I was a good student in all subjects, loved mathematics and physics, but also the strict logic of the ancient grammars, hated only memorising incidental dates and facts. Of the German poets, I loved especially the dramatists, but hated the pedantic dissection of their works.
Especially in physics and mathematics, Schrödinger had a gift for understanding that allowed him, without any homework, immediately and directly to comprehend all the material during the class hours and to apply it. After the lecture ... it was possible for [our professor] to call Schrödinger immediately to the blackboard and to set him problems, which he solved with playful facility.
Schrödinger's early scientific work was inhibited by the absence of a group of first-class theoreticians in Vienna, against whom he could sharpen his skills by daily argument and mutual criticism.