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How I Self-Studied MIT OCW 8.01, Classical Mechanics, in 297 hours
I took 297 hours to complete 8.01.
I have also completed 18.01SC (single variable calculus), 18.02SC (multivariable calculus), and 18.03SC (differential equations), and have written about my experience completing18.01SC. That post has more details about my overall approach to completing these courses. This post details what I thought of 8.01SC specifically.
I’d like to point you to a Github repository where I have uploaded my lecture notes, problem set solutions, notes from readings, etc.
How the 8.01SC is Organized
On MIT OCW, certain courses are called “scholar” courses. The materials are all from the original MIT courses, but MIT OCW took steps to organize the material in a specific way that can be helpful for online learning.
In the case of 8.01SC, the material is organized in twelve weeks. Each week is about a specific topic, e.g. kinematics in week 1, continuous mass transfer in week 6, or angular momentum in week 11.
The courses I have done so far have been based on full length lectures of between 40 and 60 minutes. In 8.01SC, the lectures are broken up into snippets of between roughly 2 and 15 minutes.
What I loved about this structure is that each video is absolutely straight to the point. Sometimes a concept is introduced, sometimes the lecturer works through a specific problem (aka “worked example”). There is absolutely no wasted time in each video lecture.
Normally in a full length lecture the lecturer is pausing between ideas and concepts, making a joke, perhaps pacing to and fro, looking through his/her notes, etc.
Nothing wrong with any of this, but if instead the lecturer were to make a video for each part of a lecture where he develops an idea, concept, or calculation from start to finish, he’d probably end up with a shorter total time of recording. This is what 8.01’s video lectures are like: straight to the point and not as long as regular lectures. Some people might say “well, I like the interaction, the jokes, etc”.
For me, I’m great with the efficiency of 8.01 and I prefer this style.
