I hate, I repeat HATE, physics....

[HH8911]

Hi everyone,

So I've been studying for the 4/5 MCAT for about two weeks now, and let me say, I am getting so frustrated by physics. I have always HATED it but my grades in it weren't too bad (B in Physics I and A and in Physics II). I am using TBR and EK1001 per Sn2ED's schedule, and I am getting so discouraged. My scores on the passages are literally in the 35% range. I feel like I have no grasp of this subject at all and I just don't know what to do. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

Please help!

Thanks.

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[aimingforthat45]

wow thats unfortunate. Maybe you need more time to review the content instead of just practicing problems (or vice versa). Is there someone (like a tutor or teacher) that you an ask to help your struggles? Are you struggling in 1 particular area or multiple?

 

[chiddler]

Same boat. I'm very demoralized right now, but i'm spending disproportionate amounts of time with physics to improve my weakness. I'm doing a lot more of the 1001 questions than is suggested (because I find i'm learning a lot from them), and for every question I get wrong I write down what it is that I should know so I do not repeat the same mistake in the future. (I write a lot of notes; it helps me study)

So.

Mistakes are good because you learn from them. As a lot of people have said, you should spend more time analyzing the questions than answering them. Make sure that you comprehensively understand every part of the reading. This is very helpful. If not, seek help.

Good luck.

 

[MedPR]

I struggled/am struggling with the first 3 chapters of TBR physics. I get about 50-60% of the passage questions right, but sometimes the ones I get wrong are because I have no idea where to begin.

Reread the chapters, do more problems, keep trying.

 

[Cinclus]

Try Nova's The MCAT Physics Book by Garrett Biehle. It walks you through the material really well, I thought. Physics was definitely my worst MCAT subject, but this book served me well. A 12 on the PS section isn't too shabby for someone who isn't very good at physics.

 

[chiddler]

Try Nova's The MCAT Physics Book by Garrett Biehle. It walks you through the material really well, I thought. Physics was definitely my worst MCAT subject, but this book served me well. A 12 on the PS section isn't too shabby for someone who isn't very good at physics.

What is different about it compared to other books in particular that helped you?

 

[shoehornlettuce]

I tutor physics at my school and find that a lot of kids simply memorize how to do certain types of problems rather than understanding why they are doing what they are doing. Lots of professors give very similar exams (just change numbers from one semester to the next) so memorization can get you a good grade when in reality you don't understand the material. When you are asked more conceptual questions or see problems you are unfamiliar with (like on the MCAT) you get stumped. I find the big thing with understanding physics is NOT looking at the answer to a problem until you feel you have the correct answer. When I was taking physics for the first time I would spend literally several hours on a single question. I would just stare at the problem until I saw how to solve it. Try to derive your own equations for problems. You'll find that most of the equations you are memorizing are not hard to come up with if you really understand what the problem is asking. This may be time consuming at first but it will give you a much deeper understanding of physics and when you see questions that you haven't seen before you'll immediately recognize what the question is asking and how to solve it.

 

[pfaction]

I'm right there with you and I'm only on kinematics; I went ahead to study Forces and got quite raped. I hate this subject more than anything in the world.

 

[HH8911]

wow thats unfortunate. Maybe you need more time to review the content instead of just practicing problems (or vice versa). Is there someone (like a tutor or teacher) that you an ask to help your struggles? Are you struggling in 1 particular area or multiple?

I've only made it through the first two chapters- translational motion and force. I am struggling with basically everything in it! I could probably find a tutor, the only issues with that are time and money, as I am working full time and don't have a ton of money to spare.

Try Nova's The MCAT Physics Book by Garrett Biehle. It walks you through the material really well, I thought. Physics was definitely my worst MCAT subject, but this book served me well. A 12 on the PS section isn't too shabby for someone who isn't very good at physics.

Congrats on the great score! I have heard that Nova is good too. I've been thinking about buying it because it's cheap (compared to TBR) on Amazon and the reviews on there are quite good. What did you like about it?

I tutor physics at my school and find that a lot of kids simply memorize how to do certain types of problems rather than understanding why they are doing what they are doing. Lots of professors give very similar exams (just change numbers from one semester to the next) so memorization can get you a good grade when in reality you don't understand the material. When you are asked more conceptual questions or see problems you are unfamiliar with (like on the MCAT) you get stumped. I find the big thing with understanding physics is NOT looking at the answer to a problem until you feel you have the correct answer. When I was taking physics for the first time I would spend literally several hours on a single question. I would just stare at the problem until I saw how to solve it. Try to derive your own equations for problems. You'll find that most of the equations you are memorizing are not hard to come up with if you really understand what the problem is asking. This may be time consuming at first but it will give you a much deeper understanding of physics and when you see questions that you haven't seen before you'll immediately recognize what the question is asking and how to solve it.

