woman in physics

year 1 physics at uni | 17 | too sleepy for this

[ghostphys]

Intro Post ♡

My name is Cherry, and I wanted to set up this blog as a way of accountability and tracking my goals :)

I'm currently studying physics at university (my biggest flex is starting uni at 16, and no, I don't shut up about it) and my aim is to become an astrophysicist or a quantum physicist.

I am a huge feminist and advocate for women in stem!! I'm currently in my universities feminist society, and work as a representative for them, so you might see me rbing a lot of feminist posts on here ♡

Goals for this academic year (2023-24):

Keep a clean & tidy study area. This is something I have struggled with in the past due to mental health issues, but hopefully with some new strategies (and posting on here) i can manage it.

Minimum 2 hours study per day (outside lecture time). With the exceptions of sick/mental health days. Preferably 4+ hours on weekends.

Keep grades >80% throughout year. Self explanatory, but i will work my ass off for this<3

Gym 4-5 times per week. Not just great for mental health, but also I just can't wait to gain muscle :)

[ghostphys]

ok wow so a lot of notes in the time i've been gone

CW for controlling behaviours, but I do think I owe a bit of an explaination to where I have been, so I'm going to write a (kind of long sorry) post under the break for those who are interested, if not just know that I am baack!!! hopefully for good this time.

And of course, merry christmas to those who celebrate!

So, long story short, for the past few months I've been with a guy who was pretty 'controlling' (no shame if you're into that, but this was just overstepping my boundaries). I wasn't allowed to do a lot of things I wanted to (dye my hair, get certain piercings, wear certain clothes, listen to certain music).

It basically got to the point where I was terrified he would find this blog and be mad about it, even though its only a studyblr, so I completely deleted Tumblr from my phone and just was hiding for so long.

And you guessed it: recently we broke up, so no need for me to hide and be scared anymore!! I know its not like, the worst thing that could have happened to me, but i do for sure need time to heal after everything and life is kinda crazy rn, but getting back to this place will hopefully help me!

For the record: I'm not tryna shame this guy or say I was perfect for anything. The relationship was just not right for us and thats okay.

[ghostphys]

Hi! Would you mind talking about what your disability is? Only if you're comfortable tho <3

This is totally fine, thank you for the ask! Longish post so I'm going to add a read more after the important stuff.

The reason I didn't share in the original post was that there is still a lot of investigation going on and some things that aren't quite clear yet, but I'll share what I do know.

Recently, after years and years of doctors and hospital visits, I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). This is a type of inflammatory arthritis (similar to rheumatoid arthritis, but affects slightly different joints). The main places I am affected is my lower back and SI joints, hips, knees and shoulders. AS causes pain and stiffness in the affected joints, and also causes extreme fatigue.

It differs person to person, but for me my AS can make it difficult even just to get to campus, what with waking up still feeling exhausted and the pain in my lower back/hips making it hard to walk. This happens mostly during flare ups, but even during my 'average' pain days it can be pretty tough getting myself into class.

Pain and stiffness in my hands is less common, but when it happens it can make writing much more difficult for me and so studying in general becomes much more of a chore than something I can enjoy.

Sleep and fatigue are just hell: My AS causes sleepiness, my pain makes it hard for me to get restful sleep, my medications cause sleepiness, and it finally makes sense why I am so damn exhausted all the time.

I'm currently talking with my universities disability team to get the required adjustments and support, which has been really great in my experience. I might be struggling but I'm doing everything I can do improve and make my life better, and honestly, I just wanna be able to live my life doing what I love.

[ghostphys]

Although I'm mostly a studyblr, recently my disability has been affecting my uni life more and more, and I think I've been avoiding posting about it for fear of putting off my followers. But the truth is I want to be able to post on here about how my disability affects my life and my studies, I want to be able to share my unique experiences.

So this is just a little post for my followers to let you know that I will be posting about my disability from now on, as well as studyblr content. And idk how many more disabled users are on this side of tumblr, but please interact if you're here!

[ghostphys]

hihi you started uni at 16?? woah that’s so cool!! how did you even do that??

anyway that’s not rlly the point of my ask. given the fact that you want to become an astrophysicist or quantum physicist (that’s so cool btw) I’m assuming you’re good at it, so do you have any tips for studying physics, getting good marks in phy exams etc? bc I’m in tenth grade rn and phy is my weakest subject

-🐚

Hi! Honestly I just applied a year earlier than most (it's legal in my country, but uncommon), and I was lucky enough to get in! And my birthday just falls so that I'm one of the younger people in my year, although not the youngest.

