Physics at durham - applicants and discussion

My offer is nice. A in maths (pretty much in the bag considering im doing further maths and im cruising through C3 and C4) and an A in either

critical thinking
philosophy
further maths
or chemistry

I'll be finding out first hand if HMK is right. If he is right then I might switch to theoretical or switch to maths and physics Nat Sci

I just like Durham... like alot ... more so than oxbridge

My offer is nice. A in maths (pretty much in the bag considering im doing further maths and im cruising through C3 and C4) and an A in either

critical thinking
philosophy
further maths
or chemistry

I'll be finding out first hand if HMK is right. If he is right then I might switch to theoretical or switch to maths and physics Nat Sci

I just like Durham... like alot ... more so than oxbridge

Theoretical physics is basically the same as straight physics . The first two years are identical .

Still haven't heard anything. After when do they usually hand out all of their offers?

Some people have already heard back but others could be waiting up until the deadline. There's really no way to tell when you'll get a response.

I phrased that wrong. I meant how long will it take for them to hand out all their offers but I guess the same answer applies.

So general consensus, physics will be tough, but fine so long as you attend all lectures and make sure you do the work? I've applied nat-sci, will that mean a lot more work? Presumably there are staff and older students to talk to if you have problems?

Anyone applied for St Chad's by the way?

Physics is definitely doable, anyone who puts in a bit of effort finishes with a good degree. Nat-sci can either be hard or easy, depending on the modules that you choose. I would recommend choosing modules in your first year that allow you to switch to a single/joint honours degree, as you may find you are only interested in one or two of the subjects. There are always people (tutors, lecturers, fourth years) around to help if you ask for it. Most of the time asking other people doing the course will suffice.


Please don't take HMK's opinion too seriously, he seems pretty lazy.

The department isn't perfect by any means and one or two of the lecturers could use some English lessons! However, just to reiterate if you made it through all that lot, HMK does not speak for us and should not pretend that he does so. Don't make the mistakes he did, go to lectures, get help, make friends and work togther! Thankyou.

...

Wow, now thats a long post . Thanks very much for that, it has definitely settled a lot of worries of mine (assuming that you really are a bunch of physics students! Anonymity strikes again! ).

Although that has just made my choice difficult again

They are really physics students, I know them

I graduated last year with a BSc in Natural Sciences - Mathematics, Physics. I feel compelled to post on this thread to give my opinion, on what I believe was a great course.

Some people seem to be indicating that physics is somehow vastly more difficult than other subjects, which just isn't the case. I found the workload to be very comparable to the mathematics modules. I even found that people studying some arts courses spent a similar amount of time working to me. The volume of material can be overwhelming when you step back and look at it, but the proportion you are actually required to apply come exam time is actually relatively small. The lecture material really just provides background material for you to be able to understand and solve problems. What is different between physics and mathematics is that you don't do labs in mathematics. For anyone considering choosing between the two this should be a big factor.

I feel the main difference between mathematics and physics modules is the type of thinking required. Physics modules contain larger quantities of material, which require you to be able to apply, what are technically easier concepts, on unseen problems. Whereas the mathematics modules are much more technical, but the problems which you have to solve you will have generally met before. I personally found the mathematics side more difficult, I believe it is more suited to people who are willing to memorise material rather than truly understand the underlying concepts. I also found physics to be more interesting.

As for problem sheets, they really don't require any effort at all. While some people would spend hours and hours pouring over material trying to solve them, it is entirely unproductive.

These problem sheets are best done in groups, so that if you get stuck the have the perspective of someone else. If you can't do it, then just hand in what you can do and look at the answers when they are published. I would spend roughly 2-3hours per week on problem sheets and still averaged a high mark. They are collectively worth 10% of a module, which is absolutely nothing, the equivalent to a single question on an exam paper. I would note that it is worth understanding the answers when they are published, as exam papers will have questions along similar lines.

As for lectures, on a whole they were very good. Physics and mathematics, are subjects you simply have to sit down and learn and the lectures provide a good overview and can help on some points which you would otherwise struggle to understand. I did find that some lecture courses weren't that helpful, in which case I just wouldn't turn up. If you're still relying on lectures to spoon feed you information you may struggle, as with any university. My only gripe was with some of the mathematics modules which didn't have any handouts, you just had to copy from a blackboard.

Any complaints about a lack of social life are completely unjustified. No one was ever going to miss a night out because of a problem sheet. With the exception of the exam period, work never interfered with my social life.

I think the course is well respected and has certainly helped me in finding a job. If you are going into research it will also hold you in good stead. However, if you are interested in theoretical physics, straight maths might be a better option. For laboratory based work such as condensed matter, a physics course is definitely better. Unfortunately people won't really know which they prefer until second/third year.

Physics is definitely doable, anyone who puts in a bit of effort finishes with a good degree. Nat-sci can either be hard or easy, depending on the modules that you choose. I would recommend choosing modules in your first year that allow you to switch to a single/joint honours degree, as you may find you are only interested in one or two of the subjects. There are always people (tutors, lecturers, fourth years) around to help if you ask for it. Most of the time asking other people doing the course will suffice.

Please don't take HMK's opinion too seriously, he seems pretty lazy.

This is a message written on behalf of a group of physics students who are at the same college and are in the same year as HMK. We were pointed toward this forum by friends and were somewhat shocked at HMK's attempt to discourage prospective students from studying Physics at Durham University. We would strongly recommend that anybody thinking of studying physics at Durham university should not let the opinion of HMK influence their decision in any meaningful way.

