Courses
Considerations, limitations and further guidance
You all have ‘compulsory courses’ which you must take as part of your degree programme. In addition, there may be a list of ‘compulsory course options’ – a list of courses relating to your degree from which you must select one. Most of you will also have to take ‘optional (or outside) courses’ – these can be on subjects which relate to your degree or can be something very different.
Optional Courses
Things to Consider
When deciding what optional courses to take, you might want to consider the following:
- Are you interested in undertaking a year abroad as part of your degree, either under the study abroad scheme or as part of the Physics with a Year Abroad degree? Would it be useful to study a foreign language?
- Are you interested in taking additional physics courses? We offer courses in a range of physics topics, including Astrobiology, Introductory Astrophysics and Musical Acoustics.
- Have you started to think about what you want to do after you graduate? If so, are there subjects that you might want to take, for example, to broaden your degree?
- Are you interested in keeping your options open with regards to a possible transfer to another degree? If so, look at the course requirements for that degree, and identify if the compulsory courses for that degree fit around the compulsory courses for your current degree.
- Do you have any particular interests in subjects outside of physics? What are your strengths and limitations? You may have a desire to do something slightly different.
Limitations
As well as these opportunities, there are also a number of limitations. The timetable is the most limiting factor. Whatever courses you are interested in, the classes (lectures, tutorials etc) have to fit in your timetable around your compulsory courses.
Some courses may have prerequisites, where you are required to have a Higher or A Level (or equivalent) in that or a related subject for example.
Also, your choice of options must not create a major workload imbalance between the two Semesters. A 60/60 credit split is ideal and 50/70 is reasonable.
What can I take?
When your Degree Programme Table says something vague and slightly cryptic such as:
“Select exactly 40 credits from Level 7 and 8 courses in Schedules A to Q, T and W, as available”,
this means that you are free to consider taking any Level 7 or Level 8 courses available from any of the Schools within Science and Engineering or Arts, Humanities and Social Science, as well as any courses from Biomedical Sciences.
You will note that each course has a value of usually 10 or 20 credits and the choice is rather overwhelming, so it is useful to think strategically.
Course catalogue - all Schools
Compulsory course options
Students on the Mathematical Physics and Theoretical Physics degree programmes are asked to select some degree-related courses from a limited list.
If you are unsure which courses from the list to select, you might find it useful to explore the opportunities and limitations each course brings in subsequent years. This can be done using the programme builder in Path (see guidance below).
Getting help from 'Path'
Path is a visual course selection aid, accessed via MyEd, that integrates information from the Degree Programme Tables and course lists, allowing you to see at a glance the requirements of your degree (or explore other degrees), read descriptions of courses offered by other Schools and assemble your own draft curriculum. It even lets you see what your timetable will be like. Please note that access to Path is available once your offer is 'unconditional' and 'firm' (ie once you have confirmed your unconditional offer).
Further guidance and tips
- Speak to other students to get ideas
- Speak to your academic staff who can advise about optional courses
- Personalised Timetable
- Path
- Degree Programme Tables