[ndriscoll]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by unstructured (vs. the original claim of self-study). e.g. my method of self-study was generally to find course requirements for a degree program, find corresponding course descriptions and syllabi, find the relevant books, course notes, and/or video lectures and proceed through those.

e.g. I did formal study of basic physics in an engineering program, but Noether's theorem was never mentioned. I came to that through self-study, and can't really imagine how anyone would miss it unless "self-study" means "read random blogs and watch random youtube videos." I expect even browsing Stack Exchange and Wikipedia would expose you to most core topics fairly quickly.

[gmueckl]

You are following a structured course. I meant unstructured in the sense that topics are not chosen based on a properly designed curriculum or syllabus, but based on personal preferences alone.