This thesis tells the story about a traditional physics programme where it was long forgotten why students are educated the way they are. A one year longitudinal interview study with 18 first year physics students uncovers the consequences or their learning. The result is that to cope, some students need to defer their need for intellectual gratification. The consequence of long term deference of intellectual gratification appears to be that initially proactively disposed students are slowly subdued and end by relying mostly on learning strategies that research reports consistently point out as strategies that cannot be associated with quality learning outcomes. The result seems be an empirical model that points to prioritizing an aim at the evaluative practices in future reform.