Hello, I am a running start student currently attending Bellevue College and I am taking General engineering physics Fall quarter without any prior physics experience. I have already taken calculus 1-3 and will be taking calculus 4 / vector calculus simultaneously. I have a firm grasp on calculus but am lacking the essentials of physics.
What can I do to prepare for jumping right into engineering physics?
Will they let you take PHYS 121 without any prior Physics coursework? It was my impression that one of the prerequisites was at least a high school course in Physics. At my college (Everett CC), we require a quarter of college-level algebra-based Physics before a student can enroll in Engineering Physics. You may know how to use Calculus to solve Math problems, but without any Physics background, you may not necessarily know which equations or expressions to use to solve each class of Physics problems.
Are they going to allow you into the class without a high school Physics class? If so, then I would suggest at least becoming familiar with the Mechanics branch of Physics (motion, Newton’s Laws, forces, work, energy, momentum). One way to do that would be to review these topics from an online source, such as the Kahn Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics).
My counselor told me to take this class and now I am in it unfortunately. I’ll use khan academy for now, thanks.