physics for leaving cert

linconpark

just wondering is physics as hard as its made out to be in the leaving cert. Im concedering doing it for the leaving cert. picking subjects now for 5th year. im good enough at maths. im about a b student. science is my best subject in the junior cert.

Aoiferz

Definitely not, Physics is no way as hard as people make it out to be. I did Physics for my Leaving and loved it, like you I was about a B student in maths and Science was by far my best subject. Now I'm studying it in college

Don't be out off by the rep Physics seems to have, its definitely doable if you're anyway decent at maths

Lisandro

Leaving Cert Physics is definitely not "hard". Physics itself is rather challenging, but mainly because it is intimately intertwined with mathematics. The main reason it's considered hard is because the course is not taught very well - it sacrifices depth for a broader spread. It has too much of an emphasis on memorisation and taking important principles for granted, something that manifests itself in its ignoring the mathematics that truly unlocks the intrinsic pleasures of physics.

I'll give a few examples: the concept of work and energy is critically underdeveloped. The syllabus teaches that work is the product of force and displacement. While this is true, the reason for this only becomes clear when you consider that a constant force is actually what gives you a constant acceleration, not a constant speed. If you aren't taught to think like this, then the concept of kinetic energy makes little sense, as the formula is based on interpretting the speed that results from acceleration caused by a force.

Electromagnetics attempts way too much with way too little depth. Electric potential is a problem area because it requires understanding of the concept of conservative forces, something which relies on vectors for explanation. What happens then is that the student has too learn lots of facts about electricity, magnetism and their applications without really understanding the foundations that lead to their formation. I'd much prefer if less material were covered in more depth than the current setup.

There are many other problems I have with the way physics is taught in this country, but it mainly comes down the course being oversimplified and broadened at the expense of understanding the role of algebra and simple vector arguments. The fact that you can get an A1 in Leaving Cert Physics without knowing calculus is something I personally consider ridiculous, because calculus was essential to the development of physics, classical and modern. It's where you actually see calcalus live and in action! I don't think students like you should be inflicted with crippling mathematics, but I do think it would be a better course by taking simple mathematical concepts and using them to develop a smaller number of concepts in a more natural, intuitive way than is done now.

If you're interested in physics and mathematics, you'll enjoy the course as long as you're willing to keep asking questions and looking for explanations. If you want to do physics in college (which I do now, along with mathematics), then it's worth your while, even if many things won't make sense until 3rd level.

B_Fanatic

Agreed, when you're done the course doesn't seem so big. If you have any interest in it at all it should come quite easily

AlanBr

It's piss...I've gotten straight A's in it without doing a tap...All it really is:

-Knowing how to do the maths in the formulas.
-Learning off a few definitions and their applications to real life.
-Learning experiments off and how to draw up graphs.

I'd definitely recommend it along with applied maths which is a very stimulating and interesting subject

ShonyBoulders

It's definitely an easy subject! I can confidently say this because I'm doing my Leaving Cert this year, and I only started doing Physics around October, and I'm looking forward to an A or a high B . The subject wasn't on offer for my year (I go to a small school), so the the majority of the course was self-taught, along with 2 hours of grinds a week and I stayed behind school on Fridays with the school's Physics teacher who showed me the experiments. Even though I didn't have the luxury of being able to study all parts of the course, I still feel confident on what I do know (probably 80-85 % of the course). I suppose being an Honours Maths student helps, but at the same time the maths in the Physics course is pretty easy, definitely Junior Cert level.
Overall though, I had a huge interest in what I was learning and I really enjoyed doing Physics, so I guess that's been the most important thing. I would definitely recommend that you do it!