Struggling with Physics

[DrEaMeRcHiCk]

🙁 Ok, so its my first physics course ever and I feel so completely lost! I mean I'm trying hard to do problems and get the concepts but for some reason when I approach my homework problems, it'll take me hours to get to an answer and sometimes I don't even know if its right.

Anyone else have bad physics experiences? What did you guys do to learn the material? Midterms are coming next week and I have 3 back to back so I really have to learn the material now... Thanks!!!

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[buddyluv]

Personally, I do not understand why Physics is a pre-req. for Pharm, except for critical thinking may be. Now this is how I got through it: reading b4 the lecture so I can follow the concepts the prof will teach and going over the lectures at least 1/hr a day. Everyone is different but for me studying physics like 10hrs a day is a no no. That is to say, do not wait for an exam b4 u start to study. Do the homework and review them.

You can also get one of the study aids (those little books $5.99--they point you to the important concepts.)

Good Luck

🙁 Ok, so its my first physics course ever and I feel so completely lost! I mean I'm trying hard to do problems and get the concepts but for some reason when I approach my homework problems, it'll take me hours to get to an answer and sometimes I don't even know if its right.

Anyone else have bad physics experiences? What did you guys do to learn the material? Midterms are coming next week and I have 3 back to back so I really have to learn the material now... Thanks!!!

 

[DownonthePharm]

Have you talked to the professor about your troubles? Perhaps they can direct you to a physics tutor or some online help?

Here is some stuff from a quick google search:

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Default2.html
http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/physics/physics.html
http://www.myphysicslab.com
http://www.launc.tased.edu.au/online/sciences/physics/tutes1.html/

 

[pharmforme]

🙁 Ok, so its my first physics course ever and I feel so completely lost! I mean I'm trying hard to do problems and get the concepts but for some reason when I approach my homework problems, it'll take me hours to get to an answer and sometimes I don't even know if its right.

Anyone else have bad physics experiences? What did you guys do to learn the material? Midterms are coming next week and I have 3 back to back so I really have to learn the material now... Thanks!!!

I wish I could help, just wanted to say I feel your pain! Physics was without a doubt the most horrible class ever!!! Worse than Organic by far. I ended up doing ok though. Hang in there, keep plugging away at it, and you'll do alright 🙂

 

[Mongoos150]

Many people struggle with physics here at UA - my advisor actually reccomended I take the first semester lab/lecture at our local community college (because students do much better there) and take second semester lab/lec at the university. I'm lucky to have awesome advisors who actually give me paths for success.

 

[YO YO YO]

🙁 Ok, so its my first physics course ever and I feel so completely lost! I mean I'm trying hard to do problems and get the concepts but for some reason when I approach my homework problems, it'll take me hours to get to an answer and sometimes I don't even know if its right.

Anyone else have bad physics experiences? What did you guys do to learn the material? Midterms are coming next week and I have 3 back to back so I really have to learn the material now... Thanks!!!

Physics, what a pain in the &$%#@!
But, I am impressed with the craftsmanship of my physics text book, because my physics text book has survived countless collisions with my bedroom wall, as well as encounters with the bottom of my foot.
So...If I throw my physics text book at my wall with an initial horizonantal velocity of Vx=10 m/s, and my wall is 2.36 meters away, will my book be ascending or decending in its projectile path by the time it collides with the wall....AND will it make a hole?

 

[twester]

I agree that physics is an almost worthless pre-req, but I did learn some problem solving skills that might come in handy at some point.

My ah-ha moment with physics came when I realized that the units of the answer represented the equation used to get the answer. Force is measured in N or kg-m/s^2 = mass (kg) * acceleration (or distance/time^2). It works for everything. Sometimes it requires a little thought and opposing forces have to be considered and all that crap. Don't know if that helps you at all.

My school offers free tutoring (of varying degrees of quality) - your's school might too. Study regularly. It's hard to know if you're on the right track if you can't check your homework answers. Is there a study guide available for your textbook (at the bookstore or on reserve in your library)? Oh - and study regularly - seriously. I've only met a couple of students who could cram physics.

