I do tend to subscribe to the idea of not having or focusing on regrets because everything we've done
sort of makes us who we are now, and I'm happy with who I am now and
especially in terms of my academic pathway and my career in physics.
But if I was to look back at my undergrad degree in
hindsight, there are probably things I would try to do differently.
I don't know how they would affect where I do end up. Maybe it would be better,
maybe it would be worse, but there are probably things I would try to change.
So one of them is probably trying to do
more courses in or to do a minor in computer science.
So I've spoken about the importance of coding and computer science in terms of physics before
but I do think it is really important and becoming more so. I took some courses in computer science
but not enough for a minor or a major, I instead did my majors in physics and math.
It's hard to say with this one because to have done a
major or a minor in the computer science as well,
like I was already taking more courses than you're supposed to every semester, so I would have had to cut something out.
Maybe cut the maths out
and I probably could have done without the maths since I'm doing an experimental physics project for my PhD,
but I enjoyed the maths all the same. In some ideal situation I would have had enough room to do
the triple major without adding any more time on to my degree, like another year or another semester because I didn't want to do that.
But yeah,
I think ideally I would have done some more of those comp sci courses.
The second thing I wanted to talk about was kind of my approach
to studying at university and
it came down to essentially being a
memorization and cramming task for every exam period.
At the time this felt like the best way to get through because we had so many
assignments and so many courses that I always found myself
sort of disregarding some of the really deep
connections and and meanings behind what we were doing and just focused on, how do I get the best grade in the exam?
And that really became my focus especially in exam period and I don't
like that, especially in hindsight. I look back, and I think I really wish I actually understood that concept more even though
I got a good grade on it.
I don't know, like with this it seems to be almost a systemic
thing sort of across people and across courses
that
the uni system is focused more on outcomes and grades than it is on your deeper understanding.
So I don't know if this was entirely my fault or just the way
kind of things have to be if you want to get through.
It's also hard to look back and say I would change that approach because I did get good grades throughout undergrad
and if I'd taken time to
really slow down and really learn, I
don't know if I would have had time to
do everything that I needed to do, so it's a bit of both, but definitely
I look back, and I think I probably wish that I asked more questions. More questions of my friends
but also of the lecturers
and
to really try to understand deeply the content rather than being happy with
just getting a good grade on it. I think the most common questions that I ask my friends are just,
Hey, how do you do question 3 on the assignment?
I think now that I'm a PhD student
I have more time to investigate those deeper learnings, and so that's something I'm trying to do now
because in hindsight I didn't really get the time to
appreciate it as an undergrad. I hope that that helps someone out there and thanks for watching