All courses that take place at the university are listed in the course catalogue. Here you have to find the courses that are required for your programme. If you have enrolled in the physics programme, this is your main subject, which you will study in depth using various methods. These are lectures, tutorials and experimental courses / lab courses.
Although the beginning of your studies does not mean the end of the learning phase of your life, there are some changes. The most obvious is that from now on you will be concentrating mainly on one subject. As a Bachelor's student, you will only have courses in mathematics and one other elective subject, which you are free to choose from a selection. These are called "interdisciplinary studies" and account for about 10% of the study workload.
Organisationally, studying physics is not that different from school, as the "timetable" for each semester is largely predetermined by the structure of the course of study.
The lecture usually consists of a presentation by the professor. While they highlight the individual aspects of the topic being discussed in free speech, key statements are usually written down on the blackboard. It is recommended to write down these notes. They are suitable as a basis for solving tasks and studying for exams. Intermediate questions are asked, but difficulties in understanding are more likely to be discussed in more detail in the tutorial, as the content is usually too dense to go into detail for long. It is therefore also recommended to be present for the lectures.
The "cum tempore" convention, the so-called academic quarter, is also worth knowing. For example, if a lecture is advertised for the period 8-10 a.m., it usually starts at 8 a.m. c.t., i.e. 8:15 a.m.. A quarter-hour break is also included, so that the actual lecture only lasts 90 minutes. Sometimes this break is then also placed at the beginning, meaning that the lecture even starts at 8:30 a.m., so that the students come to the lecture well-rested.
The tutorials serve to deepen and understand the content of the lectures, which is often too overwhelming to be understood immediately. Students meet in a group of about 10 to 20 students with a tutor. Once a week, an exercise sheet is handed out, which is then discussed in the tutorial and explained by the tutor. Beforehand, it is best to work on the exercises in groups. The tasks, which are not always easy, can be solved more easily together. The solutions are sometimes handed out in writing to the tutor in advance. This is a very effective learning method for the exam, as the tasks of the exercise sheets are very similar to those of the exam.
The lab courses, referred to as "experimental courses" in the course catalogue, take place one day per week from the third semester onwards. Each time, two students theoretically prepare an experiment on a specific topic and discuss it with a supervisor. Subsequently, series of measurements are carried out. A lab report has to be written for each experiment. In the 3rd and 4th semesters, experiments are carried out on the topics of mechanics, electricity, optics, thermodynamics and atomic physics, thus deepening the topics of the lecture.
Seminars only become relevant in higher semesters. Nevertheless, they should be mentioned here for the sake of completeness. A seminar usually has a more specific topic than the lectures. Each seminar participant gives a talk on a sub-topic, the length of which is usually set to one hour.
