lm21074
Hey ashmi!
I'm so excited to hear about your uni experience! :)
I'm a choc-mint person too! I know you said you live for anything choc mint, but if you had to pick one choc mint thing, what would you pick (please say ice cream!)?
Hey lm!🥰
YAYYY another person who loves choc-mint! Of course, I am going to say ice-cream😂 (Choc mint kit kats are also up there on the favs list too!). Choc-mint is one of the best ice cream flavours you can get your hands on. Thanks for stopping and hopefully I update this journal frequently
Geoo
Woohoo you made a uni journal!
I can't wait to see what you get up to in uni, and where your journey takes you. Weather you do physics or EE, they both seem like amazing options and I can see you going either way, only time will tell!
What are your first four units? Good luck with the semester!
Hey Geoo!!🥰
My first units for the semester are Physics 1, Calc 1, Engineering Tech and Society and Chinese 1. I'll go more into this with the journal update below. Thank you so much Geoo for stopping and I'm hoping to hear about your uni experiences soon 🥺. Good luck to you too!!
The Cat In The Hat
*jumps up and down* Ashmi made a uni journal...
Choc mint!
Anyway... excitement.
*Excitement Intensifies*Hey The Cat In The Hat!!🥰
Lets go choc mint gang🤩
Song of this Journal Update
Semester 1:
Physics 1 (PHYC10003)
Calculus 1 (MAST10005)
Engineering Technology and Society (ENGR10004)
Chinese 1 (CHIN10005)
Semester 2:
Physics 2: Physical Science & Technology (PHYC10004)
Calculus 2 (MAST10006)
Linear Algebra (MAST10007)
Chinese 2 (CHIN10006)
My Timetable
(https://i.imgur.com/i2AUci8.png)
I also have peer mentoring on Thursdays but I haven't included it in this pic (My Thursday classes are online yay!). I have massive gaps between Tuesday - Friday which is good for me cause I struggle to be fully functioning in more than 2 back to back classes. I am quite happy with my timetable and it gives me time to finish work straight after a class.
Also, if anyone is currently studying at Unimelb, how hard is it to get a H1? (Especially for STEM subjects).
Now onto some other life stuff. Recently I got a job! I am currently working at this small tuition centre close to home as a student tutor and I absolutely love it. I run all the VCE Physics classes (head of physics now haha), Maths Yr 7 - 11, English Yr 7 - 10 and some of the scholarship test classes. I love my VCE Physics classes and not only does it feel like a dream to teach a small class, but it is also even better that I'm teaching one of my favourite subjects. It is permanent part-time and it will be a great opportunity for me to improve my teaching skills and communication abilities.
The other job I got was the ATAR Notes VCE Author position! So yay I'm writing the VCE Product Design and Technology course notes! I feel like I am writing a mini-thesis but it will definitely be worth it in the end when I can see the whole thing as one big piece. I'm about halfway through writing it up and I'm hoping to finish AOS 2 of Unit 4 tonight (I doubt it but I will try).
O-week is next week and I am excited to finally find out how we can get the hoodies (I hope it's a good design). Anyway, I'm hoping I don't get wrecked this semester. If you have any tips for a jaffy, please let us know! See you guys all for another update soon!❤️
I love your journal title!! Keen to read more😊
Spoiler
A particle in an electric field. A particle moves because of its electric charge and because of the presence of an electrical field right, so if i am interpreting this correctly then as you resemble the particle, then you can change your direction (career path) based your external experiences/influences or from a change within. Idk if I over thought that😂.
What is this?! AN UPDATE? What sorcery is going on over here?🤣
(https://i.imgur.com/EPu8t8T.gif)
HI EVERYONE I'M BACKKKKK!!
Since the last post, so much has happened that you guys all deserve an update (and also because mid sem break is next week). So, lets begin this update with the one and only, 'Song of the Update'.
