! If anybody has any info regarding the MSc program then I'll be more than grateful!(Original post by GrumpySeuss)
In the first year expect as many as 20 hours a week in contact time. That'll include 1 hour tutorial a week in a group of 4 students, and 1 seminar in a group of about 20 people, as well as 3 hours of labs. They include classworks, where you can do problem sheets with post graduate students available to help. (Many people don't bother staying around for those though). -
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Re: MSc Physics at Imperialhi what textbook(s) do you recommend for first year physics particularly for the physics side (not maths) of things(Original post by Perdiccas)
As above has said, though it tends to be 6 hours of labs per week.
I count ~20-22 hours of time in all per week, 6 hours of which are labs, one hour tutorial and one hour seminar. Some of those lectures are actually classworks where you are given a sheet of problems and can do them in the lecture theatre with assistance from post grads and the lecturer.
The workload really depends on how much you did at A-Level. If you did Further Maths and lots of mechanics options, you may well find a lot of the first term to be revision, because you end up doing a lot of maths. They obviously have to make sure that everyone has done the basics (particularly with such a diverse intake), and things consequently start quite slowly. As such, there's quite a variation with how much work students have to do.
Later on, as you get to new courses, you'll find the workload pick up. The 'advice', and this goes for most institutions, on the amount of work to be done is one hour outside of lectures for every hour inside. That's quite a volume, and you'd probably find that unnecessary.
It's hard to say how significant the workload is. Imperial has a reputation for a high workload, but I don't think it's too unreasonable. It really depends on the student. You can get away relatively easily in the first year, but it picks up later on. But hey, physics is tough at university!
The lecturers are surprisingly friendly with regards to helping you out, so they can always assist with extra contact time.
General environment: A tough one to answer. It is not the most ... animated student experience. I think it's more that the onus is on the student, rather than having the parties thrown at you. People seem to be more focussed on their degrees than anything else. You will certainly be expected to work hard Work hard and play hard?!
The research is very well regarded on an international level. The departments quite often give talks about their different areas of research too.
If you'd like, I can email you a copy of my timetables for the first year (PM me)? -
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Re: MSc Physics at ImperialThey recommended 2 text books when I was there, one for Maths (Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences by M. Boas), and University Physics with Modern Physics by Young and Freedman for the Physics aspects of the course.(Original post by Person1001)
hi what textbook(s) do you recommend for first year physics particularly for the physics side (not maths) of things
I found them both useful, especially for modules where the lecturer didn't provide lecture notes. When you're trying to revise from scrawled lecture notes, they were a godsend.
Each lecturer will recommend further reading for their respective modules, but Young covered pretty much all of the first year. -
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Re: MSc Physics at ImperialCheers bro(Original post by GrumpySeuss)
They recommended 2 text books when I was there, one for Maths (Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences by M. Boas), and University Physics with Modern Physics by Young and Freedman for the Physics aspects of the course.
I found them both useful, especially for modules where the lecturer didn't provide lecture notes. When you're trying to revise from scrawled lecture notes, they were a godsend.
Each lecturer will recommend further reading for their respective modules, but Young covered pretty much all of the first year. -
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Re: MSc Physics at ImperialYep, like the guy above said. I emailed Bob Forsyth, one of the tutors a few months ago and he said;
We recommend a compendium textbook for all the first year physics courses, Young & Freedman’s “University Physics with Modern Physics” 13th edition, ISBN
978-0321762191, published by Addison-Wesley and available in the UK through
Pearson publishers. We strongly recommend that all students purchase this book.
With the heavy emphasis on Mathematics in Year 1, you need to remind yourself about some of the important topics in ‘A’ level mathematics such as differentiation, integration, vectors, and binomial, arithmetical and geometrical series before you arrive (especially if it is a while since you last studied). Most ‘A’ level mathematics textbooks would suffice for this, but the most useful text for the course is “Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences” (3rd international edition) by Mary Boas, published by Wiley at around £45.
