Nobody expects you to be an expert in your studies straight away. We were also overwhelmed at first, but the University of Oldenburg offers an orientation week for this very reason. During this week, you will get to know important university officials and the AstA as well as your student council, which helps plan and run the O-Week.

Afterwards, you will be personally introduced to your degree program in a welcome event and shown around the campus so that you don't get lost on the way to lectures so often. Your new fellow students from the higher semesters will be able to help you set up your timetable if necessary. If you still have questions and uncertainties about your studies, we can certainly help you with our experience.

"During the O-week, the 'Create a timetable' service helped me the most, as I initially had difficulties keeping track of and organizing everything. I also got to know some students from higher semesters who were happy to help me and give me tips."

Erik, 2nd semester PTM

In addition to the subject-related offers, it is advisable to take advantage of general advisory services. Among other things, the university offers help and advice on registering your place of residence (the Residents' Registration Office will have a stand on campus during O-Week - just bring your documents with you!) and applying for BAföG (you would have to have studied for this alone...). As you will need it almost every day for your studies, it is also a good idea to attend the introduction to Stud.IP. Stud.IP is a kind of university-internal Facebook in which you register for and plan your modules. It is also the way in which you communicate with your tutors and professors via emails and forums.

So that you don't start your studies with lecture halls full of unfamiliar faces, your student council also offers you leisure activities such as a barbecue evening so that you can make important contacts before you start your studies.

From the name of the degree program "Physics, Technology and Medicine", you might think that PTM would belong to both faculties. However, PTM is only part of Faculty V - Mathematics and Natural Sciences, which means that you belong to the Physics Student Council, to which every student who studies something physics-related automatically belongs. Accordingly, the Physics Student Council is also responsible for your degree program in addition to the other degree programs of the natural science institutes. In addition to the regular public council meetings, the motivated members, who are also your fellow students, offer you leisure activities such as pub and/or games evenings, where you can put your skills to the test in board games and on the games console.

"In my opinion, the student council has a good mentality of 'together we can get ahead'. I particularly like the activities such as the pub evenings, laser tag and games evenings with werewolf etc.. But that's just the regular meetings and there's a lot more. You can contact them about anything without hesitation."

Malte, 2nd semester PTM

Of course, in addition to having fun studying, the student council is also interested in ensuring that your degree program runs smoothly in terms of planning and offerings. So if you and a fellow student notice any discrepancies in the structure, please contact your council members by email or in person on campus so that they can bring these problems to the next meeting and resolve them. Incidentally, the meetings are open to the public and take place weekly during normal lecture times, so you can contact the student council directly if necessary. Alternatively, you can always come to the student council room in W2 1-161 (you will be shown where this is during the O-week). There is pretty much always someone from the student council there. The room is also a great place to meet up with other people and just chill out.

As part of Faculty V, your studies will not take place on the main campus of the university, but a few meters away on the Wechloy campus. This means that we are not off the beaten track, but take the same bus as all other students just three stops away (by the way, the bus stops right outside the front door ;) ). Of course, there are also plenty of parking spaces nearby.

On campus there is a canteen with a daily changing menu, a library with group rooms where you can practice lectures, and plenty of space to study and work, both indoors and outdoors. There are also several laboratories and research departments on the campus. During the course of your studies, you will not only be able to see some of them from the inside, but also work in them.

You end up writing your exams alone, but who said you have to go all the way there alone? A university is a place of exchange and shared learning and offers you the opportunity to network and collaborate with your fellow students and encourages this in the form of group and partner work to prepare you for teamwork later in your career. It's also much easier to learn when you have someone to talk to about the material.

"It's very reassuring to know that you're not the only one who occasionally mixes up minus and plus or has to google formulas from secondary school again because you've forgotten how to calculate circles."

Julius, 2nd semester PTM

Perhaps an initial working group will later become a clique with which you can go clubbing and bar-hopping in Oldenburg after exams or play a round of Viking chess outside in the summer.

If you have not yet met them during the O-week, you will get to know them in their respective lectures the following week at the latest:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier and PD Dr. Stefan Uppenkamp launched the PTM course in 2017 and have been responsible for coordinating it ever since. So if you have course-specific questions and your fellow students don't have a plan, don't be afraid to go to them after lectures and ask them about it. Otherwise, you can find their university e-mail addresses in Stud.IP and simply write to them. So far, it hasn't happened that they have ripped someone's head off because of a question.