I'm sorry about how long this answer took, I really wanted to take my time to give you a proper answer, so here is a few tips from my personal experience:

Practice Questions! I'm sure you hear this one a lot, but people really underestimate how different studying mathematical subjects is to most other ones. You can't just memories question types or make fun flashcards (although that's something you can do, you just cant do it on its own). You need to be practicing questions, whether its from textbooks, or ideally past papers. The main reason for this is you have to be able to sit and a look a question and figure out what to do with it. It's not always easy and clearcut and you will probably struggle a lot at first. It's important to be resilient and not let this discourage you, remember you learn the most from making mistakes. I promise you, the more you practice, the more you will be able to make those daunting first steps.

Prioritize your time. What I like to do is start with what topic as a whole I'm worst at (usually quantum physics), and look at all of the questions I can find on that. Then, if I think i can do a type of question correctly consistently, I'll maybe only do one of those, or skip entirely depending on time constraints. If I think I can do a type of question correctly, but only sometimes, I'll pick out 3-8 of those depending on the lengths, and work through them, making sure I understand why I'm doing everything. If I think i cannot do a type of question at all, I will read over the theory, watch some videos on it, and then practice questions until I think I can do it correctly at least sometimes.

Try to link different topics together. This is probably what I struggle the most with (bc it isn't always easy). If an equation is used in two separate topics, try to really think about why it works in both applications. This will help you understand what the equation really does and how you can apply it in your questions.

These are some pretty general pointers to help you get started (i hope its not too repetitive from what you've heard before, and i hope i can help at least someone out there!

[princetofbone]

I'm struggling really hard in physics right now, so I'm pledging both to you and myself that I'm going to actually do practice problems rather than just saying I am and going on with my life as normal.

[themightyfoo]

As an astrophysics grad student (long ago) and a Ph.D. in a quite different field, I might suggest talking to a couple of people who are actually doing the kind of work you're interested in. Ask them what a typical day looks like. Ask them what surprised them - in what ways is their actual job different from what they thought it would be? If they had the decision to make over again, what if anything would they do differently?

Good luck!

PS. A good friend of mine entered college at 14. I saw how rough that could be.

[ghostphys]

Sharing for my followers, this applies to any subject really, so hopefully everyone can take something from this!!

[ghostphys]

hi hello THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!! for answering, giving such helpful advice (it’s not repetitive at all dw and the way you put it in such a structured and to-the-point manner really helped) and putting in so much effort!! you didn’t have to but I definitely appreciate it very much, so again, thank you!

good luck on your studies, thank you and quantum physics sounds super cool so slay

-🐚

(oh and there’s nothing to apologise for about the time, I’ve barely noticed the passage of time and you were trying to help me better so you’re js a good person ty again)

TY for your kindness and patience anon, good luck with physics and I really hope my advice helped. It's genuinely crazy to me that I have a (small) platform where I have the ability to help others.

[ghostphys]

BTW im so sick again, i'm sorry to everyone who followed me hoping for updates, unfortunately I am only human so interruptions like this will sadly happen, but as soon as I'm feeling up to it again, i'll start posting.

For now, lots of hot chocolate and bed study sessions.

[ghostphys]

hihi you started uni at 16?? woah that’s so cool!! how did you even do that??

anyway that’s not rlly the point of my ask. given the fact that you want to become an astrophysicist or quantum physicist (that’s so cool btw) I’m assuming you’re good at it, so do you have any tips for studying physics, getting good marks in phy exams etc? bc I’m in tenth grade rn and phy is my weakest subject

-🐚

Hi! Honestly I just applied a year earlier than most (it's legal in my country, but uncommon), and I was lucky enough to get in! And my birthday just falls so that I'm one of the younger people in my year, although not the youngest.

I'm sorry about how long this answer took, I really wanted to take my time to give you a proper answer, so here is a few tips from my personal experience:

Practice Questions! I'm sure you hear this one a lot, but people really underestimate how different studying mathematical subjects is to most other ones. You can't just memories question types or make fun flashcards (although that's something you can do, you just cant do it on its own). You need to be practicing questions, whether its from textbooks, or ideally past papers. The main reason for this is you have to be able to sit and a look a question and figure out what to do with it. It's not always easy and clearcut and you will probably struggle a lot at first. It's important to be resilient and not let this discourage you, remember you learn the most from making mistakes. I promise you, the more you practice, the more you will be able to make those daunting first steps.

Prioritize your time. What I like to do is start with what topic as a whole I'm worst at (usually quantum physics), and look at all of the questions I can find on that. Then, if I think i can do a type of question correctly consistently, I'll maybe only do one of those, or skip entirely depending on time constraints. If I think I can do a type of question correctly, but only sometimes, I'll pick out 3-8 of those depending on the lengths, and work through them, making sure I understand why I'm doing everything. If I think i cannot do a type of question at all, I will read over the theory, watch some videos on it, and then practice questions until I think I can do it correctly at least sometimes.

