Please help me pass HL physics

[ryansparx]

I'm in a bit of a predicament. My high school just got IB so the structure is odd and our choices as students are a bit limited. All students are required to take HL English and HL history of the Americas leaving one additional HL of our choosing. The choices for that were: HL math, HL biology, and HL physics. I had already taken biology freshman year, so in the interest of avoiding three years total of biology I discarded that class from my selection. I threw out math as well because I didn't think I could handle the exam. So here I am, in HL physics with no prior physics experience (save the iota of mechanics taught in physical science).

In my physics class, the school has mixed HL, SL, and (oddly) AP students in what they label Advanced Physics. I'm worried that I'm going to fail the IB exam. I have a B in the class but I fail most of the tests (there's a Significant curve). I feel very confident about my IA's (I'm finishing up my second), but that only comprises %24 of my grade (supposedly). If I keep learning so little, the additional %76 will screw me.

I really need some direction for how to approach this class. There's all sort of information in books and on the web, but it's very scattered and I often can't make sense of it. I intend to do some studying on my own time to prepare for the exam next year and I was wondering if any of you knew how to prepare well for the exam and could give me any pointers on how to prepare myself (book suggestions, web links, etc). I really need to get this in my head. We just finished up the fields topic (topic 6 I believe) and I failed the test pretty badly. I could really use some help.

Forgive the length if this post. I'm stressed and a bit delirious. Thanks a lot!

(Note: I'm not planning on majoring in anything science or math related- so a 3-5 on the exam would suffice)

[Megamind]

Hey Ryan,

HL physics can and often be daunting if you do not know where to read up on it, which often occurs in new IB schools. My school too is new to IB, but I can guide you how to go about HL physics to get a good grade, (6 ish )

Firstly, your IA's are your Psows ( or lab reports, whatever you call it ). They make up for 24% of your final IB grade, so make sure you know how to go about each criterion that the PSOW is assessed on ( Design/ DCP/ Conc. and evaluation. ). These are easy to score marks on, but are time-consuming. Make sure you go through the assessment criteria and write accordingly. This link - http://www.ncbis.net/Editor/EditorImages/Physics.pdf - has been published by the IBO specifically for physics, all criteria are defined properly.

Secondly, 76% is assessed from 3 papers -

Paper 1 - Objective questions from all the chapters

Paper 2 - Subject questions

Paper 3 - Questions from options.

So, to ace them you need to do a couple of things. Firstly, download the IB questionbank Physics and practice from it. The link is http://kickass.to/ib-questionbank-biology-chemistry-physics-mathematics-economics-business-and-management-subjects-t4801635.html . Just use utorrent and get it downloaded. Most teachers give questions from here, and it makes for good practice + answers are given, so it's a package deal ( The question bank is for WINDOWS users only, i dont know about mac )

Also, go through the May 2013 and May 2012 IB Physics HL papers ( Not included in the Q.Bank because they're so recent). After due hunting, I found this amazing website - http://international-educational-resources.blogspot.in/ . It has resources on the latest IB question papers, so do go through them. Markschemes are attached as well.

Now, to get a solid understanding of the core content of physics HL, Order one of these books yourself :- Cambridge HL physics by KA Tsokos ( The sums are extremely good and concepts are well explained ). You may also order Pearson Baccalaureate HL physics, the concepts are very well explained, better than in Cambridge HL physics. If you concentrate well for sometime and read through them and practice sums of considerable difficulty, I'm pretty sure you can ace those tests . Also, this link is very good for explaining concepts - http://ibphysicsstuff.wikidot.com/ .

Also, do go to www.khanacademy.com and look up the physics portion. You can look up videos on concepts that you're having a hard time grasping, it's explained really well.

Just go through the books, grasp the concepts and practice the sums from the question bank, past papers and in-text questions. Hope this helps. PM me if you need further help

PS - If you can't buy the books/ they arent available, try your library or download an e book. It's the exact same content, just electronic .

[flinquinnster]

Physics can be such a daunting subject even at SL, so I understand why you might be feeling a bit delirious when attempting it at HL. I don't think I have that much more advice to add to Megamind's post, but I have a few random tips that might be useful:

• In terms of IA, figure out as quickly and comprehensively as possible what your teacher is expecting for each criterion. Know what they want, deliver it, and then hopefully you can get some solid marks in IA - if you're scared about the exam, getting as close as possible to 24/24% for IA will help alleviate stress.
• Understand everything in the syllabus in detail - and memorise all those pesky definitions that they include in syllabus points.
• Practice doing your exam papers in exam conditions as you approach the final exams - especially helpful when attempting to choose the question you want to do in Section B of Paper 2 (the long-response).

Also, this link may provide more really useful tips on doing well in physics. Good luck!

[khimberleigh]

In addition to what Megamind and Flinquinnster have said, download the IB physics subject guide (you should be able to find it with a quick google). It has these assessment statements for each topic which tell you exactly what you need to know and also what IB can actually test you on. A good way to revise and learn the course is to write down these assessment statements and answer them for each topic. They say things like 'State Newton's First Law of motion,' 'Define Gravitational Potential,' 'Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of fossil fuels.' So the answers usually require between 1 line to 1 paragraph which isn't too daunting and it's a great way to make chapter summaries.

[r1111]

It is not to your advantage that your school is mixing AP, SL and Hl students in the same class but to make sure you learn the right stuff you need to use a good IB Physics textbook (I recommend the one by Chris Hamper) and probably also the IB Study Guide on Physics. Also another resource is Youtube as there are plenty of IB physics videos on Youtube. There are actual physics questions from past IB papers in the Hamper textbook and the study guide. You need to PRACTICE. Good Luck

[maroctam]

I don't have that much more advice, but I would just like to kindly disagree with r1111 and say that you might be better off with the Tsokos book, even though it's quite old, it has hard calculation questions that I think are really useful to understand conceptually what you are doing. Then in addition to the Tsokos book you can use past papers for more "wordy" questions that aren't as common in the textbook.

I have used the Chris Hamper book and although it does have actual IB questions, it only has around 5 at the end of each chapter, while all the other questions throughout the chapter are really simple and are nothing like what would show up on the exam. Furthermore, I feel the Hamper book is unnecessarily verbose yet it still manages to skip through some important concepts and definitions found in the syllabus.

This is just my opinion though, so people can obviously disagree with me.