First of all, my subjects for this semester is different from the previous update. At the start of this semester, I was doing:
Calculus 2
Physics 2
From the Solar Systems to the Cosmos
Chinese 2
However, on the day of the census date, I dropped Chinese 2 and now I'm only doing 3 subjects. The week prior to the census date, I have a group meeting with my academic adviser who did his undergrad in Physics then his postgrad in computer science. We were talking about physics and all that and then he mentioned something about quantum computing (which I didn't know much about). Straight after the meeting, I started considering taking some computer science subjects, especially with what he said and a lot of the Master/PhD kids have mentioned. Some of the Physics subjects that I will be taking later in the course will require some higher coding experience, yet it isn't said as a prerequisite. I thought about the whole situation for a bit and I then decided that I wanted to take some CS subjects, especially after hearing about some quantum computing subjects offered in the higher physics levels.
But there was one problem... Unimelb's limit of level 1 subjects being restricted to 10. Since I'm doing Linear Algebra in the summer term, I realised that I would only have one slot left for level 1 (which I wanted to use as a breadth) and then the other problem was that I wanted to take Foundation of Computing and Foundation of Algorithms, which is 2 level 1 subjects...
After being thrown around on Stop 1's call system to a course planner ON THE CENSUS DATE, I decided it would be best to say goodbye to Chinese 2🤣😭. Let me tell you, that day was a whole ride! So now I'm just doing 3 subjects and just thinking about what I want to do next.
I am seriously considering doing a Diploma of Computing to improve on this area, not just for physics but also as a tool to help with further research if that is something I'm up to doing. The course planner also said I could sneakily get around it by doing Engineering Computation (Level 2 subject) and still be eligible for the diploma without FoC which was quite interesting. Either way, since I'm only doing 3 subjects now, I'm using it as an opportunity to learn and improve on programming in general (and also cook better food haha). I might likely will do some CS subjects and if I feel up to doing a diploma, I would cross-credit them into it.
Also for a subject's update!
Calculus 2: Much easier than Calculus 1. I absolutely love this subject and everything is so well planned out by the Maths department. Assignments have been pretty good and this mid-semester break is going to be spent revising all the content and moving on some practise exams. I feel confident about this subject and for once, I think I'm getting some positive vibes from it. The assignments have been great and I love studying it. Highly recommend it!
Physics 2: Oh man at this rate, I'm going to start falling in love with the MAST department over the physics one🤣. Physics this semester is much better organised and the live lectures they have on Friday are really beneficial as it goes through demos. Since the whole semester has been online, my lab marks are much better online than in person? I get more 20/20 online than I did in person (mainly because of a different rubric which I am loving) so that's a bonus! I've started doing a few past exams here and there for this subject but I must say, some of it can get confusing at times, but it's physics and it's meant to be like that haha. I don't feel as confident with this subject as I do with Calc 2, however, after the insane scaling of the physics department, I probably will do better in this than Calc 2. The new lecturer has forgotten to post the lectures for this week till a few hours ago which wasn't the best but it is what it is.
From the Solar Systems to the Cosmos: I picked up this subject last minute after realising it existed, but it is SO MUCH FUN! Content is so engaging and if you have done year 12 physics, half of it is a piece of cake. (*shhhhh and a WAM booster*).
We had an MST today and I was honestly panicking for nothing. For me, I found it much easier than expected as half of it could be done with Year 12 Physics, however, this subject caters to those that haven't studied physics after year 10, which they may have found hard (especially for the special relativity question). I love how this subject is structured and how they have been able to integrate astronomy so well without the maths, it is heavenly. The labs are fantastic this semester too and consist of short answer questions which makes it super accessible as a breadth subject to those that don't do science. I love how interactive the labs are, and even being able to get something to take a photo for you on the other side of the world is AMAZING!! We learned how to program a telescope to take a picture automatically for us (and we could chose which telescope e.g. in Mexico) and for my lab, I chose to do the Running Chicken Nebula, IC 2944. We also studied HR Diagrams of star clusters and learn to edit photos we take and coming to these labs brighten up my day. Best subject I have picked up so far. A few photos that I have taken for my lab are below.
This is the Running Chicken Nebula IC 2944 I was able to take a picture of after figuring out how to program the telescope!
(https://i.imgur.com/R3u2yOR.png)
This one was taken from the Hubble telescope and it is called Messier 16 NGC 6611. In this lab, we focused on learning to edit pictures and this is what mine turned out in the end!
