Frustrated With TBR Physics!

[Abdominis]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Why...is the math in TBR physics so complicated? Is it this hard on the real MCAT?

 

[boaz]

What's hard about it?

 

[Abdominis]

Solutions that involve square roots seem to complicate me.

 

[IndianVercetti]

I only use TBR physics for the problems/passages. I use EK physics for most of the content. Then, for topics that I have trouble with I closely read the TBR topic for that section. I feel that TBR went in a lot of detail for the topics that I knew pretty well.

 

[horn]

This is actually my problem too.

I did not have any problem with BR chem and o-chem so far, but I'm totally lost as I started to work on a chapter 1 of BR physics.

After I read the contents twice and worked on examples, I thought that I was ready for the passages.

However, I got almost all of them wrong after I worked on first 3 passages.

Should I just re-read the contents or just try to memorize and understand exaplanations to answers ?

 

[Mister T]

physics on the mcat is just about doing as many practice problems as possible to get the math down.

It becomes a motor reflex more than anything else --- kind of like 2+2 = 4, you don't think it you just know it.

 

[Global Warming]

physics on the mcat is just about doing as many practice problems as possible to get the math down.

It becomes a motor reflex more than anything else --- kind of like 2+2 = 4, you don't think it you just know it.

Agreed. I'm actually surprise at the amount of Physics crap I know. Often I look at an advanced passage, glare over the extensive amount of words in the reading and question stems. However, I end up diving head first into it and answer most questions correctly. I feel that this is what the MCAT is really all about...

You're suppose to know the fundamentals and they test you on more advanced stuff, but the most basic versions of the advanced stuff. This way you'll be able to answer these questions w/ only intro science class knowledge.

 

[Mister T]

Agreed. I'm actually surprise at the amount of Physics crap I know. Often I look at an advanced passage, glare over the extensive amount of words in the reading and question stems. However, I end up diving head first into it and answer most questions correctly. I feel that this is what the MCAT is really all about...

You're suppose to know the fundamentals and they test you on more advanced stuff, but the most basic versions of the advanced stuff. This way you'll be able to answer these questions w/ only intro science class knowledge.

I don't really read the paragraphs for physics. I "see" chunks of words that seem like they're important or where there are some numbers, and if it makes sense, I go on, but if I'm lke wait wtf I don't get what they're implying, then I go back and find the remaining pieces.

What a stupid exam. It's not a critical thinking exam as much as it is a "do you remember everything" that you studied test imo.

 

[sully677]

This is actually my problem too.

I did not have any problem with BR chem and o-chem so far, but I'm totally lost as I started to work on a chapter 1 of BR physics.

After I read the contents twice and worked on examples, I thought that I was ready for the passages.

However, I got almost all of them wrong after I worked on first 3 passages.

Should I just re-read the contents or just try to memorize and understand exaplanations to answers ?

Agreed. I am doing well on the genchem of BR, but physics is killing me...and its not due to the length of time since I have had the class because I had genchem way before physics

 

[PRamos]

Why...is the math in TBR physics so complicated? Is it this hard on the real MCAT?

I got the exact opposite feeling. They have so many tricks for avoiding detailed math that I wondered if I could really take all those short cuts and make all those approximations on the MCAT and do well.

Pay attention to the solutions (not the text) where they explain how to estimate and use process of elimination to cut down on how much math you need.

Oh, and BTW, it gets much easier after the first couple of chapters.

 

[erskine]

they keep on stating in the BR books (all of the ones i have- ochem, physics, gchem) that the math involved in the BR problems is more intense than what will actually be experienced on the mcat.

i've always wondered why calculators aren't allowed on the mcat- anyone know?

 

[PRamos]

i've always wondered why calculators aren't allowed on the mcat- anyone know?

Good question. On the paper test, I understand they would be worried people would bring their own with information built in or if they provided them, they might have been stolen or something. But with the CBT, it would be easy to have a calculator.

