Physics makes my brain cells go OW!

[bravotwozero]

I hate this course. It's the bane of my existence, but i suppose it's a necessary evil for a pre-med. So for you pre-meds who struggled with it, how did you manage? Any strategies, books, or reccomendations would be welcome.

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[juniper456]

I hate this course. It's the bane of my existence, but i suppose it's a necessary evil for a pre-med. So for you pre-meds who struggled with it, how did you manage? Any strategies, books, or reccomendations would be welcome.

this is how i felt about gen chem when i took it. even now, as i am reviewing it for the MCAT, it is only barely making sense to me. orgo was a breeze compared to this!!!

anyway, just sympathizing. if there's anything i've learned as a premed, it's that everybody's brain processes things differently. if you're not naturally tuned to the physics wavelength you probably never will be. but just do as many practice problems as possible and you'll learn enough to pass the exams. . . even though it might not make sense to you entirely.

 

[txguy]

I hate this course. It's the bane of my existence, but i suppose it's a necessary evil for a pre-med. So for you pre-meds who struggled with it, how did you manage? Any strategies, books, or reccomendations would be welcome.

If you are taking the algebra physics, EK's MCAT Physics book really breaks the concepts down so you can easily understand them.....I think it woudl be a nice supplement for the concepts you are not so clear on.......

Other than that, just continue to do practice problems and try to develop a "physics intuition"

Good luck

-tx

 

[DrCarebear]

I feel your pain. The first science courses of my college career just happened to be calc-based physics I and II. Honestly, it was the rudest slap of reality for me. (I was taking 20 credits and trying to help a best friend who was considering either dropping out of school or commiting suicide. Needless to say, it was the semester from hell even before adding physics to the mix.) However, physics is survivable. I would suggest finding a good group of people with which to work. Often you'll find people in hard core classes that will drop the pre-med pretense and simply work to understand the material. These are the people you want to seek out and invite to your study group. As an added bonus sharing a hardship tends to bring out the best in people. Not only did I and the people in my group survive physics, but we continue to hang out as friends to this day. Chin up and best wishes.

 

[ShyRem]

There have been threads on this in the past -- with some really good advice. However, a few things to survive physics (which I actually considered one of my easiest classes):

1. Draw a picture.
2. Write down what you KNOW.
3. Write down what you WANT.
4. Write down formulas that have one or both of #2 and #3 above.
5. Use one or more of the formulas in #4 to solve your problem.
6. Think like an idiot. Physics isn't there to come up with new stuff - it's there to explain what you ALREADY KNOW HAPPENS. Don't get suckered in by the fancy formulas and weird lingo. Physics is all common sense wrapped up in mathematics. If your answer doesn't make sense, try to figure out why. Do lots of problems. Get a study group together. Learn how to use your calculator.

Good luck. Even though I thought physics very easy (I actually didn't take many notes and knitted during class), there were plenty of potential physics majors that failed the course.

 

[shantster]

There have been threads on this in the past -- with some really good advice. However, a few things to survive physics (which I actually considered one of my easiest classes):

1. Draw a picture.
2. Write down what you KNOW.
3. Write down what you WANT.
4. Write down formulas that have one or both of #2 and #3 above.
5. Use one or more of the formulas in #4 to solve your problem.
6. Think like an idiot. Physics isn't there to come up with new stuff - it's there to explain what you ALREADY KNOW HAPPENS. Don't get suckered in by the fancy formulas and weird lingo. Physics is all common sense wrapped up in mathematics. If your answer doesn't make sense, try to figure out why. Do lots of problems. Get a study group together. Learn how to use your calculator.

Good luck. Even though I thought physics very easy (I actually didn't take many notes and knitted during class), there were plenty of potential physics majors that failed the course.

That definately is the way to learn physics. Usually on tests you get partial credit for showing some form of thought by drawing pictures or writing down equations. If your professor gives you a list of equations that you can use on exams, just learn what the variables mean so that it's all just plugging in numbers. I always thought of it as an applied mathematics class. Good luck!

 

[Medikit]

Hey man, at least you're not taking quantum