Try to link different topics together. This is probably what I struggle the most with (bc it isn't always easy). If an equation is used in two separate topics, try to really think about why it works in both applications. This will help you understand what the equation really does and how you can apply it in your questions.

These are some pretty general pointers to help you get started (i hope its not too repetitive from what you've heard before, and i hope i can help at least someone out there!

[ghostphys]

Your blog is soooo pretty<3 I love it!!

I am two weeks late in answering this and I'm so sorry for that, but ty so much!! I love your blog too (and the bio is so relatable). Compliments like this always put a smile on my face.

[ghostphys]

So, my first exams are in a month now, which is kind of terrifying, but I'm also really excited to have the adrenaline rush which studying for exams brings.

I'm wanting to try out some new things this year so here's a few:

Scheduling my studying based off of questions I want to complete, not how much time I want to study for. This is the biggest change I'm hoping to make. Every Sunday I'm going to block out what range of practice questions I want completed each day. I'm hoping this allows me to study for as long as I feel comfortable without burning out, or feeling like I'm stopping when I could do more.

Updating you guys every 1-3 days. I'm so horrible at remembering to post on here, but I really wanna take accountability for how much I'm studying so I'm hoping to post more, especially this month.

Studying alone for once. I know this might not seem important enough to include for most but for me it really is. I'm so bad at saying I'll just study on call with my friends or even when in person and I just lose my focus way too easily. I want to really focus on putting my phone away, and just being present with myself and my studies. I know exams may be approaching for a few others here on studyblr, so good luck (esp to any women in stem out there!!)

[ghostphys]

im sorry for not posting the past week or so - i’ve been so ill and so much has been going on in my personal life. hopefully this week i’ll get back ti posting <3

[heesbunny]

Hey,

Can u share any tips to study phy? 😭

I have my exam after tmrw nd I just keep forgetting all the formulas I learnt bcz all of them r almost similar. And I am unable to solve the numericals evn after having the formula sheet beside me and during exam I have to rmbr all the formulas to solve it 😭. In the numericals all the formulas are very differently used like it is made a very diff one based on the question nd not wht I studied frm the chapter. (I am a very weak student. But I am really trying but I don't know what to do anymore 😭)

Hi anon! <3

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that! I also take physics and it can be so frustrating at times. >.<

I hope I can help you with these following tips! 💗

୨୧ How to study for physics - Tips

୨୧ Formulas and Numericals (memorising)

Formulas can be tricky to memorise, since they're so many similarities between them. But if you learn how to memorise them the right way and what works for you the best, you'll be unstoppable!

Numericals can be frustrating at times since it can be challenging to find the right formula. That's why using active study methods is so important!

- flashcards

using flashcards totally helped me to memorise them. on one side I would write a formula, and on the other side I would write an example of an exercise or sentence it could be used for. so when I looked at that example, I would have to be able to recall the formula. this is really helpful when you have to solve the numericals!

- finding the differences

formulas can be tricky to memorise since they can look really similar. so I would write them all beneath each other on a sheet of paper. then, I would mark the little differences in a color. when that's done, I would ask myself why I should take those small details into account and how much they would change the numericals if I did something wrong or used another formula. It'll give you a clear understanding of the relationship between the equations. because, those specific formulas are so specific for a reason! ask yourself why!

the more you think about the little differences and why they are there, the easier it will be to memorise them!

- saying it out loud

this can be really helpful if you're an auditory learner. which means that you remember things by hearing them. if you say the formulas out loud, maybe it'll be easier for you to remember them! I would do this, specially for the ones I couldn't get to remember.

- putting it on the wall

I would always write the formulas I couldn't get into my head on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall. that way, when I passed by, I would stop for a second, look at them, and try to remember them. it was really effective because when I was making my exam I would remember where I put them, and the formula would just come!

- explaining it to yourself or somebody else

try to explain yourself or someone how you solved a problem, which formula you chose and why. this way you will be able to memorise better, since you're actively studying. when the time comes to solve the numericals, it'll be way easier!

- practice, practice practice!

yes, practice makes perfect. that one person that mastered in physics also had a hard time memorising all those formulas and equations. but you know how they made it? by not giving up. so next time you sit down to study, take a deep breath and believe in yourself! because really, you are capable.

I really hoped these tips helped! I love to get questions like these and to help people out! and specifically to you anon, I hope these helped you! 💌

if you got any requests or questions, please don't hesitate to send me an ask! 💗

- adrienne <3

[ghostphys]

Update after a week of doing this:

So it’s finally update time! Thank you all for the support on my post about this, it really meant a lot!!