 

[horn]

I don't have a problem with math.

I could usually avoid a detailed math, and I'm good at calculations without a calculator when I know what to do with the questions.

However, I just don't know where to begin or get wrong answers for the most questions when I work on the passages.

Should I get another physics book as a supplement to a BR ?

Or

Should I just try to learn from the explanations to the answers for a first chapter ?

 

[frescoengano]

BR physics is definitely harder than the real mcat, but if you work them out the real deal will seem pretty easy

 

[Vanguard23]

Here's my take:
I did G-Chem TBR book one so far and I LOVE it. There are so many concepts that I am FINALLY getting that EK and Kaplan just didn't explain well(certainly not Kaplan).
Now Physics, as of the first chapter at least, is fairly hard. I'm going over the questions and it just seems like they are throwing in curve balls at me. One question( I think 23 or 24 of the first section passages) mentions how a projectile would be affected by either off-shore or on-shore winds. I'm looking at the quesetion going: "how the hell should *I* know what the two are?" Why should this even matter in a question about physics? I feel like a ******* for not knowing the difference between the two, but I don't. It seems like an outside context detail that(obviously) will affect my decision.
Here's another two:
One problem asks how increasing the mass of a projectile thrown upward will affect the velocity. Well, if it has a larger mass, then presumably it will go upward at a lower velocity. The answer: It has no effect.
Now, another question involves a slingshot set up and asks the same question after mass is increased. The answer: A larger mass will cause the slingshot to hurl the projectile at a lower velocity.
What the hell? It affects the velocity in one case but not another?
I'm just finding that Nova's physics, at least for the kinematics, is just as challenging but it's simply laid out better. There aren't any tricky exceptions in the questions. While process of elimination of course helps in any case, it's harder with TBR for the reasons mentioned.

 

[Queenshawtii]

I'm glad this isn't just me. I keep on trying to start TBR physics and It take me forever to get though it! I do like the math shortcuts they detail in the example because its been a looong time since I've taken physics..

 

[Kalyx]

One problem asks how increasing the mass of a projectile thrown upward will affect the velocity. Well, if it has a larger mass, then presumably it will go upward at a lower velocity. The answer: It has no effect.
Now, another question involves a slingshot set up and asks the same question after mass is increased. The answer: A larger mass will cause the slingshot to hurl the projectile at a lower velocity.
What the hell?

When you encounter these types of tricky problems in BR, you have to ask yourself "Why" and go back to the content text to find the answer.

In the first case (i.e., throwing a projectile upward), the object is in free fall. All objects in free fall accelerate at 10 m/s^2, regardless of mass (specifically, they'll decerelate at -10m/s^2 on their upward journey, then accelerate at 10/ms^2 when they start to go back down) . The only exception is with air resistance (i.e., if you threw a paper plane vs. a tennis ball up into the air, the paper plane would accelerate *less* than 10 m/s^2 because its shape is vulnerable to air resistance, kind of like friction).

The slingshot question is different because there is a component of horizontal acceleration, or acceleration in the "x" direction. Mass matters here. If we remember the equation F = ma, we see that mass and acceleration are inversely proportional. That makes sense: more massive objects have greater moments of inertia. So with a slingshot, the object's velocity is decreased because of its decreased acceleration, resulting from its greater mass.

These were purely thinking-based, concept problems. These are often the kinds of question with which students struggle the most, because we get used to plugging-and-chugging in our actual collegiate courses. The best thing I can recommend is to read the BR chapters more actively and FOCUS on seemingly important concepts (like the difference between equations for an object in free-fall versus a projectile with a horizontal component).

The Princeton Review Hyperlearning Physical Sciences also explains the physics REALLY well and in a more laid-back manner (that's still pretty detailed). I've been reading mostly now from TPR for physics, but I still take a look at all of the corresponding in-text problems and tips and tricks from TBR (and usually end up reading at least a portion of the TBR text). Then I do the TBR passages.

Hope that helps!

~Kalyx