DESPERATE PHYSICS HELP

[amarsuchak]

Hey there, IB survivors!

Well I am currently in DP2 physics SL and I know it's probably not the right time to start but is it already too late for me? I have been continuously scoring 2s in physics and I really need to improve my physics grade to at least a 4 because it's bringing down my entire IB grade. If I take my predictive grade now, the teacher is obviously going to give me a 2, but I desperately require a 4. Hence, I am going to be taking my predicted grade after my January mocks. Whenever I try to study physics, I end up spending a lot of time on something that I don't need to know which lowers my overall grade. I do enjoy learning physics and its methods, but I never manage to score well in the mocks, which affects my predicted grade.

What I need help and advice in is...

1. What exactly should I learn?

2. Where can I learn it from?

3. Do you think it is possible for me to score a 4 if I give it my best?

I request IB survivors to please give me some advice

(My predicted grades from other subjects are such:

HL - Economics 6, business and management 5, English 5

SL - French Ab Initio 6, mathematics 5, physics 2

TOK and EE - 2

Total: 31/45)

[r1111]

Hello,

I also have some classes in common with you. (Econ and French). I was also doing quite terrible in HL physics but now I think my grade is around a 5. Now Physics requires a lot of studying for some people. It requires a lot of practice. Utilize your textbook and ask your teacher for help. Go over your old tests and see what you did wrong (this alone helped me gain more extra points as I tried not to make the same mistakes). Making sense of the problem is a crucial step in Physics and this requires patience and hard work. I know you probably heard most of these things but are you really putting an effort in Physics.

Note:

Focused Studying > Multitasking, wasting time for hours in front of a computer

[ChocolateDrop]

You need to re-address your study and explore what kind of learner you are. Don't move on, or leave topics without understanding them. Do textbook and pastpaper questions on the topics to make sure you know them. The tsoko is an awesome book, you can find worked solutions online. Same for the purple standard book, find the worked solutions online. Go through the questions with the solutions after attempting them, if you still don't understand ask you teacher or an able student to explain it to you.

[amarsuchak]

Hello,

I also have some classes in common with you. (Econ and French). I was also doing quite terrible in HL physics but now I think my grade is around a 5. Now Physics requires a lot of studying for some people. It requires a lot of practice. Utilize your textbook and ask your teacher for help. Go over your old tests and see what you did wrong (this alone helped me gain more extra points as I tried not to make the same mistakes). Making sense of the problem is a crucial step in Physics and this requires patience and hard work. I know you probably heard most of these things but are you really putting an effort in Physics.

Note:

Focused Studying > Multitasking, wasting time for hours in front of a computer

Thank you so much for the help. I will most definitely work on this and look at my old papers to see what I did wrong. I suppose I do require more practice than I think I do and so I guess I'll start excessive practice from now.

Thank you so much for your reply!

[amarsuchak]

You need to re-address your study and explore what kind of learner you are. Don't move on, or leave topics without understanding them. Do textbook and pastpaper questions on the topics to make sure you know them. The tsoko is an awesome book, you can find worked solutions online. Same for the purple standard book, find the worked solutions online. Go through the questions with the solutions after attempting them, if you still don't understand ask you teacher or an able student to explain it to you.

Alright, I will most definitely look into it and try to find flaws in my learning. I guess from time to time I do think very little about the topic and consider myself to know the topic well but I suppose with more practice I will be able to score higher. Thank you so much for your reply!

[The Master]

I feel your pain bro. I'm not doing so hot in Physics either. If you search around the forum you'll find some great study guides for physics. I started using them yesterday to revise for a test on thermal physics. I've only just started picking up my grade, hopefully I'll make it to a 4.

[amarsuchak]

I feel your pain bro. I'm not doing so hot in Physics either. If you search around the forum you'll find some great study guides for physics. I started using them yesterday to revise for a test on thermal physics. I've only just started picking up my grade, hopefully I'll make it to a 4.

Hahahhahahah I know exactly how you feel. Yeah man, keep in touch and we'll do something to raise our grades.

