<$BlogRSDURL$>

The Considerably Interesting Curricular Compendium

The home of Blerns & Sob

Visit Brins' friend

Thursday, February 02, 2006
  Brins' Guide to Higher Physics (Essay: School)

It's been a while since I made my guide to Higher English, which I think still needs to be completed, so now it's time to make another guide. As with the last one, this guide is really only useful to Scottish pupils of high schools, sitting SQA 'Higher' examinations. (They're like English A-Levels, only inferior: a topic for another day!)

I mentioned in my English guide about how I feel that the essay section of that subject's exam is quite unfair, particularly in that, depending on your English teacher, it can be hard to get the appropriate information and advice from the class in order to improve your essays, and you can really be left unaware of how you should be writing them. It's a bit like Drama, in the sense that you can easily be put at the teacher's mercy when it comes to development.

Well, not with Physics. Every school should, I think, issue the same syllabus, with the same books, the same universal Physics formulae, and so on. Hurrah! An easier guide! The following isn't a complicated year study layout, or 'revision plan', or indeed anything else. It's just me trying to help (former) fellow school-pupils in their studies.

The Guide

I got through Physics by trying to grasp formulae well as I encountered them; I'm pretty sure that the worst you can do is to ignore all those D = VT s,
P = mv s,
m1 = m0/(1-vsquared/csquared)) to the power of a halfs [don't worry - that's Advanced Higher. Yeesh!] I'm tempted to suggest that you try to memorise all of them, which I did, but I'm confident that it works the same if you can just read them over a couple of times a week, and try to get a good bearing of each of them. The reason why is that, when it comes to revising for exams, you should be surprised to find that it doesn't take long for these same formulae, even though you've forgotten them over time, to sink right back in again. From what I've heard, learning formulae is considered the hardest part of Physics. This always confused me, because with my system, they were no trouble at all! So, my advice is to get them in your head as you encounter them, and by all means backtrack over old ones occasionally; learn to use them in practical problems too, of course. ( Invest in a 'Leckie & Leckie Past Papers' book - those are brilliant experience, if you ask me. Plus the problems in them give you the very 'practical problems' I just suggested you do!)

According to some statistic which I heard once, knowing and being able to apply your formulae accounts for about 50% of the exam marks. Yes! If that isn't true, I don't think it's far off it.

The second half of the exam...? I think that this is where it gets more technical; the other side of the subject is the theory of physics. By that, I mean it's the side that involves not just memorising a bunch of letters and their relationships to one-another; it's the theory of why they are the case, and an understanding of Physics principles outwith calculations. These come in several forms, as I remember, and the best thing to do - with all of them - is read your official subject material, and get a handle on these things. (A note you might find useful: I never used anything in my jotter(s) to revise. The official books/booklets all the way! I never understood the point of revising from your work-book.)

So, the other kinds of exam questions:

1) Graphs. You'll be working with graphs quite a bit, throughout the course, really. Don't be shocked to know that you may have to draw one, or at least work with one. Consult the past papers, since they'll show you the kind of thing you'll be dealing with. This shouldn't be troublesome, so don't worry.

2) Theory of formulas. For example, you have a physics formula. Now, explain what the formula means, why it exists, give an example of its practical application. Etc. Read up around the formulas which you learn, so that you see what they mean, and why they mean them. Again, those past papers should help.

3) General Physics theory. You learn a lot in Physics, much of which doesn't involve formulas. That's the rest of the examinable things! Can you explain momentum? Archimedes' Principle? Those are just thoughts from me, they might not be explainable. Still, I think the past papers are the best source for help as regards showing you what you need to learn.

I think that covers it, really. If there's one investment I think you should make, it's the past papers: buying and reading them fairly early, you'll get a taste for the kind of things you should know, and will have a structure for knowing what to learn and how to revise it.

However, past papers aren't the final answer. I got slightly complacent once I was able to breeze through five years' worth of previous exam papers (well, maybe not that many). I was quite frightened to find that a few questions in our final exam deviated considerably from the kind of question-patterns which permeated those old tests. The best example I can think of to point this out must be the first one (not the multiple choice section): when it usually always asks about acceleration/velocity questions, in my exam I found a picture of a ship, alongside a chart, with the task being to use vectors for working out the answers. Vectors are a part of the course which come so early, and are seemingly never invoked for exam purposes, I had never thought to revise them much. It was still fairly simple, and I did understand it for the exam, but this kind of occurence serves to prove that you shouldn't assume that they can't ask you about things you've never seen in a past paper! Be careful!

I think that covers this guide of mine. I don't act as any authority on the Physics course; I'm just a former pupil, and I would stress that you work through the subject in whatever way comes naturally to you. The way I go through, in this guide, is simply the way that came naturally to me. If it makes sense to you, why not try it? If you don't like it, you might want to stick to whatever you feel is best. Either way, this guide is here as a helping hand for any who might come across it, since I place faith in my personal system. It got me through with little worry, after all.

So, at the end of the day, you might agree with all of this; or you might agree with none of it. Either way, there is one thing that I will maintain: come thick or thin, I never saw any need to revise using your personal work-book - there shouldn't be anything in there that isn't covered in the school-books!

Of course, if you find/found a use for it, please let me know. It might well be helpful to young, Scottish readers.
 

|

Brins would appreciate it if you didn't swear in your comments




<< Home

About

Brins' Profile

E-mail Brins

--------------------------------------

BROWSE CURRICULUM

April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
September 2006
March 2007


--------------------------------------

For School Pupils:

Working with UCAS - S6 University applicants

The truth of S6 - S6

Shock therapy - S5 and below

Revision Planning - S3 and up

--------------------------------------

LINKS

Rob on the net - Recommended by Brins

Talk to Rob - Chat with Robonthenet's Rob!

Walton Dell - Abandoned cottage in the woods

Omnicron RPG - free, downloadable game

--------------------------------------

Philosphers
(why is this bit still here?)

Plato

Descartes

Locke

Berkeley

--------------------------------------

Challenges:

Dr. Wily's Revenge

Brins' Identity

Pirate Phrase Bonanza

Hall Of Fame

*tumbleweed rolls by*

--------------------------------------

Site Feed

Comment system supplied by Haloscan

Site Meter

(Thanks also go to Air for the site meter, commenting system and customised archive)