Imperial Strikes Back: 2nd Year Physics GYG

No more deadlines remaining for this term. I've finished the last assessed problem sheet and the history essay for my Horizons module.

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Well, that's it for 2020!! What a waste of time this year was. But to quote a 1997 election campaign ad, ♪ thiiiiiiings can only get betteeeeeeeeer ♪

a waste of a year is one way to put it
hope you haven't got too much work to do in the holidays

well done on making it to the end of term!!
i think a lot of the stuff you're doing in quantum physics i'm also doing in quantum mech but i'm too far behind to tell. i've definitely seen bra-ket stuff in the notes though!! god i hate that module looool
differential equations are horrid. the last time i liked them was first year and that was because it was still basically a level further maths. i don't get them whatsoever anymore

hope you can have a restful christmas break!

About me
Hi I'm Sinnoh. A lot of people have made GYGs in quite a short time so let's not be too late to the party. I'm about to go into my second of hopefully four years of doing physics at Imperial College. Outside of physics I'm pretty fond of classical music, history, guitar, and Pokémon. I was somewhat active in the history society and quiz society last year so I'll be rejoining them for sure.

I previously did blogs for year 13 (here) and first year (here). I don't know what to expect from this year so I can hardly say what you can expect from this blog. Last year's was more aimed at prospective physics students, this year maybe I'll actually need the motivation. So I won't go into as much detail about the stuff I'm learning - or I'll put in a different section about it in my updates if people really care.

The academic stuff
For once I am actually intending to grow my grades. Most of the main assessments last year were done after the coronavirus hit, so they were done at home. I didn't revise well at all, and had they not been open-book I'd have been really screwed.

Actually not as bad as I was expecting! Still, I wouldn't want that to be my final grade, and as you can see I was very close to resitting one of the modules. Normally first year would've counted for 7.5% of my final grade, but there is a no-detriment policy in place: if my result for first year is lower than my average for the next three years, it won't count.

So at the very least, I want to get a better overall grade. I need to score at least 60% overall this year to progress on to the MSci course. Second year is normally worth 20% of the whole degree so I have much less room for messing up, too.

I have heard many times that the 2nd year of physics at Imperial is completely bonkers, what with more exams and more frequent lab write-ups and an all-round infamous reputation. With the new course structure it might not be so bad, but I really don't expect to have those great swathes of free time I had last year.

Other goals for the year/things I want to do:

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If you want to follow this blog, either put it on watched or request to be tagged. I'll spam all of last year's tagged peoples with yet another notification, but there's no need to feel obliged or anything.

pls tag meee xxxx

That reminds me, my tag list is on my stricken laptop
But yes I will do once it's possible

Oh it's January. Cool.

Not much to update on in terms of uni work - haven't gotten any marks back for anything. I've made a start on the article, having written the first page, but that's only maybe 12% of the way through. My academic tutor was fine with the article topic, I got 7/9 on the plan (I lied about not getting marks), but now I'm having second thoughts because I feel like at the pace I'm going now I'll top out at 1500 words maybe.
Almost caught up with the final week's lectures, there's been some difficult-looking stuff in quantum mechanics about perturbation theory. Outside of that I've tried to revise thermodynamics the most because I've got the least experience doing questions for it and it's very heavy on content.

Imperial's in tier 4, university students are supposed to return to campus on a staggered basis. But, to quote gov.uk, "scientific or technology subjects that require time in laboratories or use of expensive equipment (for example, chemistry, physics, bio-sciences, engineering)" can start in-person teaching earlier... which basically covers every course at Imperial!
(except maths. sorry maths.)

There hasn't been any specific communications from the department about the matter though. I'm actually hoping in-person teaching doesn't start too soon, because this term my labs are at 9:10 in the morning and I can get up an hour later if they're remote.

Okay, labs at home it is.

I've just realised, lasers are heavily involved in my quantum science article. My topical review last year was on lasers. My waves group project in 2019 was on lasers. I can only assume that physics actually began in 1960.

how do labs at home work?

how do labs at home work?