(https://i.imgur.com/JcUKWVq.png)
Anyway, that is it for today's update and see you guys around 😁
hums_student
Hey Ashmi,
You should definitely look into subject auditing. If, in the future, you want to do a subject but you might not have space for it on your study plan, you can email the subject coordinator and request to audit the subject instead. You'll have access to the Canvas page and will be doing the exact same content as someone who is enrolled in the subject, except it wouldn't take up a slot on your study plan so you're still free to take other subjects. In my experience (auditing my 5th subject this sem!), subject coordinators are usually more than happy to let you audit their class. It can be a bit more difficult for subjects with prereqs but generally if you can demonstrate that you'll be able to keep up in the course you'll easily get approved.
I was also in a similar situation as you where I wanted to take CS subjects but my study plan didn't allow, so I audited media comp, FoA, EODP, machine learning, and am currently auditing TSA. It's really great because you don't have to pay for audited subjects and they are also not recorded on your transcript, meaning you don't have to worry about doing well in them lol.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the midsem break and looking forward to your future updates!
You are my absolute lifesaver and hero in disguise!🥺
I am definitely going to do this in the future and this solves pretty much all the problems I'm having.
Hope things are going well on your end and enjoy your Christmas break!
ThunderDragon, blueycan, Chocolatemilkshake, The Cat In The Hat
Thank you so much for all the nice comments 🥺🥰. I'm glad you all like the photos and hopefully, in the future, there is some more interesting stuff I can show you all!
I hope you all are enjoying your holidays and the long-deserved break after all that studying.🏖️
Hello everyone!
After a long time after the previous update, I have returned 😂. First, before I get started, congratulations to all the year 12s for finishing the school year and good luck with results! It has been a long year of work and hopefully you are happy with your performance and enjoying a long-deserved break.
Well anyway, lets get started with the song of today's update and then we can go straight into the good stuff.
It’s been a while so I thought it would be good to give you guys an update. (Shoutout to @Thunderdragon for reminding me haha)
My exams finished a while ago and oh boy I have a lot to say. I need to have a word with who thought having two physics exams (Cosmos + Physics 2) back-to-back on the same day that goes from 11 am to 7 pm was a good idea. This happened a few weeks ago and let me tell you that was no fun. Ignoring physics, Calculus 2 was alright, however, I would have preferred last semester’s exam that the one we got this semester.
Reflection Time
There are a few things that I would like to reflect on what did work and what didn’t this year:
What didn’t work well
• Watching pre-recorded lectures for any physics subjects. I would like to attend as many in person lectures as possible for physics subjects as it was hard to see demos online and was one of those subjects that just doesn’t ‘work’ online.
• Labs in the afternoon made me more likely to skip out work for other subjects that day and more likely to dread the day.
• Any subject with large exam weightings. *Cough* MAST subjects *cough*
• Doing 3 subjects in a semester didn’t really help me out academically this semester. I found myself being less productive with study (possibly because of lockdown?). I don’t think much changed but that could also be because I went on 3 subjects halfway through the semester. If I started with only 3 subjects, I would say there would have been a more noticeable difference.
What did work well
• On the same subject, doing 3 subjects allowed me to work more, especially in private tutoring as the VCE Exams came closer. I found more of a demand for tutoring once August/September hit which allowed me to make more $$$ then I did last semester.
• Physics exams with standard online examination mode (This is because there is no restriction on type of calculator to use. Thank you CAS)
• Any subject with exam weightings of 60% or less.
• Watching pre-recorded lectures for maths subjects. Math lectures tend to be better for me online as it gives me time to write/digest information.
• Investing in an iPad was a good idea.
• Joining clubs and using it to network.
• Putting labs in the morning to get it over and done with (especially for on campus labs)
• Cramming all the practical classes and labs together if possible.
Physics Research Areas and Plans
In terms of subjects, my goal is to get to a point where I’m only taking 3 science subjects (Or 3 science electives + 1 breadth) in my final year each semester. This is because the Master of Science (Physics) only considers your 4 best 3rd-year physics subjects scores, and I would like to maximise my chances for a CSP spot.
