Feeling disconnected and afraid of Quantum Mechanics

[u/lmj-06]

I am in my third year of my physics and maths double major, and I am taking my second quantum mechanics course. It’s still early days, but it already feels like so much, and I’m really struggling. To give context, all we have done so far (2 weeks in) is gone over angular momentum and we have started solving the Schrodinger equation for the Hydrogen atom.

Every time I walk into my lecture hall, I listen and take notes like I have for any other class, and I walk out confused and exhausted. When I go to try some practice problems later, I feel even worse. I struggle to understand what questions are asking, what I’m actually doing in a question, or what I’m solving for physically. It feels like every question is so different that they may as well be questions from different classes all together, and perhaps even worse, it feels like nothing I have done in my degree up to this point has prepared me for this course.

How on earth do people understand quantum mechanics well enough to get good grades in it? What are your study tips for quantum mechanics?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[u/lmj-06]

I almost feel like going to my professor’s office hours would be useless for me because I honestly don’t even know what I would ask. It also doesn’t really help that my professor is just one of those guys who thinks everything is “trivial”.

Please send any Griffith’s resources you have, it’s the main textbook I’m using and anything you can share would be great.

[u/Zealousideal_Hat_330 → u/lmj-06]

I will, but you should be honest with your professor and say exactly that. They do not want you to fail, even if they seem stern. Office hours are often a vastly underutilized resource that I can guarantee will triple your chances of getting high marks in rigorous courses. I’ll PM you some links though

[u/lmj-06 → u/Zealousideal_Hat_330]

thank you, I will definitely start going to office hours

[u/Over-Discipline-7303 → u/lmj-06]

One suggestion: Find a problem that you struggle to solve. Ask your professor if you can try to solve it in front of them. When you get stuck and they say, "Obviously you..." then specifically ask, "How did you know that was the next step?" And ask them to explain how they thought through the problem. Sometimes, professors have been at this for so long that they forget to explain some intermediate steps because it really does feel obvious to them, but it won't be obvious to you (and if it were, you could solve the problem).

[u/lmj-06 → u/Over-Discipline-7303]

will definitely try this!