Q&A for How to Do Well in Physics

If you want to do well in physics, yes, checking your work is one of the most important things you should be doing.

They're difficult because so many physics problems require multiple steps that you have to follow, and even the tiniest deviation from a step can cause your answer to be off. This is why it's so important that you understand the underlying principles behind why you're doing what you're doing! It's a lot harder to arrive at the right conclusion if you aren't aware of how you're navigating the problem.

There's no reason to sugarcoat it. Physics is a pretty difficult subject, even at the high school level. That doesn't mean that you can't do well or succeed!

One way to overcome this fear is to prepare as much as possible. Read lecture chapters before class, ask for help as soon as you can when you don't understand a concept, and do practice problems to solidify what you've learned.

Review your class notes at the end of every day when you get home to solidify concepts you learned in class that day. Prepare for exams by doing practice problems and focusing on areas that you have particular difficulty with. You might also ask your teacher/professor if they have any old exams they would make copies of so that you can get a sense for how they structure their tests.

Study hard and finish what is asked of you. Once that has been done, push yourself to learn beyond the school curriculum by being curious, innovative, inventive and fearless about taking your learning as far as you can. Embrace failure; it too is a form of learning, so try new things and ideas all the time. Ask lots of questions but equally, spend a lot of time thinking and working out things for yourself. Reverse engineer things to find out how they work. Rethink things to make them work better. Don't stick to just one set of subjects; aim to be a polymath by being good at math, science, arts, English, dance, sports and drama. Don't pigeonhole yourself; the best learned people have a diversity of knowledge drawn from a wide background. Finally, enjoy your journey of educational discovery; it's a treasure, not a chore.

The basics of physics include the basic constants, basic equations and their derivations, plus standard math skills. Part 1 above covers the basics of physics, so check out those steps for more information.

Mastering math is a combination of learning the fundamentals, practicing often and approach math with the right mindset to succeed. You'll find lots more help in the wikiHow: How to Be Good at Mathematics .

Since this is a broad topic, it's best to read up on this. So, to get started in learning chemistry, check out the wikiHow: How to Learn Chemistry .

It is not so difficult to apply the concepts in numericals. What you can do is, highlight the part of the question which is asked. Try to focus on what approach or concept to be applied to solve it in one go. Don't be like "Ahhh... This question is too simple". Try to understand the meaning of the question. What people normally do is that they try to solve by applying something is not necessary, then when they don't get the answer they lose hope and the question seems difficult.

Concentrate on what you feel you need the most practice with -- or, if you're not sure, simply use whatever study guide your teacher provided to do a comprehensive overview. Make sure you at least skim everything that will be covered so that the material will generally be fresh in mind.

There are a few things that might be happening here. 1. Insufficient practice. 2. Lack of self confidence in exam. 3.Lack of concentration to solve problems in a given time period. 4. Lack of tension-controlling ability during exam. 5.Not being a "test-wise" student (i.e not knowing which questions are to be solved first and so on). Try to narrow down the issues you think you're dealing with in order to troubleshoot some solutions.

Learn to love the subject rather than taking it as a burden. When you start to love the subject, you will be able to take the time for more questions. Always remember to keep a set of the books from classes 6-9 and 10-11 (for those who are in 12), as these help you to understand the concepts from basics. In chemistry, always try to write notes as these help you before exams to refresh the topics completely. For maths and physics there is no other option -- you have to practise. Write formulas and derivations chapter wise in a separate file or copy for quick references.

Try Khan Academy - a website that teaches subjects like physics and math for free online. It covers all the basics and has a very good way of explaining things for beginners.

Try doing past paper questions as part of your studying.

Perhaps you are nervous. Take a deep breath and relax and recall how you solved those sums at home. They normally have the same concept.

There is no "best" time. Some people study better in the morning when they've just woken up, but other people study best at night. You should try studying at different times of the day to see which one is preferable for you.

Repeatedly write them out, and recite them loudly to yourself.

You will need to understand the nature of functions like sine, cosine, logarithms, etc. You'll need to be able to find domains, find roots, and manipulate and solve algebraic equations of all kinds. Working through a pre-calculus textbook is good prep for calculus. To understand calculus better, practice doing problems. Go through the derivations of formulas many times. Look up video tutorials on YouTube for good visualizations.

It should be vibratory motion. Acceleration is directly proportional to displacement. It is directed to mean position.

Work on solving more and more examples. Seeing the application of a formula in various types of questions will help you to remember when it's going to be logical to use that formula, and what it actually is.

Electromagnetic waves are waves of light and travel at the speed of light. Not all waves are electromagnetic in nature. Waves on the ocean and a vibrating violin string are both waves too, but they are not electromagnetic.

No collision is perfectly elastic because energy is lost as heat and sound. Examples of almost perfectly elastic collisions would be two billiard balls hitting each other, or the ball bearings in a Newton's Cradle as they hit each other.

Ask the teacher which format he/she would prefer that you put your answers in. If the teacher's answer is too vague or unclear, ask for further clarification. If the teacher seems to be singling you out for some reason, take the issue to a guidance counselor or the principal.

Ask your teacher for extra help, or get a tutor. Review the material you've learned again and do practice problems until you get the hang of it.

Physics cannot be studied in a hurry, rather it requires taking some time to understand the concepts, derivations, etc. While studying physics, don't focus on the time.

Vector quantities include magnitude (or the value) and direction, while scalar quantities only include magnitude. For example, velocity tells us how fast (magnitude) and in what direction an object travels, while speed only gives us how fast an object is moving (magnitude).

Try not to look at it as a competition. It's not about speed, but precision and accuracy. The more you practice, the quicker you'll be able to solve problems though.

Ask your instructor to slow down when explaining, or ask if you can voice record the class.

You just have to take your time and pay attention to each step. Rushing is what causes silly mistakes.