What is the best Leaving Cert Physics book?

comet

I'm looking to get one as I want to study up and give grinds

dudara

When I give grinds I use O'Regan's book. I also use it when giving grinds to First Years in college who haven't studied physics before

PrecariousNuts

Rapid Revision is concise and to the point, pretty good and it cuts all the crap out.

subway_ie

Rapid Revision is pretty good, but it leaves out some of the more important details and isnt great on practicals/demonstrations. There's another pink revision book, its for the old course (which our teacher insists on teaching, hes one of those "education for learning, not for exams" kinda people), but its great - its concise, but detailed, good definitions and experiments, but some of the forumals are in weird forms. Definetly check it out, its called "Folens Leaving Certificate Revisions Series Physics", by Dan O'Regan.

Celtic Tiger

Real World Physics by Dan O'Regan (the man writing the physics exam btw)

Mutant_Fruit

Real World phyiscs contains everything you need to know, and explains everything pretty well.

Our teacher has given us photocopies of the sylabus requirements, so if you want that, i could try and get a scan-in.

PrecariousNuts

Might aswell, would be helpful

comet

Thanks guys, Real World Physics seems to be the most popular so.

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit

Our teacher has given us photocopies of the sylabus requirements, so if you want that, i could try and get a scan-in.

That would be very handy, if you get a chance to scan them in you could PM me and i'll send you my email.

dudara

the syllabus is available online at the department of education website, just give a sec till I find it. You can download it in .pdf along with things like teaching guides etc.

Dept. Education Physics Syllabus

comet

cool, thanks

Mutant_Fruit

this is exactly the stuff he printed and photocopied

http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/lc_physics_sy.pdf

If you know everything listed there, you'll get an A1

subway_ie

Actually, on of the best "books" for actualy learning physics, not just for the leaving cert, is the physics teachers handbooks, distributed by the DES. Im not sure if you can get them online, but my teacher gave me his copy and its great for explaining theory in detail and giving practical examples.

comet

Yep that handbook is on the webpage too, just downloaded it and it looks very good. Will download some past papers now and i'm all sorted

dudara

The handbook is very good, but I have to laugh at it though. How many teachers who never studied physics, are given that book, and told to go and teach physics. It frightens me!

subway_ie

Originally posted by dudara
The handbook is very good, but I have to laugh at it though. How many teachers who never studied physics, are given that book, and told to go and teach physics. It frightens me!

Yeah, i read it as we're doing it in class, and i think our teachers just learned it all off. I used to think he was some kind of physics genius, but now, i realise hes just a total fraud.

dudara

I did a degree in Physics in UCC, and out of the four years of graduates I knew (roughly about 50 people) only three went teaching. There are so few people in physics who want to teach, that most teachers in secondary school probably didn't do physics as a degree subject.

Delphi91

Originally posted by Celtic Tiger
.....Dan O'Regan (the man writing the physics exam btw)

You sure about that?

The physics paper at L.C level is made out by the Physics Inspector in the Dept of Ed & Science and that's not Dan O'Regan!

Anyone who works as an inspector in the Dept of Education is not allowed to write books.

dudara

But there are also chief examiners for each paper who are teachers. For instance, the year I did my leaving, my maths teacher was the chief examiner for Hons Maths Paper 2.

Celtic Tiger

Originally posted by Delphi91
You sure about that?

Definately. My teacher mentions it pretty much every class. And this guy knows everything tbh

I go to the Institute and we spend a class every week doing questions from Real World because they were written by Sir Dan.

subway_ie

Originally posted by Celtic Tiger
Definately. My teacher mentions it pretty much every class. And this guy knows everything tbh

I go to the Institute and we spend a class every week doing questions from Real World because they were written by Sir Dan.

If Sir Dan (the exam/book author extraordinaire) wrote the book then why is it riddled with errors and mistakes? Why is optics first, when it’s obvious that mechanics has to be done before anything else? Why don’t they give comprehensive lists of sources or errors/rectifications for practical, since they’re asked nearly every year?

