Introduction

Physics is definitely one of the harder subjects to master (if you can master Physics after all!)

Skipping lectures

My friend recommended me to skip lectures, as it was more of a routine than actually learning stuff. After a year of doing that, my verdict is that it is only applicable in pure math subjects (for me, Linear Algebra; Math for Physics 1 & 2 ), as you can always drill math on your own (in undergrad at least), whereas Physics is experimentally linked (Depends on which kind. Dynamics is math) and involves much more memorization as we don’t even know how everything(or anything) works! For example, it is quite hard to learn Standard Model on your own without guidance from your lecturers (and the textbooks you use might be outdated! For example, just a few months ago (as of June 2022), the mass of a type of W boson is found to be different from the theoretical value). (Tbh it’s quite hard to learn group theory on your own… Or just that I suck…As lecturers are the forerunners of their field, they can also share with you their newest findings/mysteries and recent international collaborations/efforts (for example, possible thoughts on what dark matter really is ? What allows Neutrino Mixing? What is g-2?)

You'll learn extra from lecturers!

For maths, at least at this very stage, I feel like lecturers are just going over proofs at an accelerated rate. Those who don’t prepare for lessons may not be able to catch up and as I never prepare for lectures, I am always behind. But other than revisiting the proofs for hardworking students, I don’t really find any practical use in lectures (feel free to discuss with me your thoughts!)

One thing I want to emphasize though, lectures ensure you stay on pace (because inevitably we will fall behind in certain subjects)

Just do whatsever feels right!

Drilling Past Papers

That’s the most important part of, again at least, undergrad mathematics/physics/most stem subjects. I personally feel that it’s most important if you cam time yourself and never check the answers until you are stuck for at least 10 mins. Also, redo the papers so you can make sure you do understand the concepts. You can also try to make questions on your own or think about how the lectures will design the papers (for example if you are learning SHM you can think about what can possibly be asked? Particles oscillating in potential wells? Then you can search in stackexchange to find the solutions/guides)

Always do past papers!

Tutorials

Tutorials definitely force you to think deeply (because there are no solutions to check), but I am not too sure about their effectiveness because I am easily distrcted all the time and usually end up finishing 1 Question per workshop

Online Resources

I do think that’s one of the most important keys to success, as you can gain intuition on the things you are studying after you study further (and also appreciate its beauty). There are tons of resources online, such as 3blue1brown, blackpenredpen, where you can solve interesting methods using the knowledge you’ve learnt or new things that universities sometimes dont’ teach somehow (in Edinburgh at least) but is considerably important (for example, the Lambert W Function is important in Astrophysics but isn’t derived in my y2 astrophysics course!)

If you are a physicist, make sure to check out hyperphysics, it’s very brilliant.

Books

Obviously the more rigorous ways to learn new and advanced materials is to read actual textbooks. If you want to learn it deeply, make sure to do the exercises because often times, you think you understand but you actually don’t!

Usually lecturers will tell you which book to read.

Example:

For One of the Courses I will take, the list is:

PAM Dirac "Principles of Quantum Mechanics"
J Sakurai "Modern Quantum Mechanics"
F Mandl "Quantum Mechanics"
DJ Griffiths "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics"
S Gasiorowicz "Quantum Physics"

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