Which is harder: physics 2 or physics 1?

[Tofurkey]

Hello,

I'm trying to decide whether to take three classes next semester as a post-bacc and work part-time or take three. If I take three they'll be orgo 2, bio 2 and physics 2. How much harder is physics 2 than phy 1? Our phy 2 is electricity and magnetism. I am finding phy 1 quite difficult.

Thanks!

Tofurkey

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[acab]

Elec & Mag was a lot worse for me than phys 1, mostly because phys 1 material you can physically see. Hard to imagine atoms in magnetic field, etc. But my friend took both classes with me, and liked phys 2 a lot more. Also orgo 2 is a lot easier than orgo1.

 

[TTSD]

I HATED electromagnetism. Probably because the professor barely spoke English which also made me HATE optics (all of which were on the MCATs in abundance.. bastards). Conceptually it's not too bad.. had to learn them all again for neuro.. but just make sure the teacher's good otherwise ditching will seem mighty tempting.

 

[umass rower]

I find physics 1 to have been more intuitive than physics 2. If you are having problems with physics 1, you are probably going to struggle with 2.

 

[HawkeyeBFP]

I guess I just have to be weird, but I actually had less trouble with physics II. (It helps, when taking optics, to have worn really thick glasses since you were seven. I mean, you'll never forget whether a convex lens is converging or diverging. 😉 ) I don't know, maybe I had just caught on better by then.

Electromagnetism IS completely counterintuitive. Once you accept that, things fit better.

Seriously, I was a post-bacc and I would definitely advise waiting on at least one of these courses, especially if you're also taking the labs. O chem lab eats up time like you can't believe, and orgo itself is time-consuming enough that if you're prone to having difficulty in physics anyway, you're not going to have time for it all.

Good luck, whatever you decide...

 

[Nutmeg]

Physics II for me did not include optics--that was in Physics III for the sequence I took. Physics II was just E & M, calculus based and polydimensional. It was the single most brutal lower-division course I have ever taken, though I actually did better in it than Phys I, because it was more motivating to work hard in that class.

Good luck, and embrace the pain.

 

[Sweet Tea]

I LOVED physics I because I am a very visual person-- if I can see how the equation is working, then I can figure out the problem. So I did very well in physics I and struggled with physics II because I wasn't able to visually grasp it like I could with physics I. My dad loved physics II (and subsequently got masters degrees in both electrical and nuclear engineering) but didn't care for physics I. It's just a matter of what kinds of information you process better.

 

[LP1CW]

I loved physics. It was always interesting. I thought first semester was much easier because I knew the concepts from high school physics. Part 2 was all new material. But it was the most interesting material.

 

[UDbiochem]

i think your list of classes that you're considering is doable. bio 2, not a problem, organic 2 easier than the first... and i agree with the majority, physics 2 a lot harder than physics 1. physics 1 was just mechanics, optics, and other basic stuff, while physics 2 had E&M... (shudder...)

 

[Sprockette]

hmmm...I actually thought physics II was better than physics I. But I think a lot of it has to do with how well it is taught; I took physics I in high school and it was not taught well, but took physics II as a sophomore in college with a great prof and a good lab instructor. So consider that also....

And I disagree with whoever said that orgo II is easier than orgo I, but I think it has to do with how you learn things. I found orgo I to be very conceptual, while orgo II was a WHOLE lot of memorizing mechanisms to various reactions and far less conceptual material. blech. And orgo II lab was more involved than orgo I lab, as well.

Regardless, all three of those subjects are going to be very important for the MCAT, so make sure that you have enough time to learn them well. It will make MCAT studying soooo much easier if you learn the subjects well now rather than trying to figure it all out while studying for the MCAT. (I'm a little bitter that we never covered light and optics in physics II, because it was a pain in the butt trying to learn it on my own with only my MCAT books to guide me....)

 

[Apparition]

I agree with the majority of posters. Physics II was harder (for me) than physics I but I thought that they were completely different so just because you are struggling with the first one, it doesn't mean that the EM part will be even harder for you. EM was just really boring compared to other physics topics, which made it harder to study.

 

[UCLAstudent]

I thought the material in Physics I was so much more difficult than the stuff in Physics II. My school's on the quarter system, though, so we actually have to take three physics classes.

 

[doc05]

physics 1 and 2 are both really easy. especially if you're class isn't calculus-based.

 

[Tezzie]

Honestly i found both of them to be quite easy. I would much rather do those courses again than some of the bio courses i took last semester (ugh). If i had to give an answer here : i would say that i studied more for Physics II so i guess that must have been harder 😛 .

edit : I had a friend who got a B in Physics I and A in Physics II. So one can never really tell.

 

[Elysium]

Physics blows. If you're not a math oriented person its all very painful. I didn't mind Physics I so much but I barely scraped by in Physics II. I hated all that EM and optics crap. It blew! I was taking orgo 2, orgo 2 lab, physics 2 and physics 2 lab as a post-bacc and I just wanted to weep that whole semester (plus studying for that punk ass MCAT). I agree with what others were saying about trying to really learn as much Physics 2 as possible for the MCAT. They really seemed to heavily favor most of those concepts on the exam.

 

[Tezzie]

Honestly i don't understand why you guys hate physics so much. I will admit to having more "fun" (god that sounds geekish) with physics than chemistry. No flames plz. Just personal taste 😛

 

[Cerberus]

****II****II****II****II

 

[woolie]

Phys II definitely >>> harder for this student. Also, OChem II way, way way harder than OChem I. 😱

In our school, we loose alot of people in the first two semesters of each, but the second semesters are designed to wring out the rest of the strugglers. I remember actually crying in the library late at night because I was exhausted and ovewhelmed by the OChem II; such a nightmare. Physics, too.

I would respect the difficulty of these classes, that's just my expereince, tho.

 

[lola]

physics 2 was waaaaay harder for me. i just didn't get it. all that right hand rule crap and all. and i never really understood circuits very well. i thought physics I was much more intuitive. if you're good at math but don't get the concepts in physics II, it is not going to help you all that much b/c you will set up the wrong equations 🙂.
for me, ochem I was harder than ochem II. once i got a grasp of how things generally worked, ochem became much easier.

 

[klinzou]

Physics 2 is much easier. 1 has all this motion and gravity crap that has different forces all acting on the same thing and its confusing. 2 is up front and boom you have it. of course i'm in electrical eng. so i alrady knew all the circuits and all of that stuff. i dont think its too hard to catch onto though.