Good luck - It'll be behind you soon,

Troy

 

[Sefowa04]

Physics, what a pain in the &$%#@!
But, I am impressed with the craftsmanship of my physics text book, because my physics text book has survived countless collisions with my bedroom wall, as well as encounters with the bottom of my foot.
So...If I throw my physics text book at my wall with an initial horizonantal velocity of Vx=10 m/s, and my wall is 2.36 meters away, will my book be ascending or decending in its projectile path by the time it collides with the wall....AND will it make a hole?

Lol, that was funny.
Yeah, I had a bit of a struggle with physics as well. I am currently taking it, and I guess I am still struggling, but I am just so used to the struggle, that it is no longer a struggle...if that makes sense. Luckily, I am pretty good at math, so thats one thing I don't have to worry about, but I hate word problems, especially physics ones because half the time I don't know what the heck they are talking about. I wish physics catered more towards girls, I feel like most of the time we are talking about cars, and I just can't grasp that stuff. I have learned that the key is to get past all that junk and just figure out what the point of the question is.

 

[evilolive]

Electricity and magnetism is useless, especially if you take the course designed for premeds (non-calculus based). It's just another hoop for us to jump through because it's conceptually scary!

 

[PhArMafReKan]

Lol, that was funny.
Yeah, I had a bit of a struggle with physics as well. I am currently taking it, and I guess I am still struggling, but I am just so used to the struggle, that it is no longer a struggle...if that makes sense. Luckily, I am pretty good at math, so thats one thing I don't have to worry about, but I hate word problems, especially physics ones because half the time I don't know what the heck they are talking about. I wish physics catered more towards girls, I feel like most of the time we are talking about cars, and I just can't grasp that stuff. I have learned that the key is to get past all that junk and just figure out what the point of the question is.

i agree about the word problems..i just look past all the blabbing and find the numbers then plug them into the equation. of course this doesnt always work bcos some problems u have to THINK first 🙁 😡 .

 

[RachGator]

😛 I am really should be studying for my exam 4 tomorrow but I can't concentrate. I HATE physics!!! Can't we just fast forward to the fall?

 

[pinkpnther86]

Can't we just fast forward to the fall?

Seriously!!!....I'm hating this semester...especially Orgo II

 

[csa78]

what i did was form study groups and made it a point to myself to study the material ... also asking help from the professors and ta's won't hurt a bit ... working together with people will help you out tremendously ... physics isn't really a subject which you can study the night before and expect to do well in, to me at least ... it's very analytical, so if you get the main concepts, you can do well

 

[ghabpharm]

🙁 Ok, so its my first physics course ever and I feel so completely lost! I mean I'm trying hard to do problems and get the concepts but for some reason when I approach my homework problems, it'll take me hours to get to an answer and sometimes I don't even know if its right.

Anyone else have bad physics experiences? What did you guys do to learn the material? Midterms are coming next week and I have 3 back to back so I really have to learn the material now... Thanks!!!

I feel your pain. I actually had a physics course in high school so i understood the basic stuff about velocity and vectors and all that but 2nd semester is killing me.
Plus i have the world's most horrible physics proffessor. he's like 80 some years old, the messiest most absent-minded person i have ever met, and he teaches the class like he's talking to bunch of grad students.
its an algebra-based class but he teaches it like its calc-based. his exams are soo hard that he has to curve them every time and half the class still ends up failing.
And lab is an absolute joke. one time, we went to lab and he fell asleep for like half an hour and completely forgot that we were there. and he just randomly leaves halfway through lab to go get something to eat and then gets mad at us the next day for leaving early.
basically the class is a big joke that no one takes seriosly.
but my suggestion (tho i've never actually had the patience to do this) is start studying the new material from the day after the exam and try to work at it every day. Even if you dont get the probs right at first, the more probs you work, the more it'll make sense.

 

[Mongoos150]

That's amazing, the prof. fell asleep and got food?! That's great...yeah, seems like we might be some of the few people having to take both semesters of lec/lab - I know some schools require only one semester of physics lec/lab.

 

[DrEaMeRcHiCk]

Thanks you guys for all the advice...I didn't take it in high school so now I'm paying for it. I'm going to try and do more problems so maybe it'll get better as I go along, but like others said physics is just blah!

and yeah the word problems get to you. I wish I had more time to do a bunch of problems but im also dealing with my genetics class, but at least with genetics I feel that if I keep trying I'll understand the concepts and the problems. But physics is a whole other story, prof. keeps saying that the same formulas show up time and time again and it's true but its hard to figure out what the question is asking sometimes and how to manipulate a formula.