I’m going to list the pros and cons of my little experiment, then add a summary/TLDR at the end of the post. This is probably going to be quite a long post as it was definitely an interesting 5 days. P.S, if you have any questions please ask! I’m 100% willing to answer.

Pros:

• My time spent studying over doubled this week. This was the most obvious pro (and the one I was kind of hoping for the most) and I’m so proud of myself for how much I managed to get done. I studied for an average of 4hours/day, whereas before I was only doing 2.

• Studying felt so much more relaxing and productive at night. This probably contributed to the increase in studying; I found I enjoyed studying more, was able to pay attention for longer periods of time, and it started to feel less like a chore, and more like a hobby.

• I started to feel more present in the moment, especially on the bus travelling to/from uni. This wasn’t something I was really expecting, but I think also was partially a result of me deleting social media (which i can totally make another post on if that’s of interest). But where I used to sleep on the bus, or even just daydream, I started to read books, look over notes, and just feel a lot more present in general, which was a fresh of breath air honestly.

• I actually felt a lot less tired while at uni. I think this is most likely due to having been awake for a while before even travelling, so I had plenty of time to wake up. As someone who suffers from both physical and mental health issues, this was really important to me and i was so so much more focused during lectures and just generally wow it was amazing.

Cons:

• Although I found it easier to study, I dedicated a lot less time to keeping my room/study area tidy. I’m not sure exactly why this was, I think maybe just moving around to tidy up at 2/3am felt a bit wrong as I was scared to make too much noise? I think the way around this would be to just tidy right before sleeping at around 6pm, but this was probably my least favourite of the cons:(

• No time for social life outside of uni. Unless your friends are all also borderline nocturnal, then yeah if you are a person who loves going out etc then this is not the schedule for you. Fortunately for me my friends already know i sleep a lot, so most of our socialising happens in between lectures during uni time. (And by that I mean going to cafés and doing even more studying).

• It was kind of hard to figure out mealtimes? Eventually I settled on only having two meals a day, but just increasing portions sizes, and having more snacks in between. This is just what worked best for me, and this wasn’t a huge con tbh, just kind of confusing at first.

• It was so much easier to just hit snooze on my alarms. Because I didn’t have to worry about a bus to catch or anything forcing me to wake up, I found myself saying ‘just five more minutes’ way more times than I should have. I definitely slept in one day sadly. I think this is definitely preventable, I’m sure there are special alarm apps to help with this sort of thing, and i’ll probably be checking that out.

Summary/TLDR: This was such a fun experience for me, I’m really super proud of myself for trying this out and for improving my studying! All in all I definitely found this to be a positive experience, obviously that’s a personal thing so please don’t take my word to be truth! But just in my experience I really found it to help my mental aspect of studying as well as just physically doing more. Although my room got a bit messier, and I kind of just got disoriented about the time of day sometimes, I definitely think these are things that could have been fixed.

Disclaimer: I only tried this for a week which is definitely not enough time to fully change your sleep schedule, and I am obviously not a professional in this field or in research. This was just a fun little experiment and a chance for me to talk about my personal experience. I’m not encouraging this behaviour or saying it is healthy. (I am not informed about the effects on health this would have long term). Do not take some random person on tumblr’s experience as a holy grail of truth or something like that.

[ghostphys]

day 1 of trying this for a week.

today i just wanted to ease myself into the new sleep schedule; so i started by sleeping from 4:00am - 7:00am, and now i'm just about to go to sleep again at 7pm, then hopefully wake up between 1-2am.

obviously can't say much about the effects yet, but today I studied 200mins out of my 120min/day study goal, (it would have been longer i think, but something went on in my personal life), and went to a 3 hour lab at uni, so it's safe to say I'm pretty pleased so far.

[ghostphys]

Hii! I just wanna say I love your blog... I'm 18 and still in senior year but seeing you in uni already, makes me so happy (esp for women in STEM) <333

also that website you use is so cute

omg this is so sweet ty :’)

it for sure isn’t easy being in uni this young, but i think it will be worth it in the end, and i definitely want to be a representative for women in stem one day and hopefully encourage more girls into the field<3

[ghostphys]

i’ve always sworn i would be so much more productive if i could just sleep from 6pm-2am and then study before uni but i’ve never tried this because i know my mother wouldn’t allow me.

however this week i’m going to be home alone all week so i might actually try it for this week, i’m not sure if anyone would be interested in updates but i’m actually really interested to see if anything with my studying changes.

[ghostphys]

150/240 mins study goal so far today ✓

relaxing study session in costa today. managed to go through all the worked examples of the product, quotient, reciprocal and chain rules which I'm pretty proud of.

going to read ahead later today and look at l'hôpital's rule.

website is astrostation.me <3