PHYS1241: Higher Physics 1B (special)

10x weekly pre-laboratory online quizzes (2%, 0.2% each)
3x Laboratory Reports (18%, 6% each)
4x Assignment worksheets (20%, 5% each)
Final exam (60%)

PHYS 1121/1131

Compared to 1121/1131, the laboratories in 1241 are way more fun. They don't get assessed, and you get to do legit what you want to do at the end. Basically, for the first hour, you attempt an investigation related to the lectures. The next hour, you have to do extension investigations, investigating something similar. This allows for some really cool and imaginative investigations, also making labs a lot less stressful. However, Lab reports are required to be written up every 3 weeks, and to get perfect marks, a lot of effort is needed to be put into them (by the end of the semester, I had written 125 pages in my lab book, but the average was around 85). This spent me hours to do, as it required uncertainty graphs and long discussions and neat tables, probably spent the most time doing these at home, then anything else in semester 2.

The assignments were normally 6 questions ranging from pretty okay, to "wtf is this, how is this possible to solve". Luckily, about half of the questions could be googled, which allowed a sense of security. The others required you to discuss with other members of the course, and you need to do this to get good marks (unless you are very, very smart (like Rui)). I suggest making/joining a group chat for the course.

The final exam questions, for the most part, is extremely difficult (about half) and requires quite a lot from you for a 2-hour exam, making it quite difficult to do well. Also, the past exams only have the first part of the exam with answers, as Gal thinks it's silly to have answers. So it can be difficult to study the 2nd half of the course. Otherwise, as long as you attempt past papers, the final exam won't be too awful.

As for the lectures, Liz is fantastic at the actual content, with an explanation of the content, with an experiment, followed by solving questions. This way of lecturing was fantastic for reviewing and knowing if you really understand what was taught, and has a bit of fun with experiments. Also has extra ones on the internet to follow along with. An overall fantastic lecturer.
Gal is fantastic at being so engaging and making physics so fascinating. He would show physical applications and you'd sit there, like a child with a bedtime story, it was great. However, the relevance to the course was very minimal, and so the questions that were asked in practice exams or tutorials felt foreign, and thus meant that self-teaching was occasionally needed.

The tutorials require you to explain a question by writing and speaking, it does help with confidence and with future tasks that require public speaking and problem solving (like TA!)

Overall, this course is very fun but very, very time-consuming. (probably spent 45% of my study/homework time on this course) Even if you think you aren't the smartest (like myself) and are majoring in physics, I highly recommend doing this course, it allows you to meet other physics majors and you get a feel for 2nd-year courses (lab reports and LaTeX writing).

2x 1-hour lecture, a 2-hour laboratory and a 1-hour tutorial each week.

3.9/5

Yes (also personalised ones from Liz)

Prof Elizabeth Angstmann (First half) & Prof Michael Gal. (2nd half)

A Video series made by Liz, online quizzes from 1231 (not assessable for us, but assessable for 1231), past exams with answers from Liz's section.

4.3/5

Halliday, D., Resnick, R., & Walker, J. (2014). Fundamentals of Physics, John Wiley & Sons. A really good textbook, but with the content this course provides, it isn't needed.

2018 Semester 2

78 DN