Physics SUCKS!

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

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I'm taking 2 courses of physics right now and I'm about at wits end...I HATE IT😡! I've never despised any subject in all my life. I find myself dreading to go to class and at times I don't want to try. I know that's stupid cuz I gotta get my a$$ into med school. It really is not my strong point and I have to get myself to do well in these courses. I'm hating my life that there's 6 weeks left of this quarter...but, at the same time I have to look at it on the bright side...it's my last quarter of physics and hopefully, I'll never have to stress about it again (other than the MCATs this summer).

This week, I had 3 midterms in a matter of 2 days. Both my physics midterms were on the same day...one at 11am and the other at 12 noon. I pretty much bombed one of the physics midterms and have to pretty much eat, drink, and sleep physics to get an A in the class. The next day, I had an upper division Molecular Biology midterm and that went really well.

Did any of you feel the same way about physics? I really do hate it but at the same time, I have to do what it takes to do well in it. This is the last quarter that I ever have to deal with physics and I'd like to finish gracefully. Anybody have any tactics or suggestions with kicking physics in the butt?😕

 

[BushBaby]

I hear you loud and clear man. It's 1:30am and I am up trying to understand the freaking fluids and waves before the mcats on saturday....now watch when I get NO questions relating to these two areas on my exam...waste of my damn time.

 

[loo]

The ONLY thing I learned in physics was the reason WHY the shower curtain touches your legs when you are taking a hot shower and the surrounding area is cold.

NOW I know my life is COMPLETE!

I was asked by an interviewer (not for grad or med school) why I received a C in physics the first semester and a C + the second semester. Well, I was quite honest when I said simply, "I hated the course...however; if you look at my transcript, you'll notice that my grade did go up". I thought to myself, why don't you ask me about the M.S. degree I earned and how COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT my stupid undergraduate physics grade is, you *****! Do you honestly think that my grad school gave two s%#ts about my physics grades? Do you think I'm that stupid?

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Keep the faith and trudge through...in the end it will not matter and you will reach your goals in spite of physics!

 

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

Bushbaby,

First off, the very best of luck to you on kicking some butt on the MCATs this Saturday. I just finished the electromagnetic waves portion of physics, and now, we're still working on light and ray tracing🙄 ...I REALLY can't stand it...I'm headin towards Fluids and Thermodynamics towards the end of this quarter. And since I'm taking my 1st quarter of physics over right now, I'm still trudging through stupid force diagrams and stuff like that.

loo,

Please, let me join you with the venting...My professor freaking sucks. You know, I'm retaking the first part of physics over. I was able to breeze through the homework problem sets and the sample midterm as well. Now, I don't know about anyone else in my class but the midterm he gave us was ridiculous. I think alot of these professors need to get off their HIGH HORSES and think that possible not all people are in this class b/c they want to be. I'm taking physics for LIFE SCIENCE majors not for PHYSICS majors and I think he should test accordingly!😡

Now, I'm applying to med school and my GPA has suffered b/c of physics. I really don't know what to do...med school is my dream and I'll be damned if PHYSICS holds me down!

 

[sacrament]

I hated my first couple of physics classes, but somewhere along the way I found some appreciation for this fundamental subject. I recommend "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" collection. I learned so much from these books, and Feynman's delivery is effortless and natural. Good stuff.

 

[Thundrstorm]

I'm acing physics and I still hate it. It just doesn't captivate me (though I agree with the above comment on Feynman -- his writing rocks). My stupid school changed our physics curriculum so that it now takes 3 semesters, not 2, to complete the intro physics courses. Of course, I found this out after deciding to take the MCAT this August after finishing the first 2 physics classes. Guess I'll be teaching myself waves and fluids.

 

[JM.]

I liked physics. But I can understand hating a requirement, as I hated Orgo. And I hate working at Old Navy.

 

[ms. a]

Originally posted by dreaminOfMD>.<

This week, I had 3 midterms in a matter of 2 days. Both my physics midterms were on the same day...one at 11am and the other at 12 noon. I pretty much bombed one of the physics midterms and have to pretty much eat, drink, and sleep physics to get an A in the class.

Welcome to the world of a physics major. Now just imagine doing this for 4 straight years. I consider it good training for med school.

 

[BushBaby]

Originally posted by loo

I was asked by an interviewer (not for grad or med school) why I received a C in physics the first semester and a C + the second semester.... if you look at my transcript, you'll notice that my grade did go up". I

Well it is true your grades did go up...lol. I never thought of using that answer...😛

 

[Nuel]

Physics was easy to me. I had it before in high school and in college it was so effortless. Took Part II before I (all in my first year). In physics this is the key, learn the concepts very well. Look at simple laws and theories and apply them to the problem. But what with memorizing equations? 😕 After practising the exercise questions, equations just become second nature.

