Imperial Strikes Back: 2nd Year Physics GYG
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Had the environmental physics exam on Wednesday - it was ok. Almost finished it. In order of best to worst, it's Sun Stars & Planets, Environmental, Quantum Mechanics, and then extending several metres to the right of your screen, thermal physics & structure of matter.
Revising Green's functions at the moment. This is like the third time I've tried to relearn them. Still making no sense. At least the other topics from differential equations are more straightforward, but the questions are so long that you're likely to make some numerical mistake along the way.
Revising Green's functions at the moment. This is like the third time I've tried to relearn them. Still making no sense. At least the other topics from differential equations are more straightforward, but the questions are so long that you're likely to make some numerical mistake along the way.
Green's functions now making a fair bit more sense. I'm not confident at all for electromagnetism, but it's the similar kind of feeling to last year's exams where I just didn't care enough to even stress myself out much. Haven't even finished the EM lectures on waves at boundaries.
General thoughts
Having submitted my answers for the Differential Equations and Electromagnetism exam today, there is now nothing left in 2nd year.
A pretty weird 2nd year it was. I started out hoping that this year would be my redemption arc or whatever and I'd do my problem sheets on time for once, have something lined up for the summer, and generally come out of it better than I started. Those first two things definitely didn't happen, but despite having had 12 hours of in-person teaching the whole year (all in the autumn term), I think I enjoyed it much more than I did in summer term 2020.
Did 2nd year of physics live up to its notorious reputation? Nah, not really. I guess that's the whole point of the course change. I think with the old spec I'd have crumbled like a wet cake in the first term.
Am I happy with my course choice still? ...yeah I think so. Generally I'm a lot quicker to blame myself for shortcomings. I know I didn't do as much work as I could or should have done. I feel like I'm trying to min-max effort and achievement.
The paper today
The format was 1 question on ordinary differential equations, 1 on partial differential equations, and 2 on electromagnetism.
Question 1 (ODEs) was the most doable of the lot. Started out with a straightforward part on finding power series solutions to a differential equations, then putting it into closed form (cos and sin terms). I got quite worried when I thought I'd obtained the wrong power of x inside, but I made a guess of 1/2 because it seemed to fit with the second part. That second part was on Green's functions, which I was able to do - revision paid off. I'm not 100% confident on that answer because of how the question was laid out though. However it took me 45 mins in total from wasting time in the middle of it.
Question 2 (PDEs) was bloody ridiculous. It was a heat equation problem in cylindrical co-ordinates. I only wrote a page of working before giving up and moving on. I think I can still get some marks, I at least managed to get Bessel's equation to pop out of it.
Question 3 (EM) would have been the worst question on the paper... had i not come across an almost identical example problem in Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics beforehand. It was about finding the EM fields around a straight current-carrying wire, which normally is fine and doable, but the question introduced some time-dependence so that you had to use the ret@rded potential (TSR censors this word), and that makes it a fair bit more complex.
Question 4 (EM) everyone else found to be the most doable question on the paper. Unfortunately I was running out of time so could only really do half of it. It was just about plane waves in materials with some numerical calculations thrown in, no disgusting derivations, and crucially nothing from the last few lectures that I never ended up watching.
And that's it. I'll get my marks back in the last week of July, and that'll be the final update. See ya then. Thanks for reading.
Tags
(edited 2 years ago)
congrats on finishing second year 
Original post by absolutelysprout
congrats on finishing second year
thank-u man-u
Original post by Sinnoh
General thoughts
Having submitted my answers for the Differential Equations and Electromagnetism exam today, there is now nothing left in 2nd year.
A pretty weird 2nd year it was. I started out hoping that this year would be my redemption arc or whatever and I'd do my problem sheets on time for once, have something lined up for the summer, and generally come out of it better than I started. Those first two things definitely didn't happen, but despite having had 12 hours of in-person teaching the whole year (all in the autumn term), I think I enjoyed it much more than I did in summer term 2020.
Did 2nd year of physics live up to its notorious reputation? Nah, not really. I guess that's the whole point of the course change. I think with the old spec I'd have crumbled like a wet cake in the first term.
Am I happy with my course choice still? ...yeah I think so. Generally I'm a lot quicker to blame myself for shortcomings. I know I didn't do as much work as I could or should have done. I feel like I'm trying to min-max effort and achievement.
