Teaching myself physics, is this a futile attempt?

[goddamnit]

There are free, whole physics courses from top notch universities on the internet.

http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/p...ourseRev/1

https://www.coursera.org/course/qcomp

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-...-lectures/

I only took a few physics courses, so I would prioritize the responses of others if they contest this, but reading the textbook(s) and doing all the problems is enough to do well on exams. Most students do not read every chapter from start to finish. They attend lectures and do part of the reading assignments. If you read all the chapters of a textbook, you would be ahead of most students. You might not be able to access all the expensive lab equipment a local school has, but I am sure you can still learn most of the concepts that the lab is intended to demonstrate.