This is a reputation based almost entirely on the research facilities (Imperial can boast world-class research groups in almost every field), and consequently the third and particularly the fourth years of the undergraduate courses benefit strongly from the high-class facilities and teaching available. This is a degree course strongly suited to those who intend to make physics their career.

However, in order to cope with the (fairly specialised) third and fourth year courses, the first two years are mostly spent building up the required foundation, with courses in all the fundamental areas. These move very quickly, starting out at a fairly basic level, and rapidly moving onto more advanced topics, which are mostly highly mathematical. This can come as quite a shock when compared with A levels, where the background material is often pushed out of the way to allow the more “fun” aspects to be examined. Here, the “fun” comes in the latter years, so you need to be fairly sure that physics is what you want to do before you set out - otherwise the first two years can prove far too intense.

This system of using the first two years to lay the ground-work for the remainder of the degree also extends to first and second year lab. Most of the work concentrates on the principles of following a lab script and learning the art of report writing. Consequently many of the topics covered in the lab sessions (which average about six hours a week) can seem somewhat mundane. The one exception to this is the computing labs. These start with the assumption that students have done no programming before, but quickly manage to teach enough of the basics to allow simple simulations to be modelled in C++. Although universally viewed as a very daunting prospect at the start of the first year, this turns out to be most students favourite lab rotation.

Most of the staff in the department who come into contact with the students are fairly friendly once you break through the surface, and if you show some interest in their research work then most become very chatty. Consequently the tutorial and backup systems in the department work well. Everyone has weekly tutorials in the first two years, typically in groups of four, and these allow specific problems with the course to be addressed very quickly. Indeed many students find that they learn far more in tutorials than in lectures - although be warned, the occasional tutor will be either mad, too focused on their research or simply useless. However, the department do listen to student feedback on the academic staff, so bad tutors and lecturers are weeded out. The senior staff are also very responsive to students problems, particularly in the first year, and as a result very few people get thrown-out of the department.

Academically, the degree is hard work, with a lot to learn very rapidly, but it probably doesn’t have as heavy a workload as many other departments in College. Coursework is very minimal, and only three or four lab reports are required every year. Consequently, physics students tend to be amongst the most active in sports teams, societies and the Union.
The department asks for maths and physics A-levels, but chemistry and particularly double maths are found to be an advantage, especially in the first year, where double maths makes the very intense maths courses in the first term (which are designed to bring single maths students up to speed in less than ten weeks) much easier to handle.