Don’t Take Physics in the Summer

AstroProf is a teacher I really wish I had had when I was in college. Reading his blog is one of the highlights of my day, his insights into teaching are what I value the most.

Apparently, he’s teaching this summer and he’s written a good post about what it’s like to teach these summer classes.

I recall one of my friends took freshman physics over the summer in an attempt to get ahead in his schedule and perhaps graduate early.

It was the biggest mistake he ever made. Freshman physics is designed to provide the physics major with a foundation of knowledge he or she is going to need throughout the rest of the program. We get exposed to important ideas and problem sets early on that we can refer to later and build on. If we don’t get that foundation, then we’re kinda screwed and have to play catch-up when we take more advanced classes later on.

My friend took Physics 2 (the second semester physics class), and I remember taking classical mechanics and later plasma physics with him when we were in our junior and senior year. In both classes he lamented taking that course over the summer. He said it was too rushed and he got nothing out of it. All he did was try to cut corners and just get through the damn thing. He passed, but only with a C, which also hurt his GPA. He told me he never really got over it and that he never felt all that prepared for his later classes.

Now, his struggles may not have been due entirely to taking that class over the summer (he wasn’t all that good of a student to begin with), but he blamed it for most of his performance and it definitely affected his mindset. Not feeling prepared or smart enough is a BIG issue for physics students (it was for me). The last thing we need is something to make that worse, and taking big, hard, 5 credit hour courses over the summer definitely falls in that category.

My advice to anyone considering taking a physics or astronomy class over the summer: DON’T. You’re going to get short-changed; there is simply no way you’re going to get the knowledge you need in such a short amount of time. Physics is hard enough during the regular semester, it’s damned near impossible over the summer.

Take classes NOT related to your major over the summer. The only class I ever took that way was a communications class (I can’t remember the name), but it was to meet one of my graduation requirements not in my major. Even that class, which was ‘easy’ by comparison to physics courses, still required that I spend all morning, every morning in class and then the afternoon doing homework. I hated it, but at least it didn’t affect the GPA in my major.

Do yourself a favor and do not take any physics, math or astronomy classes over the summer.

Photo Credit: Orionior’s photostream

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