Delphi91

Originally posted by Celtic Tiger
Definately. My teacher mentions it pretty much every class. And this guy knows everything tbh

I go to the Institute and we spend a class every week doing questions from Real World because they were written by Sir Dan.

Well, the reason why I queried the original assertion is that when I was on in-service courses during the introduction of the new Physics syllabus a few years back (did I mention that I'm a physics teacher???) there was major disquiet about the lack of a sample paper. A sample paper had originally been issued by the department but based on comments made by physics teachers nationally, changes were recommended to the Dept. However, by something like Feb/March of 6th year, we still had not seen a sample paper.

This was raised at one of the inservice courses which I attended, and the comment that came back was "There's only one inspector in the department of education responsible for Physics. And his job is to get a paper prepared for the Leaving Cert. When he has that done, he will produce a sample paper for release to schools".

And Dan Regan is not a department of education inspector - according to a report obtainable on the Dept of Education website!

In previous years, George Porter occupied the chair that "Sir Dan" occupies now. His books was bibles. George is now working for the department of education (not as an inspector) and when I was talking to him before he joined the Dept, he said that he wouldn't be writing anymore books as he was not allowed to while working for the department.

In terms of going through problems from one authors book, you should be aware of the fact that the exam is based on the syllabus and NOT on the information in a textbook. I have come across many textbooks in my career that contained material which was totally superfluous to that required.

Its always a good idea to have a copy of the syllabus (link given earlier in this thread) and to study/revise from that and previous exam papers. Its also worth going through the marking schemes and the inspectors reports to see what gains/loses you marks.

Delphi91

Originally posted by subway_ie
...Why is optics first, when it’s obvious that mechanics has to be done before anything else?...

It does? Last time I checked, the ability to study the optics section of the course did not require a knowledge of mechanics. Geometrical optics is a "stand alone" section.

I've always started with optics and many other teachers that I know do the same. And its not because of the layout of the book - I never keep to the layout. I chop and change doing different sections. However, the sequence will usually be determined by any dependencies i.e. if to study section B you require techniques from section W, then W gets done before B. I think you will find that most teachers do the same.

dudara

As a physics graduate I can never understand why the geometrical optics part of the course it taught first. When I tutor leaving cert students and college students, I always start with mechanics. Not the most exciting, but the most fundamental.

subway_ie

Originally posted by dudara
As a physics graduate I can never understand why the geometrical optics part of the course it taught first. When I tutor leaving cert students and college students, I always start with mechanics. Not the most exciting, but the most fundamental.

There are exciting parts??? :eek:

Celtic Tiger

Subway_ie: if your having trouble sleeping at night because optics is before mechanics that’s your problem m8.

Delphi91:Well why would my teacher just make it up? To look cool??? He is the teacher that I have had the most amount of respect for since my schooling years began. And he has featured on RTE radio more than once offering advice and help to LC students so he knows what hes talking about. If you don’t believe him, fine. Does it really matter?

Originally posted by Delphi91
Well, the reason why I queried the original assertion is that when I was on in-service courses during the introduction of the new Physics syllabus a few years back (did I mention that I'm a physics teacher???) there was major disquiet about the
In terms of going through problems from one authors book, you should be aware of the fact that the exam is based on the syllabus and NOT on the information in a textbook. I have come across many textbooks in my career that contained material which was totally superfluous to that required.

You don’t say. Obviously we aren’t doing every question in the book. Teacher picks out any clever questions he think stand a good chance of coming up in June in some form. And don’t you think it’s at all within the realms of possibility that Sir Dan (knighted by the Queen last week) might use the same style of questions he has already set out in his book in the exam? Surely not :rolleyes:

And if your a physics teacher I'm surprised you don't know whos writing the exam :dunno:

Chill out anyway, its only the LC

Anyway I think Comet has enough answers for a good physics book now.