This week in awesome

This is so cool

http://io9.com/5937052/this-beautiful-video-about-parabolas-will-100-blow-your-mind?tag=this-is-awesome

This got me hooked on Vi Hart's videos.http://vihart.com/doodling/

She is my new hero.

Rubbish Collections

No, this is not a post about how complicated the recycling rules are here. This is a post about collections, the exams students take at the beginning of each term to make sure they learned everything the were supposed to learn in the previous term and to make sure that they have been studying over the break. So why do I title this post "Rubbish Collections" ? Because for many of the students, the collections they handed in were complete garbage or, as they say here "total rubbish" -- many students did not study over the break or prepare for the collections in any way whatsoever. Why not? Because they know that collections don't actually count. Since the only exams that count are given at the very end of the year, they can procrastinate doing any actual work until the very last minute... and some of them do.

To be honest, as a matter of principle, I'm all for procrastinating. In my one-day-to-be-written-book "The 9 habits of highly successful theoretical physicists", the first habit is "procrastinate like crazy". Many, if not most, of the successful theoretical physicists I know really do procrastinate. Why..? So they can free up time to think deeply about whatever topic they are working on. They procrastinate all the little stupid things that have to get done so they can focus on the really interesting stuff.

As for my students.. I had hoped that "the really interesting stuff" that they want to learn is physics. It seems that a few of the really motivated students really did put a lot of work in over the break trying to learn. But most did not. Some of them might actually be smart enough to be able to cram everything into their heads just before the final exam... but others... well, they are just asking for trouble.

(Yes, students are adults and if they want to screw up their education they have every right to do so. But it is painful to watch.)

In most American universities the final grade is some weighted average of quizzes, homeworks, and the final exam. Even if the final exam counts for most of the final grade, the fear of losing points in the final grade by bombing a quiz is usually enough to force students to study throughout the course. Right now it seems to me that there is a lot of merit to that idea.

While things around here can only be changed on geological time scales, winds have been blowing slowly in that direction of the American system. Not too long ago, the only exam that counted for a student was at the very end of their college career (talk about pressure!). Now they have exams that count once a year instead. Maybe in the future they will have exams that count once a term. In the meantime, I'm trying to think of some way to save the students from themselves.

Your collection will be invigilated.

I thought that after one term I knew most of the crucial Oxford terminology: Winter term is Hilary, spring is Trinity, Fall is Michaelmas. Magdalen college is pronounced “Mawdlen”, and I learned what “Desummoned” means here.

Then I got an email that completely baffled me “Please let me know if you need your collection invigilated”. Huh?

Well, “Collection” is the Oxford word for the exams that occur at the beginning of Hilary and Trinity to make sure that the students are learning what they are supposed to be learning and that they are studying over the break (collections do not really count on the student’s final record). “Invigilate”: I confess, I did not know this word, but indeed it is even in Webster’s (OED also includes this word, but that is not evidence of anything, since OED seems to list every bit of babble anyone has ever uttered).

in•vig•i•late \in-ˈvi-jə-ˌlāt\ verb in•vig•i•lat•ed; in•vig•i•lat•ing
Latin invigilatus, past participle of invigilare to stay awake, be watchful, from in- + vigilare to stay awake. First usage 1553

intransitive verb: to keep watch ; especially British : to supervise students at an examination. transitive verb: supervise, monitor

So there you have it. I’m not sure if this is standard British usage or if it is Oxbridge specific. (Any non-Oxbridge Brits want to comment?). I have to assume that the American analog “Proctor” would sound like an unpleasant medical procedure?

Oxbridge Education

The British college education system is quite different from that in the United States. First of all, you go to college to study only one topic (or “Read” the topic, as they say here). So, upon leaving high school, a student will apply to Oxford to Read Physics, and then when they get here, it is all Physics all the time for the length of their college career. Liberal Arts does not really exist over here (or in most of Europe for that matter). On the one hand, it risks developing people who are very one-sided. On the other hand, students coming out of this system can be extremely well prepared in their chosen subject.