 

[aydinhatemi]

Physics is my love. May be this is because I am an engineering major. I love it and I ace it in the exam. I get 13-14 all the time

My problem in verbal. Everybody have weak points. I literally suck in verbal. I get 7-8-9. SInce english is my second language and I have a very limited vocabulary (I pretty much guess some of the answers with a gut feeling). See you should feel lucky, Physics can be improved even if you hate it. If you do not get it first time you can study over and over and over again, BUt there is no way to improve verbal. If I knew the way I would study it day and night.
If I was raised in this country and be confident in my language skills I would be in Harvard Medical School. But a top-20 school will never accept a 7-8 verbal.

 

[agent]

I havent taken physics yet and im dreading it. I'm barely getting through Pre-calc. Math oriented things I suck at, everything else I excel in.

 

[UCLAstudent]

Dreamin,

Are you taking Abachi? If so, I pity you. I took him last quarter. Let's just say that the "practice" midterm that he posted online for you was the first midterm for my class, and it was absolutely horrible. The average was super low. Anyway, good luck to you, and hopefully things will improve! 🙂

 

[Sophie]

Dreamin: Good luck with your courses. I can't relate too well because I love Physics, but one piece of advice is if you can get yourself to start thinking of how everything you are learning relates to everything around you it becomes fascinating and I would think it'd make studying it far easier. Instead of just learning about waves and their properties, put it in context and think of all the things around you that involve them, etc.

 

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

First of all, what is this Feynman Lecture Collection thing??? Sounds pretty cool...

aydenhatemi,

I honestly think you can improve in Verbal. Just do practice problems/exams OVER and over and over again. Really, I have a friend from a different country where english is also his second language. He's been practicing his arse off and his score has been improving.

UCLAstudent,

Yes! I'm taking Abachi That practice midterm was from your class? Well let me tell you, I was able to do the practice midterm. Of course it required some thinking but I put myself in testing conditions and I took it. I got almost everything right. Walked into the actual exam feeling confident as he said that 1-2 problems would "resemble" problems from the practice. Well, the only way a problem "resembled" the practice midterm was that this guy...he was standing on a cliff. Okay? The midterm was HARD! He sucks and needs to get a grip on himself. Aren't you taking 6B with Waung? If so, you'll find that he's like the best Physics professor at UCLA. I wish he taught 6A. 6C's professor's pretty cool too. But Abachi flat out sucks. Seriously, he made it alot harder than the practice midterm. The average had better be low for this one too. Good luck in 6B...(doesn't Waung look like the cutest little nerd? )

Thanks to those of you wishing me luck. I really need it...😉

 

[UCLAstudent]

Yep, I'm taking 6B with Waung! He is so much better than Abachi. The midterm was on Monday... all of the problems were doable. The only problem was time. Lots of people didn't finish... but, at least the test was fair!

I can see how you would find Abachi's practice midterm kind of easy, but last quarter, Abachi literally did not teach anything remotely relevant to the first midterm, so the whole class just about died. He then got into trouble by the department, and he shaped up a bit after that, but still wasn't very good. Much luck to you! 🙂

 

[punkin2]

Originally posted by jmwalker
I liked physics. But I can understand hating a requirement, as I hated Orgo. And I hate working at Old Navy.

I never knew that working at Old Navy was a requirement. I must have slipped by on that one. 😉

For all of you who are hating your physics courses right now, my heart goes out to you. Please note however, that you may not actually hate physics but just hate your prof. Intro physics can be absolutely dreadful if taught poorly. Actually, physics at any level can be dreadful if taught poorly.

I was a physics major and then went on to get a masters in physics before I decided to switch fields. For what it's worth - here's some advice: WORK AS MANY PROBLEMS AS YOU CAN!!! Don't study by reading your text or reviewing your notes. Unless your class is different from any class I've ever seen, you won't be asked factual questions on your exam, you'll be asked to solve problems. This is a skill that like any other requires practice. Work out all the problems in the back of your book. Get other books and work those out too. Especially in intro physics, there are only so many problems available. You just need to try and cut through the "flavor text" of the problem you're given and figure out which problem it is.

Good luck, and remember - even if physics and you are not meant to be best friends, the physical sciences section on the MCAT is half general chem.

 

[deleted9493]

I abhorred taking physics. Granted, there were some bright spots in the two semesters (Lenz's law, some of the translational stuff) but in general, it was pretty tedious. I think I did pretty well in the class just because I'm decent at making application of knowledge during test time. However, I can see how things could be really bad for someone who is all about the memorization aspect of college. I truly despised physics labs second semester...not always being sure of the goal of the various experiments and being equally unsure of the results made for the most frustrating 3 hours of my weeks.

 

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

UCLAstudent,

Do you know if Abachi does anything to help out your grade in the end? Like drop your lowest HW or somethin? Every physics professor I've had so far has done something. Turn in corrected and missing homeworks for full credit by the end of the quarter, drop the lowest midterm, beat the average on the final and that grade would replace lowest midterm, etc...hopefully, Abachi won't be such a stinge and will help us out a bit.

I abhorred taking physics. Granted, there were some bright spots in the two semesters (Lenz's law, some of the translational stuff) but in general, it was pretty tedious. I think I did pretty well in the class just because I'm decent at making application of knowledge during test time. However, I can see how things could be really bad for someone who is all about the memorization aspect of college. I truly despised physics labs second semester...not always being sure of the goal of the various experiments and being equally unsure of the results made for the most frustrating 3 hours of my weeks.