The paper today
The format was 1 question on ordinary differential equations, 1 on partial differential equations, and 2 on electromagnetism.
Question 1 (ODEs) was the most doable of the lot. Started out with a straightforward part on finding power series solutions to a differential equations, then putting it into closed form (cos and sin terms). I got quite worried when I thought I'd obtained the wrong power of x inside, but I made a guess of 1/2 because it seemed to fit with the second part. That second part was on Green's functions, which I was able to do - revision paid off. I'm not 100% confident on that answer because of how the question was laid out though. However it took me 45 mins in total from wasting time in the middle of it.
Question 2 (PDEs) was bloody ridiculous. It was a heat equation problem in cylindrical co-ordinates. I only wrote a page of working before giving up and moving on. I think I can still get some marks, I at least managed to get Bessel's equation to pop out of it.
Question 3 (EM) would have been the worst question on the paper... had i not come across an almost identical example problem in Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics beforehand. It was about finding the EM fields around a straight current-carrying wire, which normally is fine and doable, but the question introduced some time-dependence so that you had to use the ret@rded potential (TSR censors this word), and that makes it a fair bit more complex.
Question 4 (EM) everyone else found to be the most doable question on the paper. Unfortunately I was running out of time so could only really do half of it. It was just about plane waves in materials with some numerical calculations thrown in, no disgusting derivations, and crucially nothing from the last few lectures that I never ended up watching.
And that's it. I'll get my marks back in the last week of July, and that'll be the final update. See ya then. Thanks for reading.
General thoughts
Having submitted my answers for the Differential Equations and Electromagnetism exam today, there is now nothing left in 2nd year.
A pretty weird 2nd year it was. I started out hoping that this year would be my redemption arc or whatever and I'd do my problem sheets on time for once, have something lined up for the summer, and generally come out of it better than I started. Those first two things definitely didn't happen, but despite having had 12 hours of in-person teaching the whole year (all in the autumn term), I think I enjoyed it much more than I did in summer term 2020.
Did 2nd year of physics live up to its notorious reputation? Nah, not really. I guess that's the whole point of the course change. I think with the old spec I'd have crumbled like a wet cake in the first term.
Am I happy with my course choice still? ...yeah I think so. Generally I'm a lot quicker to blame myself for shortcomings. I know I didn't do as much work as I could or should have done. I feel like I'm trying to min-max effort and achievement.
The paper today
The format was 1 question on ordinary differential equations, 1 on partial differential equations, and 2 on electromagnetism.
Question 1 (ODEs) was the most doable of the lot. Started out with a straightforward part on finding power series solutions to a differential equations, then putting it into closed form (cos and sin terms). I got quite worried when I thought I'd obtained the wrong power of x inside, but I made a guess of 1/2 because it seemed to fit with the second part. That second part was on Green's functions, which I was able to do - revision paid off. I'm not 100% confident on that answer because of how the question was laid out though. However it took me 45 mins in total from wasting time in the middle of it.
Question 2 (PDEs) was bloody ridiculous. It was a heat equation problem in cylindrical co-ordinates. I only wrote a page of working before giving up and moving on. I think I can still get some marks, I at least managed to get Bessel's equation to pop out of it.
Question 3 (EM) would have been the worst question on the paper... had i not come across an almost identical example problem in Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics beforehand. It was about finding the EM fields around a straight current-carrying wire, which normally is fine and doable, but the question introduced some time-dependence so that you had to use the ret@rded potential (TSR censors this word), and that makes it a fair bit more complex.
Question 4 (EM) everyone else found to be the most doable question on the paper. Unfortunately I was running out of time so could only really do half of it. It was just about plane waves in materials with some numerical calculations thrown in, no disgusting derivations, and crucially nothing from the last few lectures that I never ended up watching.
And that's it. I'll get my marks back in the last week of July, and that'll be the final update. See ya then. Thanks for reading.
Tags
Do you have the paper?
Can you send it to me please? In case you can have it. I don't have access to 2nd year papers.
By the way I have done the QFFF sometime ago. Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces Master of Science. It's the MSc in Theoretical Physics.
I am looking for some material especially in Differential & Integral Equations.
(edited 2 years ago)
Congratulations on finishing second year! I'm not going to attempt to comment on the update itself because it takes half a physics degree to understand what that all means and I am but a weak and feeble chemist (I don't mean this badly though because I'm 100% aware my updates read the same way to a non-chemistry student hehe), but your exam sounds...difficult, and I'll leave it there.