[Guest [email protected]]

Wow, you are just like me. I ended up with a 2 in the first year, but now I have a solid 5 in physics. I think my pred grade is going to be 6 due to the lab reports. What I suggest for you to do: Get the physics study guide, List down all of the physics terms and memorize them and the third thing is try to remember the units. The units will give you a huge advantage in your exams. Units are crucial in order to get a good grade in physics.

Btw, use the syllabus. I don't, I just read the study guide, which is apparantly enough. Remember: 70% is a 7. I wish you luck

Edited December 17, 2013 by [email protected]

[DaniaKharraz]

You need to solve a lot of past papers to catch the concepts the examiners want you to learn. I also suggest hiring a private tutor because if u havent been studying steadily throughout the two years you do need his/her help.

[flinquinnster]

Firstly, this is so true for so much of my IB physics experience.

I feel your pain bro.

But then eventually things got a bit better (perhaps that is just the magic of hindsight), and physics was actually not too bad compared to my other exam papers. I'm not sure how useful this advice will be for you, but I think it did help me.

Firstly, I would suggest using at least 2 or 3 textbooks - I think Tsokos has been mentioned above, and there are a couple more, each of varying quality. They are good in terms of providing straight-out theory, but also giving guided examples and then exercises to apply the strategies of guided examples - this is useful practice. Between them all, you can piece together most of the syllabus - which is crucial, as anything on the syllabus can be tested - you cannot just ignore a dot-point. As mentioned above, learning to do a quick units analysis is useful for checking/eliminating multiple choice answers, and writing a list of physics definitions gets easy marks - you cannot underestimate the amount of straight-out memorisation and writing in physics, despite all other appearances! This may give you the marks you need to lift your grade to a 4 - they are reasonable to get.

Also, as our class had a particularly horrendous IA process, I would urge you to consider whether you could get extra marks from your IA. You haven't mentioned how your going, but a solid IA mark can help lift your score. So if you have been scoring lowly, try and extort as much feedback as possible from your teacher on IAs that have already been marked, and get help from other students who may be more familiar with your teacher's style of marking.

Finally, my best piece of advice would be to do practice IB past papers/questionbank. There's nothing quite like doing a whole pile of past IB style questions - many similar problem types appear again and again, though of course some novel situations will come up. Whilst you don't want to deplete your ability to grapple with new problems, it is still valuable to go through and do - without looking at solutions first - past questions to get a feel for the way IB questions are formulated and how hard they are for you. And even if you struggle to truly grapple with complex physics concepts, learning to recognise some basic question types can definitely save time and gain extra marks in the exam - something which I think I relied upon quite a lot...

Anyway, best of luck!

[amarsuchak]

Wow, you are just like me. I ended up with a 2 in the first year, but now I have a solid 5 in physics. I think my pred grade is going to be 6 due to the lab reports. What I suggest for you to do: Get the physics study guide, List down all of the physics terms and memorize them and the third thing is try to remember the units. The units will give you a huge advantage in your exams. Units are crucial in order to get a good grade in physics.

Btw, use the syllabus. I don't, I just read the study guide, which is apparantly enough. Remember: 70% is a 7. I wish you luck

Aaaahhh, it's great that you end up with almost a 6 now, it really is. Actually, it's rather inspiring aswell. I see what you did there, I'll most definitely give this a shot and read more on the syllabus and guide. Thanks a ton for your reply!

[amarsuchak]

You need to solve a lot of past papers to catch the concepts the examiners want you to learn. I also suggest hiring a private tutor because if u havent been studying steadily throughout the two years you do need his/her help.

I'll try solving a lot of past papers but I need to be able to understand the concept before I just blindly go on to it, no? So I've started reading a lot more, practicing more exercises in the book, and started reading from other sources aswell. But I suppose I'll start solving from the past papers as soon as I think I have the hang of the topic -- like Kinematics, I can do this topic with my eyes closed now

[amarsuchak]

Firstly, this is so true for so much of my IB physics experience.