Of course, there were bits and piece of physics that was interesting to me...and I see where your getting at: physics being harder for those who are all about memorization. I'm a bit more "memorizing" oriented but I don't think that I'm ONLY a memorization type of gal. I've done well in classes that require more than memorizing...I can grasp concepts...it's just the abstract ones that kick my butt🙄

 

[sunflower79]

well, I hated physics too. I did well in AP physics but college phys was just over my head.

If it makes you feel better, I found the mcat physics MUCH easier, even though it had been 2 years since I picked up the text. The problems are sooo much more straightforward, don't ya think?

 

[lytesnsyrens]

Originally posted by agent
I havent taken physics yet and im dreading it. I'm barely getting through Pre-calc. Math oriented things I suck at, everything else I excel in.

oh, i hear you on that one! bio and anatomy and stuff like that i can handle, no problem. but when it comes to chem and phys and anything math related, forget about it! i don't know how i'm going to make it, but i sure am trying. good luck to everyone else who hates physics!

 

[2ndave]

Dream,

Good luck with physics! I bet it'll all be ok. I'm taking calc-physics 1 right now, and so far, it's the hardest pre-med class I've had. (And all I've got left is physics 2). I really LIKE physics, but my problem is that when I get to the tests, I expect them to be just like chemistry tests. I loose a lot of my composure when they're not, and make stupid mistakes! With chem tests I usually knew immediately what kind of problem I was looking at, so I just pulled out the strategy for that type of problem and did it. In physics, you really have to think the problems through and take one small step at a time toward solving them. You might have no idea what you'll get in the end, but just be sure to make a good diagram and apply all the rules one at a time.

Anyway, hang in there!

aydinhatemi--

You can totally improve your verbal skills/scores! It sounds like you've gained a lot of English skills already. One thing you can do is meet with an ESL tutor. I used to be a tutor, and if you can find someone who will help you with writing and speaking, they can give you advice about how to improve.

I know how hard it is to learn a foreign language, but don't give up!

 

[UCLAstudent]

Dreamin... I don't know if Abachi will do anything for your grade, but I kind of doubt it. He was taken advantage of last quarter, and I think he is kind of defensive regarding grades.

 

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

What do you mean he was being taken advantage of? That sucks... What happened? Oh and by the way, I never finished my exams in Waung's course either...but, it should be curved accordingly.

 

[UCLAstudent]

Hi dreamin... well, it's kind of a long story, but I think it is worth telling you, so here goes. I'll try to make it concise.

Well, Abachi was pretty bad in lecture leading up to the first midterm... he just wasn't explaining things clearly at all and was making things way complicated. The average on the first midterm was 60%, which is okay, as long as it is curved. BUT, Abachi decided that anyone who got below a 40% on the test (a good 30% of the class, BTW) should drop the class immediately because they were, in his words, "obviously unprepared." He also decided that anyone who received below 40% should NOT be included in any curving or averaging. So, as you can imagine, if the lowest grades are eliminated from the curve, the average shoots WAY up... the average went up to 80%! Well, he decided that because the average was 80% (without the lowest grades, mind you!), he should make the next test harder to try to get a 70% average!!! (Even though the real average was 60%...)

Anyway, parents and students started e-mailing him, nearly everyone in the class went to the department to complain about him, and finally he got into trouble... apparently, someone from the physics department observed the class, and Abachi had been teaching it entirely wrong. He was making it way too hard... he was teaching it like it was the 1 series for physics majors! The 6 series is supposed to be watered down for life science majors. Soooo... he shaped up after that, made 60% the true average for the class, and then added 15% to everyone's first midterm. BUT... he made the second midterm easier to make up for the first (the average was about 85%) so he ended up taking the 15% back!!! This angered several people... our grades were constantly juggled around by Abachi after that. To make a long story short (although it is already quite long 🙂 ), Abachi just had a really bad time last quarter with grades and with a bajillion students angry at him for messing up the grading scale and removing curves, etc. That's why I think that he will be more strict this quarter about grades (he'll probably make whatever grades he assigns set in stone). But, it won't hurt to talk to him about it, and he's pretty nice during office hours, so go for it! 🙂 Good luck! I could probably have PMed this to you since it isn't really relevant to anyone else, but oh well. 😀

 

[dreaminOfMD>.<]

Our average was 55%...that's pretty darned low if your considering a course full of nearly 400 pretty bright students. Just goes to show that his exam was pretty difficult. We'll see how this goes...thanks for all the info though 🙂

 

[2badr]

I don't hate physics.Like most of you I fared pretty well in high school physics.I am more concerned with orgo than physics...or at least I was before I read these posts......😱
😉

 

[UCLAstudent]

Originally posted by dreaminOfMD>.<
Our average was 55%...that's pretty darned low if your considering a course full of nearly 400 pretty bright students. Just goes to show that his exam was pretty difficult. We'll see how this goes...thanks for all the info though 🙂

Ouch! Well, he curves pretty nicely, so don't worry about the low class average... I think he did 20-30% As last quarter.