Looking forward to third year? I don't think I've mentioned this but one of my best friends has just finished their second year in maths at Imperial, and it is consistently interesting to hear your perspectives on the respective courses and your experiences of the university on the whole
Looking forward to third year? I don't think I've mentioned this but one of my best friends has just finished their second year in maths at Imperial, and it is consistently interesting to hear your perspectives on the respective courses and your experiences of the university on the whole
Original post by Chemusen
Congratulations on finishing second year! I'm not going to attempt to comment on the update itself because it takes half a physics degree to understand what that all means and I am but a weak and feeble chemist (I don't mean this badly though because I'm 100% aware my updates read the same way to a non-chemistry student hehe), but your exam sounds...difficult, and I'll leave it there.
Looking forward to third year? I don't think I've mentioned this but one of my best friends has just finished their second year in maths at Imperial, and it is consistently interesting to hear your perspectives on the respective courses and your experiences of the university on the whole
Looking forward to third year? I don't think I've mentioned this but one of my best friends has just finished their second year in maths at Imperial, and it is consistently interesting to hear your perspectives on the respective courses and your experiences of the university on the whole
Thanks! actually if you want to properly understand where atomic structure comes from then some of this stuff is very relevant. Orbitals (in part) come from the spherical harmonics which come from the solutions to Legendre's differential equation in spherical coordinates which comes from trying to find angular momentum eigenstates in an atom.
Am I looking forward to third year...? In about two months' time I'll probably be looking forward to it just to have something to do. I'm excited for some of my optional modules. I really hope 3rd year isn't my final year though.
A few minor updates.
•
I have had a little spat with Student Finance England that I think has been sorted, and if it goes to plan I'll be getting a much bigger maintenance loan. Maybe in 4th year I'll be able to move out again.
•
There is a chance that I will have something to do later this summer. Someone from the History Group at Imperial sent out an email to people who had studied history-related topics this year. There's going to be some sort of archival research project on the uni's history and the student experience during the pandemic. It seems very interesting, I really hope I get accepted for it.
•
Was tempted by this summer internship as an atmospheric data analyst with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, but I don't think my computer skills are up to the task. Specification seemed to require experience in Fortran and Linux that I do not have. Also it would be a two-hour commute each way for eight weeks, and I've been hoping to see my grandparents in France later this summer.
•
Results for exams in two weeks... probably. However around this time is when they tell you whether you've passed the year or need to resit exams.
I have been told that I will be progressing on to my current degree course, the 4-year MSci. I haven't been told my actual results, that'll be later
But now I barely care what my results are, because if I'm progressing on to MSci then I know my average is at least 60%. Or maybe it's a near miss and they were being kind.
Still though, I'm really happy about this. I don't care if I've barely scraped it, I don't care if I've done the bare minimum of effort, the one big question mark hanging over all my exam results has already been resolved.
But now I barely care what my results are, because if I'm progressing on to MSci then I know my average is at least 60%. Or maybe it's a near miss and they were being kind.
Still though, I'm really happy about this. I don't care if I've barely scraped it, I don't care if I've done the bare minimum of effort, the one big question mark hanging over all my exam results has already been resolved.
Original post by Sinnoh
I have been told that I will be progressing on to my current degree course, the 4-year MSci. I haven't been told my actual results, that'll be later
But now I barely care what my results are, because if I'm progressing on to MSci then I know my average is at least 60%. Or maybe it's a near miss and they were being kind.
Still though, I'm really happy about this. I don't care if I've barely scraped it, I don't care if I've done the bare minimum of effort, the one big question mark hanging over all my exam results has already been resolved.
But now I barely care what my results are, because if I'm progressing on to MSci then I know my average is at least 60%. Or maybe it's a near miss and they were being kind.
Still though, I'm really happy about this. I don't care if I've barely scraped it, I don't care if I've done the bare minimum of effort, the one big question mark hanging over all my exam results has already been resolved.
Well done!!
When you finish your course you may consider doing the QFFF
Original post by Lucifer323
Well done!!
When you finish your course you may consider doing the QFFF
When you finish your course you may consider doing the QFFF
Thanks!! I'm definitely not doing QFFF though. I don't think you can even get SFE to fund a second master's?
