<p>I've heard numerous horror stories and threads about failing physics, so I was just wondering what you guys did (or wish you did) to get an A in physics!</p>
<p>Learn calculus, eat your vegetables and do plenty of push-ups and sit-ups every day.
In other words: study while having a solid math foundation.</p>
<p>I got A’s in Physics I and II. There’s nothing mystical about it, just study everything, make sure you understand the concepts, and do extra practice problems forcing yourself to apply those concepts. If you feel fuzzy about some concept, study it until it’s not fuzzy. Google will almost never fail to provide you with an amazing explanation that is better than the one in your book.</p>
<p>A lot of people fail physics because there is a lot of material to learn and apply in a short amount of time and they simply don’t put in the work. You’re learning hundreds of years of human science achievement in a couple of semesters. Slacking for a week in Physics will be really hard to make up for because the flow of concepts does not stop. It’s a snowball effect. If you master the first few chapters and really intuitively understand them, the further ones will be a breeze because they build on each other. That’s another reason a lot of people do terrible in physics. They’ll spend an hour or two doing the homework, getting a rough understanding of how something like vectors or cross products work, and when it shows up a month later they’ve totally forgotten and now they have to relearn the earlier material as well as the new material. </p>
<p>The biggest factor for my success relative to other students is this: Most students studied problems similar to those we worked in-class (because most professors will give you similar problems on the test). Some professors will not even talk about some concepts they feel are less important, and of course you will not be tested on them in that case. The big thing that set me apart from everyone else is that I made sure to understand every concept in the book (even those not emphasized by the professor) and be able to work relevant problems that I knew wouldn’t be on the test. This doesn’t pay off immediately, but as you go through your courses it really starts to snowball, and concepts all tie together very beautifully (or it starts to destroy you, because at that point there is no making up for a knowledge gap if there is one). Physics 2 was a breeze because at that point my broad understanding was so deep that everything just made sense. </p>
<p>Just don’t take shortcuts and don’t get behind. It’s not hard, just time consuming.</p>
<p>Develop of studying strategy. Do the homework, if you have a hard time with a problem ask your teacher, a class mate, tutor, look at a solutions manual, whatever to find a walkthrough for that problem. Work through the problem again and again, even though you’ll know what the answer is at that point, just practice HOW to find the solution and things will open up.</p>
<p>When an exam is coming up pick your instructors brain as to what will be on the test and do the above mentioned until you feel comfortable with all the problems. Generally an instructor will base their exams on whatever homework they assigned, work through the problems again and again.</p>
<p>Maybe form a study group with other students. I personally like studying alone so I can develop my own perspective, but sometimes studying with other people can be beneficial.</p>
<p>If it’s your first physics class, the hardest part is learning how to approach the problem, not the problem itself, and that intuition will come eventually and you’ll find it gets easier. Physics is different from other science classes in that you have to think outside the box and take everything into account to figure the solution.</p>
<p>I got A’s in all 3 of my physics classes.</p>
<p>Most of that came from doing all the homework and doing it early. Students who waited until the last minute took shortcuts (i.e. just applied formulas) and when the test came around could not apply the concepts. </p>
<p>I also supplemented my classroom education with Walter Lewin’s MIT lectures. Google it. </p>
<p>Finally, YouTube has some other great videos if a particular concept is troubling you.</p>
<p>Got an A in all three physics classes as well.</p>
<p>I think the single most important thing is to do practice problems. Do them over and over until you understand every step.</p>