Study Tips for Physics 41
Are you feeling nervous about beginning Physics 41 or worried about the effectiveness of your study strategies? First, know that you’re not alone. Some of the most successful students in this course struggled at first, so keep with it! Learning physics takes a lot of time, active practice, and intentional study methods (even when taken S/NC!). Here are some of our biggest tips:
Start strong: Clarify your base knowledge
The Physics 41 course material builds on itself, so try not to skip any steps or gloss over unclear concepts. For example, you’ll need to understand force to learn the work-energy theorem, and you’ll need to understand the work-energy theorem to learn about potential energy. At the beginning of the course, spend time reviewing: 1) your physics diagnostic assessment, and 2) the prerequisite content knowledge listed on your syllabus. What concepts are you clear on and which are fuzzier? What questions do you have about specific problems you missed or general concept areas?
Write all your questions down, and make sure to get them answered by a peer, tutor, TA, or instructor, or by reviewing course material on your own. Then, return to those initial questions, and try answering them on your own (without notes). Testing yourself helps you check your conceptual understanding and enables you to better apply those concepts to new types of problems. Once you’ve solidified these foundational math and physics concepts, it will be much easier to progressively build on that knowledge throughout the course.
Note: If you’re feeling overwhelmed with catching up on foundational concepts, consider meeting with your course instructors to discuss options.
Remember that learning physics takes time and active practice
Although ensuring an appropriate baseline level of knowledge is important for success in the course, you’re also not expected to understand new content right away. In fact, many students have to wrestle with the material before really understanding everything. And the best way to learn physics is to do physics! Make sure you allocate enough time each week to actively review the course material and practice problem solving.
Also be sure to take advantage of the active participation lecture in Physics 41. In particular:
- Actively engage in in-class problem solving! Think of class as a group “workout”; you’re all building your problem-solving muscles, but it’s okay for people to move at different speeds. The goal is to practice working through the ideas and to ask questions; you don’t need to finish every problem in class. Instead, highlight any problems you don’t finish, jot down any relevant notes or questions, and return to finish them after class or during Study Hall Hours.
- Take active notes during class! Rather than copying down every word your professor says verbatim, focus on identifying important concepts, making connections between ideas, writing down explanations in your own words, and jotting down any questions you have. See additional note-taking tips from CTL.
Make strategic use of your pre-lecture reading assignment
Work to actively engage with your textbook as you’re reading; think about the text as another person talking. First, you might try formulating some questions that you’d like the reading to answer for you. As you read, pause every now and then to talk back, ask questions, and make connections. When you take reading notes, try to summarize content in your own words (and without looking directly at the text). See more reading tips from CTL.
Additionally, think of your pre-lecture reading note assignment as the chance to build yourself your own cumulative study guide. Consider how you can make these notes more useful for yourself later. Perhaps you can use a color-coding system? Write down the most important concepts in your own words? Keep track of your questions? Bring your pre-lecture reading notes to class, update them as you learn more, and refer back to them throughout the course.
Develop a problem-solving routine
It can be useful to develop a routine in approaching physics problems. The earlier you start and the more practice problems you do, the easier it will become to correctly classify and solve problems. Rather than try to memorize the exact solutions to certain problem types, be able to work through the general steps you need to take to answer the question.
One helpful tool is to draw a free body diagram whenever possible! Work to lay out all the components of the equation before you try to solve it.
Here’s another possible problem-solving method used by a Physics 41 TA:
- First, try to figure out what the question is asking from you: Do you want to find the final momentum? The mass of an object? Its energy? Parse the problem statement for the actual question, and write brief notes to remind yourself what you are searching for.
- Find all given information and note it down: What’s the mass of your object? Is there an angle between two vectors? What is the initial velocity?
- Try to determine what quantities you need to calculate to find your final solution. Then, write down which steps you need to take to arrive at your final answer. It helps if you include equations at this point that will ‘generate’ the quantities you’re looking for.
- At this point, you have built your basis and can start to solve the actual problem. When working on the solution, write down all of your steps to avoid accidental errors and to make it easier for you to check your result in the end.
Having a routine of preparing the problem will help you to calm down when facing a tricky problem on a quiz or exam – and score partial points if you end up not solving the problem because of time constraints.
Dig deep on practice problems
Keep in mind that you’ll never see an exam problem that looks exactly like a practice problem, so simply doing every problem possible is not the best strategy on its own. Instead, when you work out a practice problem, make sure that you can explain why and when you would take each step in your solution. It’s easy to fall into the trap of reading through a solution key and thinking it makes sense, but taking the time to analyze each step will allow you to apply what you’re learning to new problems in the future. For example, be able to explain:
- Why certain information is useful to you or might be unnecessary
- Why you are using a specific formula
- Under what conditions you can make any assumptions you are making
To build an even deeper conceptual understanding of a problem, work to create your own version of it! Try to get in the mind of your professor, and have fun with it. Phrase the problem in a new way, change the parameters, or work to make it easier/harder. Share your new problem with classmates in Study Hall Hours!
Ask lots and lots of questions
Scientists ask questions all the time. Especially why! And instructors appreciate when students ask questions because it shows they are listening and really thinking about the material. A few examples of valuable questions in Physics 41 include:
- “What does that concept really mean?” (Try explaining it in your own words!)
- “I don't understand why we can come to that conclusion... Can we go over it again?”
- “Why did we take that step in the problem? Can we discuss it further?”
- “I don't recall seeing that terminology/symbol/notation before, can we review the precise definition?”
Use Study Hall Hours effectively
Take advantage of Study Hall Hours offered by the teaching staff! Physics can be challenging, and it can be incredibly helpful to talk through concepts or discuss problem-solving strategies with others. Note that Study Hall will be even more helpful if you’ve come with specific questions and/or having tried problems on your own. Keep a running list of questions as you read or work through problems throughout the week. If you can’t justify a certain step in a solution, that’s a great question for Study Hall Hours.
But also keep in mind that Study Hall Hours are not only for problem sets. Come earlier in the week to talk through conceptual questions with your TA (e.g., “Can you re-explain this concept?” or “Can we work through this free body diagram together?”). You can even ask for general advice or study tips!
Study more efficiently by completing quiz revisions!
One of the first steps in coming up with an efficient study strategy is to regularly assess your learning – and to allocate more study time toward reviewing concepts that are the most challenging for you. To help you gauge where you are having difficulty, take advantage of the opportunity to complete quiz revisions!
Before looking at the solutions, retry all of the problems you missed. Do you get farther than you did during the quiz? Are you able to finish a given problem with more time or in a less stressful environment? Do you tend to get stuck on concepts or definitions, on math, or on starting the problem?
Debriefing your quizzes helps you identify conceptual gaps that you need to re-learn. It also helps you figure out whether your errors resulted from test anxiety or stress, such as misreading a question. If you can start to identify where and how you are struggling on each quiz, then you can think about how to better use your study time in preparing for the next one.
Above all, keep trying
Everyone learns at different speeds and in different ways. There are lots of resources here for you because we know you can do it with the right tools. If you don’t know where to start, just ask. Meet with one of the TAs, CTL tutors, or professors. They are here to help you succeed!
Remember: Failure doesn’t mean Game Over. It means it’s time to learn a different way. See other useful study tips on the CTL’s Tips and Tools page or set up a free one-on-one session with an Academic Coach to explore strategies that can work better for you.
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Study Tips for Physics 41
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