Since being part of the PSS committee this year, I have been able to see a LOT of different research projects and meet a lot of potential supervisors where I was able to think about what I would like to specialise in. Here is sort of a list of things I was able to eliminate so far:
• Cosmology, Astro-particle, Extragalactic and High Energy Astrophysics.
• Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
• Biophysics
• Experimental/Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
• Experimental/Theoretical Particle Physics
• Quantum Computing/Quantum Information
• Nanoscience
There is still a lot I don’t know so hopefully by the end of next year I can eliminate some more off this list! The one that I am the most curious about is quantum computing, especially since I didn’t know it was an actual research area in the physics department at the start of the year. If I had to give a wild guess of what I would probably end up doing, it would be quantum computing or experimental particle physics.
Potential Subjects for 2022
2022 Summer Term:
• MAST10007 Linear Algebra [Core]
2022 Semester 1:
• PHYC20012 Quantum + Thermal Physics [Core]
• MAST20009 Vector Calc [Core]
• PHYC20013 Lab and Comp 2 [Core]
• COMP20005 Numerical Computation in C [Elective]
2022 Winter Term:
• FINA20026 Painting Techniques [Breadth]
2022 Semester 2:
• PHYC20015 Special Relativity + Electromagnetism [Core]
• Must pick 2 out of the 3 below:
o MAST20030 Differential Equations [Core Alternative to TP2]
o PHYC20014 Theoretical Physics 2 [Core Alternative to DE]
o MULT20015 Elements of Quantum Computing [Elective]
• EDUC20080 School Experience [Breadth + Placement]/ FNCE10002 Principles of Finance [Breadth]
I do have some problems which I’m going to describe below
1. I’m stuck between what subjects I’m going to do in semester 2. Taking DE and TP2 together looks like a death sentence based on what I have heard. Good news though is for a physics major, both act as an alternative prerequisite, so I only need to take one. I have heard it might be best to take both though (especially since TP2 relies on some DE), however I am super tempted to take the quantum computing subject as that is the only quantum comp subject offered in undergrad. Right now, I am leaning more towards TP2 and Elements of Quantum Computing.
2. I am also having trouble picking a possible breadth subject during Semester 2. School Experience and PoF both look like great subjects. There is one thing stopping me with the School Experience subject and that is the essay components (not the best at essays and scared of them…) however, I do feel like it would be very enjoyable. PoF on the other hand would probably be the ‘safer’ option (no essays) and looks interesting. I’ll probably give School Experience a go and if I do struggle, I know PoF would be a good backup choice.
3. One thing that I haven’t decided yet is if I want to do a diploma of computing. If this ends up happening, pretty much everything from semester 2 will be changed in terms of subjects. It would be very beneficial (especially for internships/specific research areas) but I’m not too sure if I want to extend my degree just yet. Still deciding at this point. Most likely will audit some subjects just like @hums_student has mentioned.
Long Term Goals
Finally, long term goals for the next academic year:
• Organise an internship/research project during the summer term of 2023. (Looking at you DST).
• Become experienced with Python, C/C++, MATLAB and Linux environments.
• Network more, especially with people of possible research areas.
• Maintain a H1 WAM, especially high H1s in physics subjects.
• Keep this journal updated more. Maybe once every 2/3 weeks.
On a side note, I need to meet up with some people that I should have met up with this year but couldn't cause of✨lockdown✨.
@colline if you see this we need to organise a meetup when we are back on campus🐍.
@thunderdragon I know you are going to see this and fam we need to prepare for our next hotpot/bubble tea/shopping outing please.🐉 (Even tho I saw you two days ago HAHAHAHAHA)
I’ll stop here for today or else I will keep going forever. See you at the next update! 💖
✰Update: 17/01✰
Hello AN!
Once again I have returned to give you guys an update about what’s going on in my life. I hope you all are doing well and had a nice start to the new year. Yes, I am writing a journal update at midnight but anyway, I'll jump straight to the subjects as always!
