What past participants say

Before the masterclass I knew black holes from documentaries. After Unit 10 I could calculate a Schwarzschild radius and explain to my physics teacher why neutron stars have a maximum mass. I listed the certificate in my university application.

The weekly rhythm was what I needed. One unit, one quiz, and by Sunday I had understood something for real. The derivation boxes let me decide how deep I wanted to go each week.

I have had a telescope on the balcony for years and could name most of what I was looking at. The masterclass gave me the physics behind it: why a nebula glows, how far away it is, and how we know. The units on cosmology were the hardest, and my favorite.

The research spotlights were my favorite part. Reading a real paper on the Hubble constant right after the unit on the distance ladder made me feel close to actual science.

I took the Foundation masterclass in my last year of school. The quizzes explain every answer you get wrong, and I learned more from those explanations than from most of my mistakes at school. I am now applying for astrophysics programs.

My degree had no astronomy in it. The Advanced units gave me stellar structure and compact objects with the equations, and the reading lists took me straight into the literature.