Anyone who took phys 8B at UC Berkeley know if you have to attend discussion section?

Answer 1

I took Phys 8B in the summer, so the discussion section was piggy-backed onto the lab. Theoretically, you can ditch the discussion and come in for lab.

Under the old course structure (I had heard it was changed to mimic how they run the Phys 7 series after I graduated), you could have different GSIs for discussion and lab sections.

Under that structure, it didn't matter whether you went ot section or not. Most of my 8A class didn't. I did, though, 'cause I'm a stickler for attendance. But I dropped the class that time.

When I tried 8A again, I took a special section that had 2 hours for discussion and 2 hours for lab, and you only had one TA. I liked that format much better, and it was harder to ditch discussion.

Anyway, if you're taking 8B under the 3 hour lab, 1 hour discussion format, I'm sure you can ditch discussion without fear of reprisal. It's not the most studious of habits, but hey, it's your pre-med GPA, I guess.