I feel your pain bro.

But then eventually things got a bit better (perhaps that is just the magic of hindsight), and physics was actually not too bad compared to my other exam papers. I'm not sure how useful this advice will be for you, but I think it did help me.

Firstly, I would suggest using at least 2 or 3 textbooks - I think Tsokos has been mentioned above, and there are a couple more, each of varying quality. They are good in terms of providing straight-out theory, but also giving guided examples and then exercises to apply the strategies of guided examples - this is useful practice. Between them all, you can piece together most of the syllabus - which is crucial, as anything on the syllabus can be tested - you cannot just ignore a dot-point. As mentioned above, learning to do a quick units analysis is useful for checking/eliminating multiple choice answers, and writing a list of physics definitions gets easy marks - you cannot underestimate the amount of straight-out memorisation and writing in physics, despite all other appearances! This may give you the marks you need to lift your grade to a 4 - they are reasonable to get.

Also, as our class had a particularly horrendous IA process, I would urge you to consider whether you could get extra marks from your IA. You haven't mentioned how your going, but a solid IA mark can help lift your score. So if you have been scoring lowly, try and extort as much feedback as possible from your teacher on IAs that have already been marked, and get help from other students who may be more familiar with your teacher's style of marking.

Finally, my best piece of advice would be to do practice IB past papers/questionbank. There's nothing quite like doing a whole pile of past IB style questions - many similar problem types appear again and again, though of course some novel situations will come up. Whilst you don't want to deplete your ability to grapple with new problems, it is still valuable to go through and do - without looking at solutions first - past questions to get a feel for the way IB questions are formulated and how hard they are for you. And even if you struggle to truly grapple with complex physics concepts, learning to recognise some basic question types can definitely save time and gain extra marks in the exam - something which I think I relied upon quite a lot...

Anyway, best of luck!

The like button at the side of the page isn't enough to show the gratefulness I have for you. Thank you so bloody much, I've copied this and put it on a note on my desktop so I can look at it everyday and I'll make sure to implement this.

I do use Tsokos, IBID, Chris Hamper, and Giancoli. But I always end up getting stuck somewhere or the other which brings down my overall grade. I suppose I really need to focus and learn everything properly without any doubts.

As for my IAs, they are in progress... For the all criteria labs, I'm done with the design aspect, and I'm done with the other design only labs.

Yesyes, I will most definitely consider questionbanks now.

Thanks a ton for your reply!

[Rigel]

Physics is a hard course indeed, there is a nice deal of memorization and understanding of how the problems are done. But it is never too late to mend your grade. It can be done with some effort. For instance, I thought I was pretty nice at Physics in the IB, but when I got to college i realized that i wasn't that great at it, and it actually made me switch majors (for the better, i suppose). The thing is to both memorize the key concepts (why does this occur? what is this exception?) and understand how to do the problems.

The best option to actually get a nice grade is to use Tsokos, the IB Study Guide and then constantly view other internet forums (I'm sure there are tons of them which are dedicated to answer other people's problems). Forget about IBID (it's just plain bad and it will waste your time), because if I'm not mistaken, the Physics book edition has a lot of mistakes and problems that are too basic (the only IBID book worth getting is the Chemistry one). I have not checked out Chris Hamper's book, but it seems that it is very useful. Get the questionbank ASAP, because they usually repeat some problems that are there. Focus after each class writing down in your notes what you don't understand, and then go see the professor after class to discuss the topics. Prioritize the course and try to at least do 2 or 3 exam problems per day (from really old exams). Leave out 2012+ exams for 1 or 2 weeks before your real exam.

For the IAs focus on getting as much points as you can. It is to say, "free points" as you can easily grind them out for a high grade (check out the grade criteria on the numerous IB Physics webpages). The thing that might prove to be kind of difficult are the Design IAs, but with careful planning (and drawing out some investigations from other people) it can be overcome. It as well depends on your professor that grades the IAs; just follow the guidelines and you'll do alright.

