1) What are the biggest issues that might arise from mixed learning?

Most of the teaching is online right now, make sure to download all the software required to keep up with lecturers and keep updated with your course content. the point is: it is going to be much harder for you than it was for us to follow all the deadlines and keep track of everything you have to know for the following week.

2) How to be safe on campus? When you just go on Manchester university portal there is a big flashy section on it (picture attached). The answer to the question is much simpler, don't be stupid! There are still ways to meet people without going to parties (For now). 

3) Where can you find all the important deadlines and information? 

Blackboard is you Favorite web page from now on. It should be always open alongside your university emails. Take 30 minutes to go through sections on Blackboard, it might surprise you  (in UG common room you can get Feynman's lectures online). 

4) What is the role of your tutor? 

It is a man or a woman who will go through your weekly tutorials with you each session, but more importantly they are taking a role of your mentors. That means that theoretically you can ask them any questions about your course or changing it, exams, requirements, scientific writing etc... But even that is not the most exciting part of it! After you finish your tutorial correction with him/her you might want to bombard them with physics questions in and outside of your modules of study. Tutors in university are all extremely educated and interesting, try to get as much as you can from them hehe

5) What is the most challenging thing about first year of physics course? All the courses are easy peasy (nope). The most challenging thing is still to get into a habit of writing a Lab report with you Lab partner  on time and divide the responsibilities  equally. Referencing is proffered to be made in Harvard style (there are websites which do it automatically and sort the sources  in alphabetical order) https://www.citethisforme.com/

 

6) What parts of student life have changed? How?  Socializing  became more difficult, studying became easier to ignore and it is important to keep up with both parts of your life. 

7) How important it is to keep up with work? For the first year of your studies it is important to do your tutorials weekly and hand them in on time (your tutor have to set a deadline). Attendance of your tutorials this year count towards your final grade for the year, so be careful to get full marks on that part (it is the easiest one).  Other than this pre-reading for your Labs is also important to do before you start taking any measurements, sometimes pre-readings are long, sometimes they just want you to do something unexpected or weird...

8) How much previous knowledge you need to start a course? Literally none... Everyone has different background knowledge and some people had a gap year before coming to university, some courses will start very basic for everyone to be on the same level by midterm. If you are one of the people who took a gap year or did different qualifications from A-levels do not be surprised if you have to work more at the beginning, it is not your fault, it is just that schools in UK are preparing students for UK physics courses.

9) How to download the books? 

There is a website called Z-library  https://z-lib.org/, it is very useful not only for the books needed for the course, but also recommended readings and other interesting things that you can download for free most of the times. The service provided by university is on the blackboard (links for online books are usually in the course descriptions). If you like the wider reading you can also visit https://www.academia.edu/ for PDFs of different physics related research.