<p>How hard is Physics 1A???</p>
<p>Well, it depends on what you consider hard. Ha ha. In general I would say it’s not EASY but it’s not mind blowingly difficult either. It’s all about doing the problems enough times until you get it. There really isn’t that much textbook reading to do compared to other classes.</p>
<p>Physics isn’t a subject that hands out easy A’s. The effort you put in studying really makes a difference when you’re taking the quizzes and final. My physics TA last quarter put it this way: there’s only so many ways you can write a question to test a physics concept. Profs tend to take hw problems, change the numbers, maybe make you solve it backwards (switches the variables you’re given). The hardest part in physics, for me, was knowing what they’re asking for. It really helps to go to all the problem sessions. When I took 1A, I didn’t find out until week 7 the TA gave out answers to half the quiz questions at problem session :</p>
<p>The lab (1a/l) was harder than the 1a lecture for me. Nearly half your lab grade is based on inlab quizzes, and they sometimes put questions that test whether you’ve read the lab before going to class. I’ve had questions like, “What this step mentioned in part A or part B?” or “Who invented the battery?” The lab grades are also normalized, which is great if you have hard TAs and terrible if you have easy TAs. I got an A- in 1a/l though my final percentage in the class was 97% because my entire class scored very highly on average…</p>
<p>Oh, just a bit of advice. READ THE LAB YOU’RE GOING TO DO BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS! It seemed like hardly anybody ever did (including me) but they’ll sometimes take questions that you can pretty much only know from reading the lab and put them on the quiz.</p>