All Physics Students Remain, But Some Dislike New Format

All 67 students in Physics S-1 have decided to remain in the course despite the discontent of many with changes in S-1 growing out of last week's theft of a unit test answer book.

However, nine students in the course have filed to take the course for half credit, a larger number than made a similar shift last year, officials in the Summer School registrar's office said yesterday.

When instructors in the course decided after the theft to drop S-1's self-paced format--adding a midterm and increasing the final exam's impact on S-1's grades--they also extended the deadline for with-drawing from the course to last Tuesday.

'Do or Die'

Several students interviewed yesterday said they now view the course with a 'do or die' attitude. Under the previous system, they said, students could work at their own pace and did not have to focus as much energy on retaining knowledge from completed units.

But now, with a midterm worth 15 per cent of the final grade, the students must retain all the material for the two tests.

Steven Lipson, a teaching fellow in S-1 who has taught the course for three years, said yesterday the new system may offer a better learning experience because it demands greater retention of knowledge.

Lipson also predicted that the self-paced format will not be resumed because the unit tests took two years of steady work to prepare. Paul G. Bamberg Jr. '63, lecturer on Physics and author of the tests, will be discouraged by the theft and will probably not make up a second set of tests, Lipson said.

Bamberg is currently on vacation and could not be reached for comment yesterday.

While Lipson said the course's altered structure has disrupted students' strategies, he also said there was an enormous amount of "administrative hassles" in the self-paced course.