Thanks everyone for the advice, for those who have finished physics..congrats! and I hope to be in your shoes sometime soon. For those who are suffering, we'll get through it...one vector at a time

 

[BiOGoly]

Is everyone out there a hater? I 😍 Physics!

 

[takethou]

I love physics too! Got a B the first semester and got an A the second. I wish I could take it again, not really!! 😀

 

[sweetemo]

hi dreamer,

i used to tutor physics and held a study group at the student learning center in college. i wasn't a physics major, my major was molecular biology. i just liked it since i liked teaching the concepts... teaching bio and o-chem would have been just so much more info to cover in one class and not as much fun, i didn't want to be up there regurgitating information 🙂

don't stress too much, and seriously the time you are putting in is worth it. try looking at each problem like you are solving for a variable, don't worry too too much about the "concepts" and really "getting it" if you didn't get the prof's lectures, just learn the rules and memorize the equations (if you need to memorize them). then first identify which variable you need; then think of all the equations involved. follow the examples in your book to get you started on how a problem should be solved, it will give you ideas on how to solve the problems.

the key is learning how to do various "typical" types of problems, its kind of like learning math problems-- there are only so many types of problems that they will introduce you to in a intro physics course. and the rest is rearrangement of the equations, everything you learned in your algebra/calculus classes.

the concepts are just the framework for the problems and you will discover that there is a pattern to the problems so you can decide which equations/laws you should use. also like mentioned before you should consider units and what units you will be looking for and that will help you decipher it. you'll get to a point where you will read a problem and you should automatically think of which equations would associate with the problem. then you just use your math to solve for your variable of interest.

so study the problems and memorize how you solve them.
find someone who has taken the class before and study the sample tests or old exams that you can get a hand on, and listen to what concepts exactly your physics prof will cover. you will be sure that they will have a problem or two on each area.

find a teacher's manual online even, or any online resource with the problems solved out for you if you can, that would be really helpful for you if your homework is really bogging you down. follow the problem models that you find.

i remember at first it took some time, a lot of late nights, and a lot of practice until i finally get to an "a-ha!" point and everything clicked and finally made sense.

I love physics too! Got a B the first semester and got an A the second. I wish I could take it again, not really!! 😀

 

[DrEaMeRcHiCk]

hi dreamer,

i used to tutor physics and held a study group at the student learning center in college. i wasn't a physics major, my major was molecular biology. i just liked it since i liked teaching the concepts... teaching bio and o-chem would have been just so much more info to cover in one class and not as much fun, i didn't want to be up there regurgitating information 🙂

don't stress too much, and seriously the time you are putting in is worth it. try looking at each problem like you are solving for a variable, don't worry too too much about the "concepts" and really "getting it" if you didn't get the prof's lectures, just learn the rules and memorize the equations (if you need to memorize them). then first identify which variable you need; then think of all the equations involved. follow the examples in your book to get you started on how a problem should be solved, it will give you ideas on how to solve the problems.

the key is learning how to do various "typical" types of problems, its kind of like learning math problems-- there are only so many types of problems that they will introduce you to in a intro physics course. and the rest is rearrangement of the equations, everything you learned in your algebra/calculus classes.

the concepts are just the framework for the problems and you will discover that there is a pattern to the problems so you can decide which equations/laws you should use. also like mentioned before you should consider units and what units you will be looking for and that will help you decipher it. you'll get to a point where you will read a problem and you should automatically think of which equations would associate with the problem. then you just use your math to solve for your variable of interest.

so study the problems and memorize how you solve them.
find someone who has taken the class before and study the sample tests or old exams that you can get a hand on, and listen to what concepts exactly your physics prof will cover. you will be sure that they will have a problem or two on each area.

find a teacher's manual online even, or any online resource with the problems solved out for you if you can, that would be really helpful for you if your homework is really bogging you down. follow the problem models that you find.

i remember at first it took some time, a lot of late nights, and a lot of practice until i finally get to an "a-ha!" point and everything clicked and finally made sense.

Thanks sweetemo, I think I'm going to take your advice and start looking at the problems and remembering how I solved problems similar to them. I have my first midterm next monday and I'm hoping I'll have that ah ha! moment sometime this week or at least get a better grasp on how to approach problems.

Thanks everyone...u guys rock!