Making sense of Physics in the first year of study

We address the question ‘How do students make sense of Physics from the point of view of constituting physics knowledge?’. A phenomenographic study is described as a result of which we present six qualitatively different ways in which students experience the first year of Physics. Three of these are considered to be unproductive in terms of making sense of physics, while the other three increasingly support the formation of a well-grounded physics knowledge object. The variation is analysed in terms of the structure of experience, the nature of knowledge and an ethical aspect. Implications for practice are considered.