How to Earn an A in Physics

For the past few terms, all students earning an A in PHYS 2211 were invited to pass on any advice they might have for students in subsequent semesters. Here are the responses from last Summer, in the order they were received. We hope that you will benefit from their suggestions. The only editing of these remarks has been for spelling, and to remove material that was not advice to students (advice to instructors, for example). At the bottom of the page, you will find links to similar advice from earlier semesters.
 
Bonus Homework is now called Practice Homework, to emphasize that its importance is in the practice, not in the bonus. PRS refers to an old in-class polling system, like the current TurningPoint system.

I would like to attribute my success to being attentive in class, reading the book before every class, and studying a lot! I also tried my best to understand prs questions that I got wrong, and if I didn't understand I would ask my TA during recitation. I also never missed a class or recitation, which helped me to solidify my skills.
-TH#1

My advice would be to try and take the time to read the textbook. This really helps and lets you know what to expect to be learning in the next lecture.
-TW

Some advice I would give to next semester's class would be to never miss a homework assignment or bonus problem and never ever ever miss a day of lecture. The PRS helps a million and missing those important PRS questions is a definite detriment to your learning and grade.
-AN

I think the biggest thing that helped me get an A was my high quiz average. Basically I just sat down before each quiz and took all the old practices quizes and checked my answers to make sure I knew how to do them, so that when the actual quizzes came around, I pretty much knew how to do everything.

Another big thing was taking a minute or two at the beginning of every problem to think out exactly how I should solve the problem and draw out free body diagrams/write out equations so that I could be sure I was setting things up correctly. This ended up saving me a lot of time on the tests, because I didn't have to go back and redo things to make up for a poor/sloppy setup.

Also, though the bonus problems for mastering physics were hard, and only added a small amount onto my overall grade, they were good preperation for the quizzes, because they were the often the same sorts of questions and levels of difficulty as quiz questions.

I would also suggest to future students to try and learn the concepts and the relationships between the concepts, rather than memorizing formulas, because I found it easier to just learn concepts and then derive formulas, or reason out how to solve a problem, then just plugging numbers in. Hope this helps.
-CC

I found that taking notes on the reading assignments before the lectures was helpful. I also worked through as many practice test problems that I could finish before I took the test. Most importantly I think was to start reviewing for the test about 5 days in advance by completing pages in the extra workbook and thoroughly reviewing the recitation problems.
-KP

1. Do all of the homework, bonus and regular every day. Yes I know it is tedious and annoying at the high frequency of assignments, but it really is the only way you can keep up with a class that moves as fast as this. The bonus problems are always more difficult and do not have hints. If you can solve these you are that much more ahead of others in the class.
    
2. Go to class. Always. This is not just to keep up a good PRS score, which could be incentive enough, but by going to class you will learn the material, or at least be exposed to it and have notes to reference on the particularly difficult homework problems.
    
3. Read the textbook. This will help both your PRS scores in class, but also with the particularly difficult problems in the homework and bonus you will often find sufficiently similar example problems which will help you set up how to solve for a more difficult or different problem.
    
4. Study for tests. I always did the Mastering Physics homework, but most importantly go over the practice tests. Once you try to solve them once look up the answers. Then solve the ones you got wrong again until you have a complete mastery of the content.
    
5. Go to lab and recitation. The problems in recitation are generally fairly difficult and good to build you knowledge and problem solving skills. Also, if you cannot figure out the problems on your own you can ask either your peers or the TA.
    
6. Finally, follow the advice. Yes you could probably get by if you begin to slack on some of the advice above, but if you want to get an A, there really are not any shortcuts around it. It takes a lot of work and dedication to be able to stay ahead of the fast pace and high difficultly of the class.

-PDR

My advice would be to study for the tests by working a few practice tests on the class webpage. Also, just do the bonus homework. It really helps with the tests and you will get 2 points added to your final grade.
-TM

The only advice I can think of is to make sure you can do the homework yourself, because the knowledge that the homeworks give you is much more important than the points.
-PS

My advice to future PHYS 2211 students is that they work all practice quizzes online before each of the 5 quizzes. I usually began 2-3 days in and worked 1-2 a day. I also would save the whole bonus assignment until the day before it was due or just before the test. The bonus assignment covers all material from the chapter and I considered it better for review to work the whole thing as late as possible than to work the problems I know how to do as we progress through the chapter. That's what the normal homework is for. Another benefit of working the old quizzes and bonus assignments was that I found that quiz problems were often very similar to a question from an old quiz, a bonus assignment question, or from the problems in the book.

Also I'd like to emphasize the importance of going to class. There was decent amount of material or methods that were only presented in class that the book or online homework didn't cover or emphasize enough. In addition since you're a teacher you know how we think "often incorrectly" about physics problems and are able to explain how to think about a physics situation in class. This was very helpful for me.
-TH#2

To any student who wants an A, I have some honest advice. Read the material before going to lecture, it really helps with retaining the information. Try to do the homework early, and do all of the bonus assignments, because it is the most efficient way to study. Above all, try to understand the concepts, not the formulas, because that is what the class is all about. If you come across a formula for the first time, try writing it out in words, before memorizing the symbols, because it will help you use them correctly. Remember, there are practice tests (with solutions), so use them a lot. There is no substitute for practice in this class.
-JB

Make sure that you do not get behind in class. All Physics courses build off of the previous material, so if you do not understand a subject, do not simply move on to the next one. You need to take things step by step, and by the end of the course you will be able to combine all of the concepts as needed. Also, instead of only seeking help from professors and teaching assistants, you should ask other classmates that are succeeding or have succeeded in the class. They will most likely be able to explain the material in a way you will be able to understand.
-SB

I would advise future students:

• to always keep track of units during calculations. This helps a lot in double checking your answer and your method, ie, making sure your answer is a speed by checking to see if the units are m/s.
   
• to write down what they learn from PRS questions. Each PRS question is usually meant to prove a different point or teach some new way to understand and approach a problem.
   
• to do the example problems in the book. They are very good at illustrating different concepts and clearing up misconceptions. The homework problems on Mastering Physics are good for practice, but the example problems are better for understanding.
   
• to do the practice quizzes before each quiz.

-GR

More advice is available, from students who earned an A in PHYS 2211 A during Summer 2009.