The bee-otch that is Physics

*Angel*

Anyone else kinda struggling in Physics? I'm looking for a decent text book or revision book (or both) to help me. Cos I need to try and get an 'A', problem I don't find it easy ....at all.

Or if anyone knows of any good grind/revision courses that mite be worth a try, please.

snappieT

Hey Angel,
I'm in the same messed up boat as you, and my phys teacher decided to take 7 months off last year. Retarded school couldn't find us another teacher.

I'd recommend 'Physics Now' as a textbook, everything is really clear
The 'Rapid Revision' series are the best... not the most asthetically pleasing but the best. I managed a B instead of an NG in history thanks to it.

If you ever need any help on any subject, just send me a mail: stephenpurcell <AT> gmail.com


Hope this helps, and best of luck

*Angel*

hey thanks,

I use 2 like d subject, I think there has to be something crazy about all Physics teachers cos there seems to be no gud ones. Thanks for you help, I'm working from 'Physics Now' at the moment, but what comes up on the exam seems to put the topics in a lot more detail.

snappieT

BTW,
If you go onto the oidiceas website, you can get the marking schemes (and hence answers) to the last 3 years of papers... really helps!

*Angel*

Thanking you, that will prob help much appreciated.

Explosive_Cornflake

I miust say the physics now book is quite good, i even enjoyed some of it. Thing is though, the way to learn is to do the past questions. I'll have to say though, my physics teacher was great, he was really into it (while he was teaching, which is what you want)
So physics, and that less stress , blah, blah, blah revision book are quite good.

D-Generate

My physics teacher works off the syllabus and his own notes instead of the Phyisics Now book. It is worth taking in to account that the books were published and available before the new course had been finalised and released by the dept. of education and as such some thigns are missing in teh book and in a lot of places it goes in to too much detail. I would suggest downloading the syllabus off of the departments website and using that as a guide when reading the book.

Thank god my teacher gives class notes.

PrecariousNuts

Thankfully I had an excellent physics teacher who explained the concepts wonderfully. If you have any questions just ask. I personally found the course straightforward and the exam wasn't in any way difficult.

rainbow kirby

Learn the practical questions really well. It's easy marks if you can get them right. And they sometimes come up again in the other questions. And study a lot.
*strokes A1 in physics*

Awayindahils

rainbow kirby wrote:

*strokes A1 in physics*

meh
*crosses fingers and hopes for an a1 in physics*

aperently you should know your definition inside out aswell theres a hell of alot of them though, somewhere around 150. my teacher last year forgot to mention that we should learn them.

rainbow kirby

Dear jebus, you're doing the LC this year?
*feels REALLY old*
Yeah, learn the definitions. It's helpful.

Intel

One thing...GET THE SYLLABUS. See what can come up and after that the size of the course is much less daunting.
My teacher told us to ace the practical questions, they are easy marks and the same questions come up every year.

snickerpuss

If you think you need grinds id recommend the institute, fair enough i was utterly awful at physics but i did mighty well after these grinds which were really well done and gave great notes, so id recommend physics grinds there to anyone.

passive

i'm utterly screwed for physics. my teacher is sarcastic and patronising and completely incapable of explaining the concepts... only a handful are doing well (in our very rare tests) and that's solely down to natural ability/getting it without difficulty. i hate the physics now book for some reason...i feel it doesn't explain the maths part very well and each time a new maths thing comes up i'm just hit by a brick wall.

I've been trying to find grinds but so far having no luck, including from the thread at the top of this forum... parents won't fork out for the institute. *sigh*. i'd like to scrape a C...

rainbow kirby

Try posting on Physics/Chemistry...
If you've got any specific questions with the maths parts, give me a PM and I might be able to help. Always the part of physics I liked.

passive

The whole subject is kinda a blank for me at the moment and i don't really get anything to do for me to get stuck on. Perhaps when i start working through the papers on my own i'll have questions (we're just over halfway through the course now so shan't be doing them with the teacher -_-)

i'll try asking on that forum actually, excellent idea

rainbow kirby

Find something relatively easy to start with (light is usually the first thing you do, maybe try learning to draw the ray diagrams or something). Best to get a start on something rather than letting the whole lot smother you.