And it begins..

by Rohan Kulkarni

last updated : June 8, 2024

Note: I am assuming that most of you have a high-school level of physics (that is up-to-date and not rusting for years altogether) and went through the foundational mathematical preparation in the IPSP II post. This is probably be one of the longer posts you will encounter on my blog. Let’s dive straight into some logistics and then some Do’s and Don’ts.

Coursework

Every semester, you will be taking three mandatory modules,

And one elective. A total of 30 ECTS per semester is supposed to be your ideal workload.

Do #1: The weekly assignments, SOLVE PROBLEMS

Each course will have assignments (homework) that you need to hand in on a weekly basis. Don’t underestimate the amount of work and time that goes into these - you will be having 3 assignments to submit every week, it can get quite tedious. You need an average of 50% on these assignments in order to be allowed to admitted to the exam. Even though the grades of these assignments do not appear on your final grade for the course, there is a robust correlation between doing these assignments well and getting good grades on the final exam. You may ask, Why?

  1. Applicability: These assignments are usually designed such that you apply the concepts you learned in the class (Expect similar problems to form a majority of the questions you will encounter in your exam). Of course in an exam, there will be more challenging problems (not necessarily harder than the ones in your assignement, just different variety making it tricky) where you are expected to learn new things while solving the problems. (Expect these problems to differentiate between someone good at the subject and someone really good at the subject).
  2. Similarity: Physics is a very objective subject. There may be multiple approaches to the same problem, but usually just one right solution. Because of this, the intersection of the Venn diagram of problems one can expect on these assignment sheets v/s the variety of problems one can expect on the exam is pretty large (Apologies for the tediously long statement; I guess you will have to get used to deciphering statements tenfold complicated in your physics career).
  3. Difficulty: Assignment problems are usually expected to be solved over a week. You are supposed to attempt them, fail, look at resources; sometimes you might find the solution - in Germany, there is nothing wrong with this legally - unless you are copying straight from a friend. But this is far away from the ideal scenario where you keep hacking away at the problem till you get it. Ideally, sometimes, if you cannot solve a problem, get obsessed with it. You will need that obsession when you are performing research. One problem at hand - not finding a solution for weeks or even months, is a common occurrence.

The first hurdle you face will be Theoretical Physics I (or, as it is called in IPSP, “TP1”)

You have never taken anything similar to such a course before. (My dataset for such a conclusion might be limited as the coursework slightly changes yearly. I make this comment based on the three iterations of this course. I have been a TA for two iterations and attended one iteration as a student). The upcoming advice applies to most first-year courses, not just this one, but TP1 is the one most people struggle with. This small section is just a headsup to pay extra attention and give more time to this subject as it might take some time to settle down with the concepts taught in this one.

Hmm, this sounds like a lot… What should I do?

The simple answer: You need to come prepared. Easier said than done, am I right? That is the exact reason for this post. I want to try to guide you in the simplest way to prepare well for a smooth start in IPSP and avoid the common mistakes I have seen people make during my years.