See, that is exactly my problem!! My physics professor would literally give us a "study guide" two weeks before the exam, and then the exam would be the study guide with maybe two or three things changed (no joke). All I had to do was sit down with a tutor, see how he worked it out, and memorize it for the test. I loved it then because it didn't kill my GPA and it would appear that I have a grasp of physics just looking at my grades, but really I don't at all. I spent a couple hours today plodding through some of chapter one really trying to grasp the concepts, and while I feel I understand it a bit better than earlier this week, I can't afford time-wise to devote this much time to one subject you know?

Thank you for all the responses, keep them coming!

Can it just be April 6th already!?

 

[tima]

The practice problems in Nova physics are good. I used that book when I took the MCAT. If you are short on time, I would suggest reading TBR, doing TBR's passages and then doing Nova's passages.

 

[Cinclus]

What is different about it compared to other books in particular that helped you?

Congrats on the great score! I have heard that Nova is good too. I've been thinking about buying it because it's cheap (compared to TBR) on Amazon and the reviews on there are quite good. What did you like about it?

What helped me, and also what I liked about Nova, was that it didn't assume that I knew anything about physics, which was good, because I had forgotten pretty much everything form my long-ago classes. I noticed with some other books, in the solutions explanations for example, that certain statements would be made concerning why the answer was what it was, but these things were far from obvious to me, and I still didn't understand why that particular answer was correct. Anyone know what I mean? Might be a bad explanation on my part, too. lol It also put a lot of emphasis on understanding the concepts, which made it much easier to see relationships and understand/remember formulas. I bought a pdf of the book on Borders.com for about $14, so you guys might want to check out that option. I haven't looked to see if it's still that cheap though.

Edit: That site is no more. I forgot that Borders is a goner...

 

[DryHopped]

Hi everyone,

So I've been studying for the 4/5 MCAT for about two weeks now, and let me say, I am getting so frustrated by physics. I have always HATED it but my grades in it weren't too bad (B in Physics I and A and in Physics II). I am using TBR and EK1001 per Sn2ED's schedule, and I am getting so discouraged. My scores on the passages are literally in the 35% range. I feel like I have no grasp of this subject at all and I just don't know what to do. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

Please help!

Thanks.

I remember feeling the same way...On my diagnostic test I scored a 7 in the PS section and that was while I was taking Physics II and I had received an As in Physics I and both Gen Chem I and II. The MCAT is just way different than most undergraduate classes and some people don't adapt to it as fast as others. In the PS and VR sections I was one of those people. But, I ended up doing okay on the MCAT and my highest score was in the PS section (11)..I didn't anticipate that happening at all! But, I really worked hard on the PS section in my studies and I agree with other posters in this thread about doing both TBR physics and NOVA physics. They are both great. I used primarily TBR and when I really had trouble with something in the TBR book, I went to NOVA and the way the author breaks down every subject to the simple fundamentals to start with helped me gain the understanding that was needed to tackle the TBR passages. So, like others have said, invest in NOVA to use as a primer then continue to tackle the TBR material.

 

[HH8911]

What helped me, and also what I liked about Nova, was that it didn't assume that I knew anything about physics, which was good, because I had forgotten pretty much everything form my long-ago classes. I noticed with some other books, in the solutions explanations for example, that certain statements would be made concerning why the answer was what it was, but these things were far from obvious to me, and I still didn't understand why that particular answer was correct. Anyone know what I mean? Might be a bad explanation on my part, too. lol It also put a lot of emphasis on understanding the concepts, which made it much easier to see relationships and understand/remember formulas. I bought a pdf of the book on Borders.com for about $14, so you guys might want to check out that option. I haven't looked to see if it's still that cheap though.

Edit: That site is no more. I forgot that Borders is a goner...

I remember feeling the same way...On my diagnostic test I scored a 7 in the PS section and that was while I was taking Physics II and I had received an As in Physics I and both Gen Chem I and II. The MCAT is just way different than most undergraduate classes and some people don't adapt to it as fast as others. In the PS and VR sections I was one of those people. But, I ended up doing okay on the MCAT and my highest score was in the PS section (11)..I didn't anticipate that happening at all! But, I really worked hard on the PS section in my studies and I agree with other posters in this thread about doing both TBR physics and NOVA physics. They are both great. I used primarily TBR and when I really had trouble with something in the TBR book, I went to NOVA and the way the author breaks down every subject to the simple fundamentals to start with helped me gain the understanding that was needed to tackle the TBR passages. So, like others have said, invest in NOVA to use as a primer then continue to tackle the TBR material.

