Physics at durham - applicants and discussion

Meteorshower

Why do the seeming majority of students like it then?

Because they don't know what else is out there, low expectations and so on...

Reply 221

Mithra

2

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

Because they don't know what else is out there, low expectations and so on...

As I said earlier, every physicist does two modules in the maths department in the first year and then an 'elective' module which almost certainly won't be a physics module either, so surely they experience other departments too? :eyeball:

Reply 222

Mithra

As I said earlier, every physicist does two modules in the maths department in the first year and then an 'elective' module which almost certainly won't be a physics module either, so surely they experience other departments too? :eyeball:

Most of them are told to do Single Maths - which is really easy and is supposed to make up for it. Of course it has the advantage of tieing them to physics so they can't get out into Maths.

Also loads of people take the Astronomy elective, tieing them down even further.

Reply 223

Meteorshower

14

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

Because they don't know what else is out there, low expectations and so on...

Isn't that a massive assumption?

Reply 224

Mithra

2

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

Most of them are told to do Single Maths - which is really easy and is supposed to make up for it. Of course it has the advantage of tieing them to physics so they can't get out into Maths.

Also loads of people take the Astronomy elective, tieing them down even further.

But they do all DO maths? Surely if it is really easy that would make them want to move to another department even more?

Reply 225

Mithra

But they do all DO maths? Surely if it is really easy that would make them want to move to another department even more?

They can't move if they take Single Maths, or take another maths module ever. So most don't get any idea what the maths dept is like.

Reply 226

Meteorshower

Isn't that a massive assumption?

Few people know the university system very well, as a course rep I know a lot more than the average student and how other depts work.

Reply 227

Meteorshower

14

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

Few people know the university system very well, as a course rep I know a lot more than the average student and how other depts work.

If most people have no problem with the course I can't really see how it can that be that flawed.

Reply 228

Maybe I'm wrong. I hadn't realised University was a massive conspiracy to tie people down to a single subject. Actually, I thought that was kinda the whole point :biggrin:

rinsed

On a note more relevant to the thread, what actually is the workload for a physicist as Durham? I've heard lots of people saying things about how overworked, or not, physics students are, but how much is this in absolute terms?

I'm not sure how best to answer this, I can certainly tell you exactly what first years will get up to.

For a start, first year physics has somewhere around 23 contact hours per week. This includes lectures (most of it), an hour or two of tutorial time, and 3 hours of labs. This is amongst the most contact hours of any subject, engineers have more and other scientists have something similar.

Labs are almost entirely self contained, save for a two minute task before each one designed to make you actually read the lab script.

In tutorials, you have a weekly meeting where you go through special tutorial questions set by the lecturers. The exact format varies depending on the tutor. As well as the hour of tutorial you should generally expect to spend at least this amount again trying the tutorial problems, but they are often more difficult than normal problems with the aim of working things out in the tutorial.

Lectures makes up the rest, something close to 20 hours. They are mostly self contained, you can learn everything you need from thte course notes you make (less so in subsequent years, but then there are fewer lectures). You can expect to spend several hours on 'weekly problems' (imaginatively named) though. As an example, I would usually get the physics weekly problems more or less done over the course of a weekend (including an evening out, that's mostly afternoon work), and do the maths problems in weekday afternoons. In this respect the work can be a little relentless, but it doesn't need to involve entire days spent flicking through textbooks and cramming frantically. Spreading it out like that meant I wasn't pressured and had plenty of time to do other stuff when I wanted.

The exact structure can change depending on what you're doing (core A maths has a different tutorial structure, I think) but will generally hold true. Does that answer the question?

Reply 229

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

Few people know the university system very well, as a course rep I know a lot more than the average student and how other depts work.

When you say 'course rep'...?

Reply 230

dring

When you say 'course rep'...?

I get to attend meetings about my course, where they discuss how the programme is managed etc.

Reply 231

Meteorshower

If most people have no problem with the course I can't really see how it can that be that flawed.

Look at the NSS, it shows that they overwork students in both Physics and Chemistry.

Reply 232

Rite

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

In a word research. League tables don't really care about the teaching.

Wouldn't the rubrik "student satisfaction" take that into account? http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=6643

Reply 233

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

I get to attend meetings about my course, where they discuss how the programme is managed etc.

Oh. Well, I did that too.

As a course rep I know a *bit* more than the average student and *something* about how other depts work. I'm sure HMK has much more experience of other departments through his modules, but lets not throw out mysterious titles just because we can :smile:

Reply 234

dring

Oh. Well, I did that too.

As a course rep I know a *bit* more than the average student and *something* about how other depts work. I'm sure HMK has much more experience of other departments through his modules, but lets not throw out mysterious titles just because we can :smile:

I am one for Natural Sciences, silly. It might help if the department gave you email access, you know so you can ask students what they make of the course rather than going through the department. Maths manage it and we actually get lots of constructive criticism, which normally they find a solution for it.

Reply 235

Rite

Wouldn't the rubrik "student satisfaction" take that into account? http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=6643

The problem is they ask leaving students, who have every incentive to rate the university highly. Really they need an Ofsted for universities.

Reply 236

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

I am one for Natural Sciences, silly. It might help if the department gave you email access, you know so you can ask students what they make of the course rather than going through the department. Maths manage it and we actually get lots of constructive criticism, which normally they find a solution for it.

We *do* have email access. Nobody ever replies. Everyone is very happy :smile:

Reply 237

Mithra

2

Hopping Mad Kangaroo

The problem is they ask leaving students, who have every incentive to rate the university highly. Really they need an Ofsted for universities.

Firstly, why do leaving students have an incentive to rate the university highly? :eyeball:

Secondly Ofsted don't take into account student satisfaction.

Thirdly: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/ not good enough?

Reply 238