Linear Algebra
So I started this subject last week and so far it has been really good. We had one in-person lecture before it was completely shifted online😭. Tomorrow will be my 4th day out of the 12-day course and we have covered quite a bit which I’m going to list below:
1. Your nice linear equations/reduced row echelon
2. Matrices and Determinants
3. Euclidean Vector Spaces
4. And halfway through General Vector Spaces
Our first assignment was given BEFORE Lecture 1 even started and was due last Thursday. Still don’t know the result from it but I do have a second assignment due this upcoming Thursday which I am nearly done with.
I’m finding the content a LOT more interesting than Calculus 2 and the questions so far to be much easier (I hope that’s a good thing haha). I do want to come out of this subject with a strong foundation because after seeing some 3rd year physics students panicking because they forgot everything in this subject which they need for the cores is not the position I want to be in...
In terms of grades, the goal for this subject would be to get a mid H1 and the reason for that is because someone has volunteered to pay for all my pan-fried and steamed dumplings desires for a week if I do achieve a certain grade. As you can probably tell by now, I am easily motivated by food. 🥟
Goals for this week for Linear Algebra:
- Get started on some of the past exams qs.
- Review theory + understanding of content, especially focusing on weaker areas.
- After trying some past exam qs, see what should be added to a potential cheat sheet for the exam.
~Trying to figure out life component~
Alright so now I have a change of heart to some subjects that I was originally going to do in semester 2 this year. After reading “The day in a life of a postgrad physics student” stored in the Physics Students’ Society Google Drive, I am now more than ever motivated to take more computer science subjects. Long story short, every review I read in that document all said that coding/programming skills are a MUST so now I have changed things up a little for semester 2 this year. A friend has also given me all the material for the quantum computing subject I wanted to do so I think I'll attempt to self study that every once in a while and pick up a level 2 comp subject useful for postgrad.
Also, I have heard from previous TP2 students about their opinions on the subjects (yes and the 50% fail rate). Usually, the crowd favourite is TP2, however considering my weaker maths skills and their recommendations, I might be better off doing DE. Many have said TP2 relies on some DE knowledge which might become a problem if I were to pick it. The only thing is that TP2 looks so nice in terms of content but I know I would struggle. I’ll just write a pros and cons list below so I can somehow figure what I’m doing later:
Spoiler
Pros of TP2:
- Aligns with interests.
- Can help me figure out if theoretical is something I want to pursue.
- Has really good notes
- Very theory based
- Allows me to do TP3
Cons of TP2:
- The only type of questions available to do are tutorial sheets
- The content halfway through becomes quite challenging (especially in the maths department) and requires some DE knowledge to do well.
- Proofs everywhere
Pros of DE:
- There is a problem book and tutorial questions
- Not as many proofs as TP2
- Subject is more accessible and practical compared to TP2
Cons of DE:
- Subject might align with interests as much
- I cannot do TP3 in third year
Honestly after writing this I probably should steals the notes for TP2 and just take DE HAHAHA.
- Special Relativity and Magnetism (Core)
- Differential Equations/Theoretical Physics 2 (Core) [TBC]
- Algorithms and Data Structures (Elective)
- An undecided breadth
One more thing I should add is that I might be going to an Ivy League next year. I’ll keep this for another update cause the whole backstory behind this would be equal to another journal update.
See y’all next time!💖
✰Update: 6/02✰
Hey everyone! It is time for another midnight update from yours truly. I will get my sleep schedule back on track after exams I promise.
I've split today's update into spoilers so it's not bombarding the page haha. A lot has happened since the last update so lets get started!
Linear Algebra
Oh my lord this subject goes fast. We finished general vector spaces, linear transformations and currently halfway through eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The last topic that will be covered is Inner Product Spaces and the last lecture scheduled for it is literally 3 days before the final exam. Note to self: Summer Term has no SWOTVAC.
I’m struggling with the last bit of linear transformations at the moment (Looking at you change of basis/invertible linear transformations) and I need to seriously study like there is no tomorrow as the exam is very close. I have a MATLAB test (10% of final mark) next week Monday (Feb 14th) and the final exam on Feb 18th (70% of final mark). I’m planning to watch the last 9 prerecorded lectures between tomorrow and this Wednesday so I can wrap up all this content a bit early.
