mock exam in 3 days

[howerabin]

I feel like crying right now. I'm doing so poorly (89% converted) and now the mock exam is gonna drive me down to like a 78. How does everyone study for physics? Like, I get the concepts from the reading, but when I try answering questions from the Tsokos book, I'm lost. Does everyone else feel that way? How do you best study for physics?

I know of one guy who studied for his HL chem exam in one day because he spent all his time studying for HL math, so I hope I'm not totally screwed.

[flinquinnster]

If I were getting 89% on physics exams, I would scream for joy. However, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'converted', so perhaps it isn't as good as it sounds to me! I'm getting more or less around 78 for physics, and to be honest, I'm pretty proud of that considering how hard I find physics

I get what you mean by feeling lost. Reading concepts is one thing, actually being able to do an exam is another thing entirely. I find reading is critical, and what I do is I read my textbook (I don't use Tsokos, but the one we do use is pretty rubbish) and other notes, and try and rewrite them in a way that is concise and that I understand. After that, my main focus is on practice. IB style past paper questions from the questionbank or past papers, basically. Read markschemes, and repeat.

At least that is going to be my future strategy. I didn't do that for my last exams. I was too busy studying for History and Geography

[The Rainbow Connection]

Ahh.. physics. Firstly, take a look at this: http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/21040-ib-physics-7-ways-to-get-a-7/

Personally I recommend that you just do a whole heap of practice questions and when you get stuck, look at the markscheme and understand what you did wrong. This will improve your problem solving skills and applying the concepts to your question.

Don't give up!

[berkay560]

I suggest printing out past year exams (not older than 2007 ideally) and solving them. Questions in Tsokos are not really that useful when it comes to practising TOWARDS the exams. I open up Tsokos to learn about the context then go through Physics HL questionbank and solve the questions according to the topic I am studying at that moment.

edit: just realized your exam is already over, but I'll let it stay here in case anyone else needs an advice

Edited January 26, 2013 by berkay560

[Nabz]

You gotta know your options so that you can ace paper 3...and paper 1 isn't that hard if you have overall knowledge of all the topics you've covered. Paper 1, you can **** in but you will still end up getting a 6 or a 7...anyways it's only mocks, it's only there to help you feel how it would be like in the finals. Don't stress out on the mocks lol or else you would die by only thinking about the finals...chill out. It's not the end of the world, you're better than that

Edited January 26, 2013 by shad0wboss

[MitchCampbell]

Plus, the mocks are to give you a chance to see how well you WOULD have done if it was your exam right now. Although it may seem quite stressful to do the mock exams, it will be good for you (I hope!).

What happens to most students is that they do the mocks, sometimes do quite poorly, and then they have time to do something about it before May. Once they get over the shock of what the exams are like, it's good because now they know what needs to be done before May. It's sometimes the kick in the ass that students need. I know when I did the IB many years ago myself, it was exactly the situation for me. Mocks killed me, but after studying lots and doing lots of past exam questions, I was prepared for the real thing.

Good luck with your preparations!

-Mitch