- #1
SiuKing666
- 15
- 0
Hi everyone.
I'm a final year undergraduate physics student, in fact, in my final semester wrapping up courses & my thesis. I had dreamed about getting PhD, becoming a decent physicist and such but...the truth is, I am not even sure if I want to continue going down that path anymore.
Here is my story.
I have been very interested in Astronomy since I was very very young, I would read a lot of popular science books in the library and even go sky-gazing camps before age 10. I was very motivated to become an astronomer, and obviously that was a very romantic dream by then.
Anyway I can say I am decently intelligent, I then started my Physics undergraduate degree in university and I hit my first obstacle.
I wasn't aware of the fact that I have to do all areas of Physics before doing Astronomy, and at the time I wasn't very interested in everything (who would be interested in literally every field of physics?) So I had an attitude of "OK, whatever"; and proceed to try to go through all the first semester courses with minimum effort (This would work in high school, things are easy enough that you don't really have to study for it).
Obviously grades did not end very well at the time. (such as, I specifically sucked at Newtonian mechanics by then, yet fairly decent in Lagrangian, I do not know why)
Being a person with quite high expectation, the grades did not sit well with me. And eventually I have to accept the fact that, if I want to do Astronomy, if I ever want to have any chance of getting a PhD and proceed to do things with my beloved Universe, I have to suck it all up, get good grades so I can get into a decent post-graduate program.
As I mentioned, I am fairly intelligent so I still can pass everything with just reading things and not even doing the exercises myself. I proceeded to force myself into lectures, trying to cram topics that I don't even want to look at (ya, there are topics that are so clumsy and annoy me so much).
Eventually I realize I am burning out.
Sure thing, my grades are improving as I have been forcing myself to spend time on everything that are thrown at me, I am getting decent grades in more difficult courses.
But the more I do this, the more I do not want to have anything to do with Physics.
It feels like I have been spending a large enough portion of my time forcing myself, and during my "free time" I just want to indulge myself in anything else, games, movies, whatever; something that does not make me think about Physics.
I am not saying I find all fields of Physics boring or discouraging for me, I have discovered some fields being quite intriguing and interesting too; but as for others that I have keep forcing myself, I do not find the motivation to do extra work on the subject, even try to avoid it.
I fell into a trap that I am studying for grades (the greater good?) instead of for my passion and interest.
TL;DR:
My lack of motivation of studying physics is not from the difficulty of physics itself...I can handle the difficulty just fine, in fact some courses like Statistical Mechanics I found them easy; but rather the tedious classes and lectures and exercises that come with it...
I mean, who wants to sit in a classroom listening to a terrible lecture speaker reading off a PDF/Powerpoint for 2 hours when you can read the whole thing in 30 minutes or less?
I still keep my interests in Astronomy and some areas of Physics but I am hardly finding motivation to do anything about Physics outside course works. I wanted to become motivated again as it is before, where I would read a lot of books and still feel addicted.
In fact, this is exactly why I am uncertain whether I should go on with doing a Masters or just leave it and keep it as a hobby. During summer holidays, after I'm "cooled down" and had a break from it, I will feel motivated to pick up a book and read to learn something.
All I can see now is even more endless amount of tedious lectures and homework. I don't see Physics, I don't see the fascinating stuff, I just see numbers and equations.
Anyone been in my situation can give me some advice about this?
Thanks for reading.
I'm a final year undergraduate physics student, in fact, in my final semester wrapping up courses & my thesis. I had dreamed about getting PhD, becoming a decent physicist and such but...the truth is, I am not even sure if I want to continue going down that path anymore.
Here is my story.
I have been very interested in Astronomy since I was very very young, I would read a lot of popular science books in the library and even go sky-gazing camps before age 10. I was very motivated to become an astronomer, and obviously that was a very romantic dream by then.
Anyway I can say I am decently intelligent, I then started my Physics undergraduate degree in university and I hit my first obstacle.
I wasn't aware of the fact that I have to do all areas of Physics before doing Astronomy, and at the time I wasn't very interested in everything (who would be interested in literally every field of physics?) So I had an attitude of "OK, whatever"; and proceed to try to go through all the first semester courses with minimum effort (This would work in high school, things are easy enough that you don't really have to study for it).
Obviously grades did not end very well at the time. (such as, I specifically sucked at Newtonian mechanics by then, yet fairly decent in Lagrangian, I do not know why)
Being a person with quite high expectation, the grades did not sit well with me. And eventually I have to accept the fact that, if I want to do Astronomy, if I ever want to have any chance of getting a PhD and proceed to do things with my beloved Universe, I have to suck it all up, get good grades so I can get into a decent post-graduate program.
As I mentioned, I am fairly intelligent so I still can pass everything with just reading things and not even doing the exercises myself. I proceeded to force myself into lectures, trying to cram topics that I don't even want to look at (ya, there are topics that are so clumsy and annoy me so much).
Eventually I realize I am burning out.
Sure thing, my grades are improving as I have been forcing myself to spend time on everything that are thrown at me, I am getting decent grades in more difficult courses.
But the more I do this, the more I do not want to have anything to do with Physics.
It feels like I have been spending a large enough portion of my time forcing myself, and during my "free time" I just want to indulge myself in anything else, games, movies, whatever; something that does not make me think about Physics.
I am not saying I find all fields of Physics boring or discouraging for me, I have discovered some fields being quite intriguing and interesting too; but as for others that I have keep forcing myself, I do not find the motivation to do extra work on the subject, even try to avoid it.
I fell into a trap that I am studying for grades (the greater good?) instead of for my passion and interest.
TL;DR:
My lack of motivation of studying physics is not from the difficulty of physics itself...I can handle the difficulty just fine, in fact some courses like Statistical Mechanics I found them easy; but rather the tedious classes and lectures and exercises that come with it...
I mean, who wants to sit in a classroom listening to a terrible lecture speaker reading off a PDF/Powerpoint for 2 hours when you can read the whole thing in 30 minutes or less?
I still keep my interests in Astronomy and some areas of Physics but I am hardly finding motivation to do anything about Physics outside course works. I wanted to become motivated again as it is before, where I would read a lot of books and still feel addicted.
In fact, this is exactly why I am uncertain whether I should go on with doing a Masters or just leave it and keep it as a hobby. During summer holidays, after I'm "cooled down" and had a break from it, I will feel motivated to pick up a book and read to learn something.
All I can see now is even more endless amount of tedious lectures and homework. I don't see Physics, I don't see the fascinating stuff, I just see numbers and equations.
Anyone been in my situation can give me some advice about this?
Thanks for reading.