After you have successfully set up your timetable during the orientation week, you will start your first lectures. Some lectures, such as mathematics and experimental physics, will take place in the large lecture halls together with other degree programs, while PTM-specific lectures such as anatomy will take place in smaller rooms. These are also a good opportunity to get to know each other better within your degree program.

"I find it much more helpful to attend lectures than to simply work through the script at home. As a rule, the professors have structured their lectures well and can also convey content beyond the script. If something is not quite clear, you can always ask. You're rarely the only one with a question."

Katarina, 4th semester PTM

Each lecture has its own page in Stud.IP where you can view and download dates, assignment sheets, uploaded lectures and scripts. You can also write to your professor or tutor if you have any questions that can't wait until the next lecture. If dates and events fall out of line, special information on modules is always collected and published as up-to-date as possible on "Current information on modules".

To ensure that the lectures continue to develop, the Prof-Prüfstand takes place at the end of each semester. You can give your student council anonymous feedback on what you liked or didn't like about the respective module. This allows the professor to see which areas he or she could work on or what he or she did particularly well.

During your first two semesters, the basic practical courses in Physics I and II (GPRI/II) will form an essential part of your studies. In groups of two or three, you and your partners will carry out a physics experiment every week under supervision. This will then be scientifically evaluated by you and written up in the form of a protocol.

"The basic practical course is one of my favorite modules, because I really like the practice alongside the theory. You learn the physics behind it through experiments and can understand it even better."

Thanh Ha, 2nd semester PTM

Of course, no master has fallen from the sky, so the first protocols are not for your final grade, but so that your tutors and supervisors can give you feedback on your protocols. In this way, you can gradually hone your style and learn scientific standards, which will become essential in your Bachelor's thesis at the latest.

As soon as you have successfully completed your basic internship, you will already have acquired a good portion of the tools you will need for your further studies.

It's completely normal that you can't follow your professors' explanations immediately during the lecture and nobody expects you to do so. That's why the professors encourage you to sign up for the respective tutorials. In math and physics, you will receive a weekly task sheet with three to four questions. This is completely voluntary, but will show you whether you can not only listen to the lecture material, but also apply it. There is hardly a better way to prepare for an exam and it will usually also earn you bonus points, which can significantly improve your grade if you pass the exam. The tutorials are used to discuss the tasks and to help each other work through them. Your tutor will give you (and your partner) feedback on your solutions and help you to understand the material.

"I think the exercises are usually very well designed and selected. They sometimes go beyond the script, so you have to do your own research (Google and forums are your best friends). There are only advantages to trying your hand at the exercises and if you can solve them, nothing stands in the way of passing the exam. Not to mention the bonus points ;)"

Student, 2nd semester PTM

"There are definitely suitable PBs. However, the motto here is: Seek and ye shall find. It's worth looking around in other degree programs too."

Felicitas, 2nd semester PTM

In addition to your course-specific lectures, you also have the opportunity to further your education outside your subject area. So why not learn a foreign language from a wide range of courses in addition to physics and math or refresh your knowledge because you know that you would like to work abroad after graduation? Other areas of physics and medicine that you would not cover in the actual course of study are also available to you. For example, you can pursue your interest in the stars and the universe in the "Astrophysics" module or expand your knowledge to other areas of physics and biology. As you can see from your course structure, you need at least 30 credit points from professionalization modules. So it is clear that you have to take them, but what you ultimately want to learn is entirely up to you!

You can find a list of possible professionalization modules that can complement your lectures here.

It has already been mentioned above that you can not only study at the University of Oldenburg, but also work. So if you would like to get a taste of what you will be doing after your studies, or if your BAföG is more meagre than you thought and you don't just want to eat pasta with ketchup, you can keep your eyes and ears open for open student assistant positions. Research assistants or student assistants - HiWi or SHK for short - support their professors or other university staff with their work, depending on the field of activity. The spectrum of jobs is really broad and ranges from laboratory work such as preparing samples to public relations work such as managing the PTM website (these are the jobs that you can do from home in your jogging bottoms :D). Since this part-time job should not keep you from your studies, the working hours are usually only a few hours per week and consideration is given to your lecture times and exam dates so that nothing overlaps. In addition to a reasonable salary, a student assistant position has another decisive advantage: you already have a good reputation in the respective department! So if you rock your HiWi position, there's nothing to stop your contract being extended or you being offered other, more attractive positions. Normally, as soon as positions are advertised, they are quickly shared in WhatsApp groups or advertised by the professor in circular emails so that people know that there are vacancies. And otherwise it doesn't hurt to ask the professor about it.