Is this what physics grad school like, /sci/?
No.12362328 ViewReplyOriginalReport
Quoted By: >>12362335 >>12362419 >>12362809 >>12363021
>graduate classical mechanics
>midterm covers oscillations, relativity, and Hamiltonian mechanics
>prof spends 2 lectures on oscillations, barely scratching the surface
>most information is buried in brief and incoherent lecture notes
>we spend the next 2 weeks on gravity waves, shit that is way over our heads, is not in the course book, but prof thinks its relevant because its muh oscillations
>lectures on relativity are a fucking mess
>we constantly switch between SR and GR without a proper introduction to either
>prof writes time as a 4th coordinate of a 4-vector despite our course book and all modern literature writing it as a 1st component. At random points he uses the latter convention instead.
>we randomly switch between trace -2 and trace 2 metrics
>heavy use of differential geometry and tensor calculus without giving us any explanation of it or any resources to study it.
>lectures on Hamiltonian mechanics are literally a week before the midterm
>everything goes extremely fast
>our homework grades with Hamiltonian mechanics problems aren't even up before the exam, no idea how well I'm doing.
>midterm time
>a relativity problem involves orbital mechanics, which I of course didn't thoroughly review, because it wasn't mentioned as an exam topic
>oscillation problem has a non-diagonal dissipation function, something we never talked about or did problems on
>Hamiltonian mechanics problem is some really shitty least-action principle problem that you either get or you don't
Is this normal, anons? This class is taking away all my sanity. This is my first semester of grad school and I'm thinking of quitting, fuck this shit. My other class isn't that bad, but I can't allocate much time to it because of this bullshit.
>midterm covers oscillations, relativity, and Hamiltonian mechanics
>prof spends 2 lectures on oscillations, barely scratching the surface
>most information is buried in brief and incoherent lecture notes
>we spend the next 2 weeks on gravity waves, shit that is way over our heads, is not in the course book, but prof thinks its relevant because its muh oscillations
>lectures on relativity are a fucking mess
>we constantly switch between SR and GR without a proper introduction to either
>prof writes time as a 4th coordinate of a 4-vector despite our course book and all modern literature writing it as a 1st component. At random points he uses the latter convention instead.
>we randomly switch between trace -2 and trace 2 metrics
>heavy use of differential geometry and tensor calculus without giving us any explanation of it or any resources to study it.
>lectures on Hamiltonian mechanics are literally a week before the midterm
>everything goes extremely fast
>our homework grades with Hamiltonian mechanics problems aren't even up before the exam, no idea how well I'm doing.
>midterm time
>a relativity problem involves orbital mechanics, which I of course didn't thoroughly review, because it wasn't mentioned as an exam topic
>oscillation problem has a non-diagonal dissipation function, something we never talked about or did problems on
>Hamiltonian mechanics problem is some really shitty least-action principle problem that you either get or you don't
Is this normal, anons? This class is taking away all my sanity. This is my first semester of grad school and I'm thinking of quitting, fuck this shit. My other class isn't that bad, but I can't allocate much time to it because of this bullshit.