The final exam is usually out of 12 questions, and so far I’ve done nearly all the exams up to Q6 (which is every topic before linear transformations). Tomorrow I plan to continue those past exams up to ~Q9 then watch those remaining lectures and study the living daylights out for the MATLAB test. Also, I got my assignment marks back! So far so good. Out of the 4 I have back, two of them I have gotten full scores for but the other two I have lost half a mark for each assignment.
Despite this subject being intensive for a short period of time, the lecturer is AMAZING. I don’t know how he is singlehandedly carrying the Linear Algebra cohort in the summer but he is doing it with style. #bestlecturersofar
~Figuring out life component~
Spoiler
If you are a science student who is interested in going into research, you might know the struggles of trying to get yourself involved in a research project. Well it doesn’t help if you are a physics major. At Unimelb, trying to get yourself into a physics research project is like impossible until you are in third year (which makes sense cause you need more physics knowledge). There was no projects available that we could join, so me and my friends found another way.
A group of us (~5) decided to make our own research project about a special type of telescope mount for a remote astrophysics laboratory. This was purely out of self interest at first, however after a few team meetings, we decided to write a proposal out and sent it to potential supervisors. I honestly don’t know how it happened, but we did get a supervisor!
So y’all, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.
Right now, we currently need to figure out the type of system we want to construct the telescope with (harmonic drive maybe?) and how we are going to program it.
On another note, I have sort of become lost in this journey. Lost in a way where I’m constantly asking myself if I am capable of doing research. It is a constant cycle of “What happens if I’m not good enough? Can I handle it? “Am I going to get anywhere?”. There is self doubt, but at this point I’m learning to acknowledge it and leave it in the background for now. I think I’m having one of those short term mini crisis where I have withdrawn myself for a short period of time. A friend of mine noticed this and we have started doing a mini physics book club where we talk about what we are reading. I’m so grateful to have friends who look out for me and I don’t know what I would do without them. I have started reading “Quantum Physics of atoms, molecules, solids, nuclei and particles” and “The Quantum Age” and its been pretty good.
Spoiler
If you read my last update, you would have probably interpreted that DE was the subject I was leaning towards. I DID enrol into it however, there has been some drama with the coordinator.
There are a few people that I know taking engineering maths this summer (DE coordinator also does Eng maths Summer), and oh man I’m hearing everything so many mixed reviews. They had an MST question which was quite unclear and ambiguous which caused a whole controversy. Although the issue was ‘resolved’, hearing the whole story of what unfolded was not the most pleasant way ever. (I won’t go into it here but it was really bad, trust me). Since me and my friends are physics majors, we were debating if doing DE would really be worth it at this point with how matters were handled. Honestly I rather violently suffer through Theoretical Physics 2 with really good lecturers than go through DE with what I have seen.
TL;DR: Indecisive Ashmi enrolled back into TP2 and is blacklisting DE for this year unless needed for last resort.
Spoiler
Continuing on from my previous update, there is a chance I might be going to the University of Pennsylvania next year for a research exchange. This opportunity has just popped out of nowhere from my academic adviser. However, if you have read the very first post of this journal, I REALLY want to go to ETH Zurich. Ideally I would want to be going with my bf to save a bit financially here and there, which is why I’m leaning towards going to ETH (and plus they practically have higher physics rankings so yolo).
We have encountered a big problem though, and it is that we need at least 4 graded level 3 physics subjects to be considered for postgrad studies. If we go on exchange, we can get credit for the subjects we do but we won’t get numerical scores. We are currently in the process of contacting the postgrad entry staff for physics to see if there is a way around it. If this doesn’t work and if we stay at Unimelb for postgrad (and don’t run away to ANU for honours lol) then ETH will most likely be an exchange opportunity for somewhere in our first year of masters (Sorry Penn ☹️ ). Honestly with the current COVID situation everything is up in the air.
Well anyway that is it for today! The next update will most likely be after my summer term exam and during O-Week ish. See you all next time! 🥰