The second difference is in how students are examined. As far as I can tell there are only two examinations in the entire student’s career. One exam, the “prelim”, at the end of the first year. This is basically a chance to fail out if you are really doing badly (very very few fail). It also stratifies the class a bit into those who are doing well and those who are not. In the case of physics, there is a three year degree and a four year degree, and if you do badly on the prelim, you can’t get the four year degree. The only other exam you have is the final exam at the end of your career. And that’s all. Of course, having only two exams means that some students can procrastinate learning for years – but most actually do try very hard to keep up – or at least the physics students do. These exams are not written by the people who taught the courses, but rather are put together by an exam committee to test what is supposed to be on the curriculum (which is decided by a curriculum committee). Apparently being on either of these committees is something to be avoided, as they inevitably result in fights.

The third difference is in how the classes are actually taught. There is one person who gives lectures to the entire class of 180 first year physics students. However much of the teaching is actually done by the tutor. Homeworks are assigned and graded by tutors, as well as mock exams (known as “collections”) – and the tutors may or may not be in sync with what the lecturer is doing. Both the tutors and the lecturers are both trying to teach the curriculum (and prepare the student for the real exam) but they are free to do so in different ways. In physics students typically meet with their tutors in a two-on-one setting roughly for an hour every other week per course. This adds up to a whole lot of individual contact with faculty.

Fourth, the terms here are extremely short (two eight week terms and one ~six week term per year), and then there are very long breaks between terms (during which the students are supposed to be studying too). As a result of the very short terms, things get very intense while the terms are in session, and then everyone recovers in the break and prepares for the next term.

We can have a debate about whether the Oxbridge system is better or worse than the American system, but the truth is that I suspect it really depends on the particular student.

This year, I’m doing tutorials for three courses, and I’m not lecturing at all. I have six students I tutor in first year electricity and magnetism, eight in second year statistical physics, and five in third year solid state physics. Truth be told, this is pretty hard work for me right now. ( I had this panic before I got here that the E+M course looked pretty hard – but in fact, it turned out I was looking at the wrong course – and the E+M course is pretty similar to what first or second year physics students get in the US.). I’m sure once I’ve gone through the curriculum once, I’ll find this much easier. Right now, trying to figure out what problems to assign my students is pretty time consuming. Then of course, I have to actually solve the problems myself to make sure they are all actually solvable. Plus of course grading homework, figuring out what students are having trouble with, and preparing for, and doing the tutorials. I’m sure next year, it will be much easier (I’ll already know which problems are good to assign, and I’ll know what students are going to have trouble with.) But for now, it is a lot of work. And it is kind of emotionally draining. The students are counting on the tutors to prepare them for the exams – and (at least most of them) are trying very hard to do well – so I feel I should try equally hard to help them.

I have the distinct feeling I am going to be completely exhausted before the end of my first term.

This is my excuse for not having posted anything all week.


Update: I was corrected by some of my students, they do take a final exam at the end of the second year as well, and it counts something like 20% of their final grade at the end of the degree.

Freshman Physics

During my first two semesters at Oxford I'll be relieved of lecturing responsibilities. Nonetheless, I still have to do two-on-one tutorial sessions to the tune of about 6 hours per week. I agreed to take over the tutorial responsibilities of my friend Roderich Moessner who left Oxford last year, thus vacating the job that I landed in. This included tutorials for an advanced third year undergraduate physics course called "Condensed Matter" a second year course on Statistical Physics, and a first year course on electricity and magnetism. Since I have to tutor these subjects I thought it might be a good idea if I were to go through the curriculum and remind myself what undergraduate physics is all about. Perhaps predictably, I found the two advanced courses to be a breeze, but the first year course was really hard! Maybe I never learned E+M correctly the first time through, or maybe the professor is just being difficult and assigning hard problems for homework. At any rate it looks like I have some reviewing to do in the next few weeks. Anyone out there have a good book on waveguides and transmission lines?