From lectures to labs: A Year One Physics recap

As the year comes to a close, the fact I am no longer a “silly fresher” is getting quite upsetting. Having finished a whole year of uni I can’t believe how much has happened. One thing I wasn’t quite prepared for when I started university was how much I would learn outside of academics - I’m shocked to say the least when I think about how different I am from the person who started here in September. When I was doing my A-Levels and realised I wanted to study Physics further, I had no clue how that decision would lead to making such solid and fulfilling friendships with course-mates, memories I will treasure from Physics events, and skills that I know will make me an asset in the future.

Meeting my course mates

Being a commuter, I found in the first term that the majority of my friends were course-mates - and when you do a subject like Physics with the extensive contact hours, that’s likely to be the case regardless, since we all spend so much time together. My friend group came together in a mixture of ways, some of us met due to the Physics Family Scheme (where we are split into groups and assigned a Physics 'parent' from the year above), some met due to our tutor groups (the 1:3 meetings we have with an assigned academic each week), and I met my best friend at uni by pure chance when she was late to a lecture and happened to sit next to me. We all then bonded at a Physics Society games night and the rest is history.

Core memories I’ll take forwards

As someone who really enjoyed labs, my end of term lab projects holds some key memories for me. Investigating the circular motion of a wave on a string oscillating at the first harmonic, firing X-rays at rocks that myself and my lab partners found outside the Poynting Building - nothing made me feel more like a “real physicist “. I’ll remember the times me and my friends got shushed in lectures and when we went to the fair on the Vale and the first Physics bar crawl of the year.

Skills I wasn’t expecting to gain

Doing a little more research probably would have informed me I’d be learning this but: coding. I was not expecting to have coding sessions once a week and I did not think I’d be proficient enough by the end of first year to be able to apply those skills to my current summer internship where I’m programming crystals for a VR space. Working methodically is something that gets drilled into us from A Levels, but having to actually apply and cement those skills in our two week lab projects has made me a more organised person as a whole. Alongside those more academic skills, I also learnt how to travel independently. As a commuter student who had rarely been on the train before, and never alone, I had to figure out how to get from A to B and do it on the regular (every day) which is a skill I’m so glad to have, since now when my friends want to go on a day trip and we’re using public transport I can normally figure out way around.

My first year of university was a lot of things: fun, memorable, insightful. I hope yours will leave you with a similar sentiment!