Original post by Sinnoh
Thanks!! I'm definitely not doing QFFF though. I don't think you can even get SFE to fund a second master's?
I don't know about this to be honest.
Results
To summarise: they're... interesting.
Advanced Practical Physics: 63.08% - no surprises there.
Differential Equations and Electromagnetism: 56.95%. I'm a little disappointed. If I'd remembered to submit that damn APS I'd be right on the edge of 60%.
Quantum Physics: 58.62% - ok.
Thermal Physics and Structure of Matter - 51.00% - not great, not terrible. Well, I haven't had a single core module above 60%, so slightly terrible.
Environmental Physics - 73.64% - pretty happy with that.
Sun, Stars & Planets - 88.24% - ???????????????? wut? how?
Overall: 61.80%
(oh and 76.50% for Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World, but I knew that already and it doesn't count towards my overall mark)
I would be happier with this result if there were less of a variance. That I'm likely graduating in 2023 is pretty much entirely due to the optional modules.
Still tho. It's a 'grow your grades' blog and technically I have done that, by 3.07%.
That's it from me. Thanks for reading folks. See ya.
To summarise: they're... interesting.
Advanced Practical Physics: 63.08% - no surprises there.
Differential Equations and Electromagnetism: 56.95%. I'm a little disappointed. If I'd remembered to submit that damn APS I'd be right on the edge of 60%.
Quantum Physics: 58.62% - ok.
Thermal Physics and Structure of Matter - 51.00% - not great, not terrible. Well, I haven't had a single core module above 60%, so slightly terrible.
Environmental Physics - 73.64% - pretty happy with that.
Sun, Stars & Planets - 88.24% - ???????????????? wut? how?
Overall: 61.80%
(oh and 76.50% for Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World, but I knew that already and it doesn't count towards my overall mark)
I would be happier with this result if there were less of a variance. That I'm likely graduating in 2023 is pretty much entirely due to the optional modules.
Still tho. It's a 'grow your grades' blog and technically I have done that, by 3.07%.
That's it from me. Thanks for reading folks. See ya.
Tags
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Sinnoh
Results
To summarise: they're... interesting.
Advanced Practical Physics: 63.08% - no surprises there.
Differential Equations and Electromagnetism: 56.95%. I'm a little disappointed. If I'd remembered to submit that damn APS I'd be right on the edge of 60%.
Quantum Physics: 58.62% - ok.
Thermal Physics and Structure of Matter - 51.00% - not great, not terrible. Well, I haven't had a single core module above 60%, so slightly terrible.
Environmental Physics - 73.64% - pretty happy with that.
Sun, Stars & Planets - 88.24% - ???????????????? wut? how?
Overall: 61.20%
(oh and 76.50% for Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World, but I knew that already and it doesn't count towards my overall mark)
I would be happier with this result if there were less of a variance. That I'm likely graduating in 2023 is pretty much entirely due to the optional modules.
Still tho. It's a 'grow your grades' blog and technically I have done that, by 2.47%.
That's it from me. Thanks for reading folks. See ya.
To summarise: they're... interesting.
Advanced Practical Physics: 63.08% - no surprises there.
Differential Equations and Electromagnetism: 56.95%. I'm a little disappointed. If I'd remembered to submit that damn APS I'd be right on the edge of 60%.
Quantum Physics: 58.62% - ok.
Thermal Physics and Structure of Matter - 51.00% - not great, not terrible. Well, I haven't had a single core module above 60%, so slightly terrible.
Environmental Physics - 73.64% - pretty happy with that.
Sun, Stars & Planets - 88.24% - ???????????????? wut? how?
Overall: 61.20%
(oh and 76.50% for Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World, but I knew that already and it doesn't count towards my overall mark)
I would be happier with this result if there were less of a variance. That I'm likely graduating in 2023 is pretty much entirely due to the optional modules.
Still tho. It's a 'grow your grades' blog and technically I have done that, by 2.47%.
That's it from me. Thanks for reading folks. See ya.
Tags
Congratulations for obtaining a 2.1
What are you going to do now?
Original post by Lucifer323
Congratulations for obtaining a 2.1
What are you going to do now?
What are you going to do now?
Wait for third year to start I guess. Not going to change any of my options, I'm happy with them still.
Come to think of it, I could start preparing for Comprehensives now. But I won't.
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