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I just started the SN2ed schedule for a late April MCAT, and have only finished physics chapter 1 so far.
I have not taken physics for quite a while, but while reading the chapter yesterday the fundamental concepts were pretty clear. This did not translate into doing well on the passages. For one, if I do the problems out using kinematics equations it would take me like fifteen minutes per passage. It also seems that aside from a few tricks (these turbo solutions), the chapter didn't necessarily prepare me too well for the passages. This may have been the point.
Upon reviewing my answers I noticed the explanations give you entirely new ways to solve the problems. Equations that may be derivations from the kinematics equations, but that are much easier to manage. For instance in Ch.1, Practice Exam 1, Passage 1, I could not keep my time down below 15 minutes, and got several questions wrong while trying to manipulate equations. In the explanations, they gave the equation t= sqrt(2h/g). With this (and knowledge of R = v*t), I could have gotten nearly every question right and finished well on time. But this wasn't laid out so clearly in the chapter.
Is this (i.e. the explanations) where the actual learning happens for most people? If so, it concerns me that I'll have to waste so many practice passages in the beginning just to get to and learn from the explanations. Or should I expect that everything begins to balance out, and I'll progressively do better on passages as I pick up these tips and equations from the explanations?
Thanks
I have not taken physics for quite a while, but while reading the chapter yesterday the fundamental concepts were pretty clear. This did not translate into doing well on the passages. For one, if I do the problems out using kinematics equations it would take me like fifteen minutes per passage. It also seems that aside from a few tricks (these turbo solutions), the chapter didn't necessarily prepare me too well for the passages. This may have been the point.
Upon reviewing my answers I noticed the explanations give you entirely new ways to solve the problems. Equations that may be derivations from the kinematics equations, but that are much easier to manage. For instance in Ch.1, Practice Exam 1, Passage 1, I could not keep my time down below 15 minutes, and got several questions wrong while trying to manipulate equations. In the explanations, they gave the equation t= sqrt(2h/g). With this (and knowledge of R = v*t), I could have gotten nearly every question right and finished well on time. But this wasn't laid out so clearly in the chapter.
Is this (i.e. the explanations) where the actual learning happens for most people? If so, it concerns me that I'll have to waste so many practice passages in the beginning just to get to and learn from the explanations. Or should I expect that everything begins to balance out, and I'll progressively do better on passages as I pick up these tips and equations from the explanations?
Thanks