[amarsuchak]

Physics is a hard course indeed, there is a nice deal of memorization and understanding of how the problems are done. But it is never too late to mend your grade. It can be done with some effort. For instance, I thought I was pretty nice at Physics in the IB, but when I got to college i realized that i wasn't that great at it, and it actually made me switch majors (for the better, i suppose). The thing is to both memorize the key concepts (why does this occur? what is this exception?) and understand how to do the problems.

The best option to actually get a nice grade is to use Tsokos, the IB Study Guide and then constantly view other internet forums (I'm sure there are tons of them which are dedicated to answer other people's problems). Forget about IBID (it's just plain bad and it will waste your time), because if I'm not mistaken, the Physics book edition has a lot of mistakes and problems that are too basic (the only IBID book worth getting is the Chemistry one). I have not checked out Chris Hamper's book, but it seems that it is very useful. Get the questionbank ASAP, because they usually repeat some problems that are there. Focus after each class writing down in your notes what you don't understand, and then go see the professor after class to discuss the topics. Prioritize the course and try to at least do 2 or 3 exam problems per day (from really old exams). Leave out 2012+ exams for 1 or 2 weeks before your real exam.

For the IAs focus on getting as much points as you can. It is to say, "free points" as you can easily grind them out for a high grade (check out the grade criteria on the numerous IB Physics webpages). The thing that might prove to be kind of difficult are the Design IAs, but with careful planning (and drawing out some investigations from other people) it can be overcome. It as well depends on your professor that grades the IAs; just follow the guidelines and you'll do alright.

Heyya, thanks a ton for your advice! I'm going to start memorizing some important things from now. Aaaahh, I see... I'll most definitely also look at the key questions (why does this occur and what is its exception)

Alright, I'll most definitely use more of Tsokos and I'll forget about IBID. I was actually told only to read it because it has some parts which aren't a part of Tsokos. Chris Hamper doesn't cover everything in detail but it does cover some useful things.

IA's ftw!

[The Master]

Firstly, this is so true for so much of my IB physics experience.

I feel your pain bro.

But then eventually things got a bit better (perhaps that is just the magic of hindsight), and physics was actually not too bad compared to my other exam papers. I'm not sure how useful this advice will be for you, but I think it did help me.

Firstly, I would suggest using at least 2 or 3 textbooks - I think Tsokos has been mentioned above, and there are a couple more, each of varying quality. They are good in terms of providing straight-out theory, but also giving guided examples and then exercises to apply the strategies of guided examples - this is useful practice. Between them all, you can piece together most of the syllabus - which is crucial, as anything on the syllabus can be tested - you cannot just ignore a dot-point. As mentioned above, learning to do a quick units analysis is useful for checking/eliminating multiple choice answers, and writing a list of physics definitions gets easy marks - you cannot underestimate the amount of straight-out memorisation and writing in physics, despite all other appearances! This may give you the marks you need to lift your grade to a 4 - they are reasonable to get.

Also, as our class had a particularly horrendous IA process, I would urge you to consider whether you could get extra marks from your IA. You haven't mentioned how your going, but a solid IA mark can help lift your score. So if you have been scoring lowly, try and extort as much feedback as possible from your teacher on IAs that have already been marked, and get help from other students who may be more familiar with your teacher's style of marking.

Finally, my best piece of advice would be to do practice IB past papers/questionbank. There's nothing quite like doing a whole pile of past IB style questions - many similar problem types appear again and again, though of course some novel situations will come up. Whilst you don't want to deplete your ability to grapple with new problems, it is still valuable to go through and do - without looking at solutions first - past questions to get a feel for the way IB questions are formulated and how hard they are for you. And even if you struggle to truly grapple with complex physics concepts, learning to recognise some basic question types can definitely save time and gain extra marks in the exam - something which I think I relied upon quite a lot...

Anyway, best of luck!

Thanks for the advice man. I personally think Tsokos book is crap. I'm using it right now and its godawful. His writing makes him sound like he should be giving lectures at Oxford or something, not teaching high school students.