GENERAL
ADVICE ON PHYSICS 121
TIMING is one key to mastering Physics
121-122 efficiently: Doing each job earlier pays off much better than doing it
later.
Read
the text BEFORE the lecture, and
note any parts which you find hard to understand. Then look for clarification when the topic comes up in lecture.
And if you don't get the clarification you need, ask about your trouble points,
Do the
problems BEFORE you look at the
solutions. Do them carefully, on paper, striving always to get a final algebraic
expression for the desired result BEFORE you insert the numerical values for the parameters. Then you
can obtain your own unique set of parameters from WebAssign anmd insert them
to get your final results. At either the algebraic pre-numeric stage, or after
you have finished the problems, review the solutions BEFORE you submit your first solutions to WebAssign
for grading, to verify that your methods are all correct. Then submit your
solutions to WebAssign, expecting that all are correct and your work is done.
Arrange to do all this BEFORE your
discussion session, rather than after, so that if you still have troubles,
you know specifically where they lie sop
that you can focus on them and get them settled during the discussion. But
if your questions are not all clarified in the discussion session, consult
privately with a TA as soon as possible: confusions tolerated too long undermine
your grasp of subsequent new material, and burden your later efforts.
Understand
the lab and what you will have to do with it BEFORE you go there. Then
you can do your lab work efficiently so that you can obtain the data you need
and still have time to finish the lab report before you leave at the end of the
session.
Intuitive Understanding is a second key. Try
to see what the objects of physical interest are and how they are related.
Then many standard equations of physics become natural reflections of an underlying
reality of which you have a grasp, rather than mysterious incantations to
be applied blindly. If you are gifted
with a good memory, it will sometimes seem easier simply to memorize an important
relationship than to do the work needed to grasp it intuitively. You should
resist this temptation. Instead of memorizing the relation you should rearrange
it, invert it, apply it, toy with it, consider its behaviour in extreme cases,
and then reconsider it until it becomes so familiar that you can remember
it easily, without any need to ``memorize'' it. If instead you attempt to use brute memorization,
you may soon arrive at your memory overload point while still lacking the
fundamental understanding you'll need to go further. Then things get very tough very quickly. This
seems to be a special hazard for very bright students, who have done brilliantly
in High School Physics using total recall. To them Physics 121 may look like
a piece of familiar cake. But
as the material accumulates, pure memory becomes more burdened, while intuition
becomes more and more powerful.
Ask for Extra Help.
The discussion sections are designed to