The practice problems in Nova physics are good. I used that book when I took the MCAT. If you are short on time, I would suggest reading TBR, doing TBR's passages and then doing Nova's passages.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I ordered Nova off Amazon today and should hopefully get it next week. In the meantime, I've been methodically studying physics and working (slowly!) through the EK 1001 questions, but I am happy to report that in the second 1/3 of BR passages (which I did after EK 1001) my score did improve quite a bit from the first 1/3 (even under timed conditions). So I will just keep plugging on! Best of luck to everyone else studying now too!

 

[xGeorgettex]

OP, try out then Khan Academy videos. They're great and geared towards teaching someone with absolutely no background in physics. They have a ton of videos on kinematics/motion (ch. 1 of TBR), so that might take you a while to get through. The rest of the subjects are like an hour worth of videos. Each video systematically guides you through the logic of deriving the equation while solving the problem, so it teaches the fundamentals instead of route memorization. I honestly didn't think they were miracles the first time I used them, but when I did my 2/3 of TBR ch. 1 passages, I scaled to a 12! I think they really helped me nail down the fundamentals. Try reviewing a video or two of those every day during the week so you finish them before you do your TBR chapter and see if that helps.

Happy studying! (P.S. I'm a retaker who scored a freaking 6 on physics the first time, so I feel your pain. I'm up to 10-12 range on physics practice passages now though, so don't give up!)

 

[mr chievous]

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

This link leads to an FBI warning.

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[jeffs office]

If you didn't know that megaupload and it's subsequent owner were all shutdown and incarcerated early last year then you fail at Internet.

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[Rob Biomed]

I tutor physics at my school and find that a lot of kids simply memorize how to do certain types of problems rather than understanding why they are doing what they are doing. Lots of professors give very similar exams (just change numbers from one semester to the next) so memorization can get you a good grade when in reality you don't understand the material. When you are asked more conceptual questions or see problems you are unfamiliar with (like on the MCAT) you get stumped. I find the big thing with understanding physics is NOT looking at the answer to a problem until you feel you have the correct answer. When I was taking physics for the first time I would spend literally several hours on a single question. I would just stare at the problem until I saw how to solve it. Try to derive your own equations for problems. You'll find that most of the equations you are memorizing are not hard to come up with if you really understand what the problem is asking. This may be time consuming at first but it will give you a much deeper understanding of physics and when you see questions that you haven't seen before you'll immediately recognize what the question is asking and how to solve it.

This is great advice. I take the MCAT on January 26th, and on my practice exams I usually miss 0-4 physics questions tops. Once you truly grasp the concepts, the equations will come naturally to you and it's no longer about memorization. One thing that really helps me is ALWAYS keeping track of the units during problems. Even if you do not know or remember an equation during a specific mcat problem, you can often look at the units of the answer choices, or the units that the question is asking for, and then manipulate the question stem numbers according to their units.

For example, if a question stem asks you for the work done by a system and they provide you with a mass, an acceleration of that mass, and a distance the mass is accelerated, you can solve for work just by knowing the units of work. If you know (and understand) that work is expressed in Joules, which can be broken down to kg*m^2/s^2, then you can manipulate the units in the question stem to match this. The stem gave you a mass (kg), an acceleration (m/s^2), and a distance (m). Without even knowing the equation (which is W=Force*Distance), you can multiply the mass*acceleration*distance in order to come up with an answer in Joules.

Not sure if this is helpful at all, but for me it's all about the units! Also, the more that you understand the basic theories of physics (kinematics, newton's laws, etc), the easier the more advanced material will become (momentum, energy, electrostatics, magnetism, etc).

 

[maybemed2013]

I use to hate physics as well. It took my abt 2 months to get through PR physics I would do 1-2 chaps a week.

But guess what I am scoring on average a 9 in the PS sections.

I know you dont what to hear this but you might have to reschedule your mcat and plan for a gap year or two.


To get my physics as high as I did I watch Chads Vids, read first of nova physics up to the interlude and read pr physics abt 3 times.

You can check my past post abt how bad I was at physics, but now that I understand the subject I love it and I tutor physics now. I was going to give up on the mcat because of physics and switch to pre-dent. I cried several times because I just do not fing get physics. I read EK, Kaplan, BR, Nova, PR and my college physics book and I recommend going through PR physics abt 3 times . On the first try go slowly. I would read about 1 chap every 2-3 days no more than 10 pages a day and after reading I would do all the F.S. question in PR sci. wrbk.

If you want further help PM, I be more than glad to give you FREE tutoring for physics or w/e mcat topic you are having trouble with.

Just to warn you my top PS score was a 10.
My top VR was a 9
and my top BS was a 9.

 

[sector9]

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