Suggestions for Students

Respect physics by giving it a lot of thought and time. You can’t learn physics concepts quickly. It took thousands of scientists thousands of years to come up with the knowledge in your physics textbook. Don’t think you can learn this information easily and painlessly.

You can visualize most physics concepts. There are a ton of videos on physics experiments online. Spend a lot of time learning and visualizing the concepts in physics.

Watch and take notes on all 52 videos of The Mechanical Universe. I am confident you will fall in love with this video series.

Physics is not math. You are not equation hunting to solve problems. You need to know exactly “what is going on in the physical universe” to solve physics problems with more confidence.

Go through as many examples and complete as many problems as possible before taking a test. Buy a copy of Schaum’s Outlines of College Physics. You can also find this online in pdf format.

Understand the learning pyramid well. Lectures, reading, audio/visual, and demonstrations are all great to learn a topic during the beginning but you must make sure that you have the experience of group discussions, practice by doing, and teaching others to make sure that you have completely understood the topic before being tested on it.

Always check for understanding! Make sure your teacher gives you multiple choice questions and free response questions after teaching a topic! You learn by doing, not by watching or listening!