The anonymity of the internet can be a wonderful thing but it also lets people such as HMK appear as if they represent more than just the views of a tiny minority. It is my (the writer) experience that internet forums in general tend to be full of negativity because it is the unhappy that feel a need to voice their opinions. This in itself is not problematic but on a forum like this where prospective students (who may or may not be aware of the issue with internet forums) are making a decision that will shape the rest of their lives and are trying to make that decision as informed as possible, the potential of the minority to speak louder than the majority needs to be adressed. The 'silent majority' of people, happy with their situation, who do not feel the need to broadcast their contentment with their situation can often be forgotten in the wake of accusations that 'your life will be ruined omfg..safas' etc.

We believe HMK represents a minority element of the student comunity. We can say this with a relatively high level of confidence as we all vaguely knew HMK in person and can testify to his unsuitability toward the role he has assumed for himself in 'warning' propective students away from choosing Physics at Durham university.

Instead, we will adress some of his arguements head on before providing our opinion on the Durham Physics course. HMK claims physics students are overworked and that the course is too difficult and that the teaching is inadequate. He has specifically complained about optics and the weekly homework assignments being too difficult.

Firstly, the weekly problem assignments. These are designed as a running indicator for the student as to their understanding of the subject on a weekly basis. They are summative as the Physics department will be aware that if they were not compulsary, some individuals would lack the self-motivation to answer them. This would likely lead to such a student having an insufficient understanding of their subject and as everything in physics builds upon previously existing knowledge, this quickly becomes problematic. The end result of not answering the weekly problems with a developed level of understanding (ie not copying someone else) is reaching the exam period with an overwhelming amount of material left to be studied and learnt. This is typically what causes the few students that do, to fail. This is why the weekly problems are summative.

A nice example of this can be found by looking at, for example the engineering department which has non-compulsary weekly problem sheets. Very few engineers motivate themselves into doing these questions. Both the engineers we know spent the last two weeks before exams attempting to learn, quite literally a years worth of material in that time period. They both did well in exams but we can assure that their experience was far from pleasant.

HMK also claims the weekly problem sheets are too hard. We find this somewhat ironic in that in a conservation with HMK last year, he complained to one of us that 'the weekly problems aren't worth doing because they are too easy'. Make of that what you will!

Another poster made the point that the marking for these problems is very inconsistent. This we conceed can be true at times (it has been known for work that was copied word for word from another piece to recieve different marks to the original) but is a minor grievance, especially in light of the fact that the department has to mark hundreds of problems every week. They don't have the time or man power to provide totally consistent marking and neither would any physics department. We finish by pointing that none of us has ever felt it necessary to go to Adrian Skeleton complaining about the awarded marks in the 1 and a half years we have spent at the university.

https://duo.dur.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_16867_1 provides an example of a reading list and brief sylabus for one of the first year modules. If any student finds the reading material recomended unsatisfactory, it is not exactly difficult to go to the library and try a different book or simply ask the relevant lecturer (best done at the end of a lecture) for advice on a different book to consult.

It's worth mentioning that the summative work counts towards your final first year grade but that the first year doesn't contribute towards your degree. Asking the lecturers for help is easy (their emails can be found here http://www.dur.ac.uk/directory/units/phy.html ), emailing them (those that don't reply tell you as much in their first lecture), speaking to them at the end of lectures or simply finding their room during a free hour (easier said than done sometimes though). The lecturers are required to respond to queries and you can simply arrange an hour to go and see them individually if you have a specific problem (I the writer have done this many times). Alternatively, in the first year, you are allocated a tutor who will also agree to see students individually during free slots in their day. If HMK wasn't getting enough help, then he simply wasn't going about it in the correct manner.

Moving onto the difficulty of the course itself, we would first like to stress that we know a number of students that live with us who do a variety of subjects. They work just as hard and in some cases harder than we do. Physics is certainly a challenging course but that is inherent from the nature of the subject itself. The aim of any degree is primarily to allow a student undertaking it to move foward in that subject after the degrees completion. A degree is not there simply to look good on a cv whilst applying for a completely unrelated job. This of course, does prove to be the case but the reason physics looks good on a cv is precisely because it is a difficult subject. If the course was watered down it could be argued that graduates would have difficulty adapting to post graduate study and employers would look upon it less favourably. All this said, we can reassure anyone reading this that physics isn't outrageously difficult in our experience. It is a step up from A-level and you will have to work harder than before at times but in the first year especially, there will be loads of time left for other stuff besides studying. None of us feel we worked particularly hard in the first year until the exam period, at which point life becomes hellish, albeit briefly.

Rest assured though that this is the case for all students at all universities.

The core physics modules are challenging but they are broken up by the lab module (nobody has ever failed it..ever), the astronomy module (A-level standard).

If you want to do straight physics and see maths as a mere tool used to gain a better understanding of nature then do yourself a favour and choose single A and B, not Core A at the start of the first year. The single modules are easier, more relevant to physics and have super easy exams at the end of the year.

To summarise, we feel the physics course at Durham is excellent (so far...:P). We are worked hard but were warned so thats our fault for being overly ambitious. The department isn't perfect by any means and one or two of the lecturers could use some English lessons! However, just to reiterate if you made it through all that lot, HMK does not speak for us and should not pretend that he does so. Don't make the mistakes he did, go to lectures, get help, make friends and work togther! Thankyou.

A bunch of physics students.

HMK, why is it that this 'silent majority' barely ever post on here (1 or 2 of you) and yet people who like it actually bothereven to make accounts to argue against you?

When you're sat in your living room, with a drunk TSRer, encouraging another friend to set up an account, and listening to everyone in the living room singing along to popadom...