Physics 2212 G Fall 2019

How to Earn an A

In order to succeed in [my instructor's] class, I made sure to do two things: first and foremost, I came to class every day that we had class, payed attention, and took notes. The other thing that helped me the most was reading before each class started and writing down any prs questions that I did not know in my notes to help me study. Also, every time that I did my homework and recitation problems, I did them to learn the material, not just to get a good grade on the assignments. These are the things that helped me most. Other than these, it was just a matter of studying and knowing things that were taught in class.
-TH

My advice to future students to get an A in the course is to attend class in order to get a fuller understanding of the material, pay close attention during the recitations since those questions are similar to the quiz questions. You should always read the material before hand when going to class and lastly, but certainly not least, you should always go over the practice quiz questions to give yourself an idea of what can be asked.
-AB

Go to class. I am not a natural at Physics by any means but going to class and doing the homework is what got me through this class. And do the old exams before the test to study. Getting used to the types of questions asked is the only way to succeed on the exams.
-KH

My advice is to work on the practice tests at least a week in advance. That way you have time to ask questions and get them answered well before the test so you can be confident the day of the exam.

Also, the practice questions on Mastering Physics are definitely worth the time. If you can't solve those problems the first go around, don't fret -- review the chapters, ask friends for help, and one you're done you'll have the topics down.
-AD

Don't underestimate the book. Its a great resource that can help you pick up on the things missed in lecture. It can also help you get a basic understanding of things on the mastering physics homework. The homework definitely helped me out a lot. It was great practice in between tests, which made studying for the actual tests a lot easier. As long as you seriously work through every problem by yourself (hints are helpful), you can take in and hold on to a lot off material. Lastly, the practice tests were a great resource too. I would recommend going over ALL of them for the particular section you are studying for (without looking at the answers first). If you read the book and seriously worked on the mastering physics, these tests should come relatively easily. Since there are five practice tests for each section, that's plenty of practice to form a deep understanding of the material.

In short, use the book + lecture for a basic understanding, refine that understanding by seriously working the mastering physics, and when test time comes around, use the practice tests to bring it all together and put on the finishing touches. This formula worked for me, and I ended up with 90+s on all my tests (one of those being a 100).
-JS

I did a few things this year that I found were very helpful in earning an A in the class. I read all the readings, and this helped explain concepts before having them explained a second time in class and a third time in the homework. My Physics study buddy did not read, and he struggled a lot more than I did to earn his A.

I studied with a friend before each quiz, and we usually understood different material, so by the end of our studying we'd understand all of it. We also did the practice quizzes, which often had similar questions to the quizzes, and made sure we could explain the solutions to each other.

The homework helped to solidify the concepts. While my friend was one of the few who did not attend many classes and still earned an "A," he spent more time on the homework, and this is where he learned the material that was in the class he skipped.

I know you're probably going to hear the same thing from many other students, but the truth is, a lot of the same things work for a lot of different people.
-NF

Well, one of the biggest advice I have is going to class and see the professor. A lot of time I am confused in certain matters that the book did not clarify enough and going to class as well as asking professor and TA's was a tremendous boost in understanding. Once I understand the concepts, physics wasn't that bad anymore.

Also, make sure that you do the homework each night and completely understand it. Understanding a material is way better than getting it done just for the sake of getting it done.
-KN

My advice to future students would be …

Be intentional about doing the homework. Make sure you understand it.
Go to class and pay attention to PRS.
Study all the available practice tests before each test. They are extremely effective — at least for me.

-JF

Do the homework ahead of time and take your time - Physics isn't always a very forgiving class and pulling off a very high homework average can be a huge asset. Print off the old tests that are posted online before every test. It's better to have a physical copy of the old tests because they are very much like the tests you will have to take. Other than that, do the reading and study in groups. Also, talk to [your instructor]! He's incredibly helpful, and he almost always has the time and patience to help anyone with anything. One last word of advice — if you aren't doing so well in the class when drop day comes around, don't be afraid to drop it. Physics isn't a class you want to do poorly in! Good luck to all you new students!!
-AC

I studied the same way for every test: read the chapters, take notes of my own, do all the practice tests. In my opinion, the reading/notes on the reading were the most important parts. For the final, I simply looked over all the notes I had taken previously, read the new material while taking notes, and redo all the quizzes we had had over the semester. I feel that class participation, lab, recitation, and homework are only marginally important to success in the class, seeing as I received an "A" and put forth minimal effort in all of these areas.
-MS

A note from Dr. Murray: MS may have felt that minimal effort was put into class participation, lab, recitation, and homework, but I would like to mention that

the points earned from class participation, lab, recitaion, and homework can make a letter-grade or more difference, even if nothing is learned.

students may learn more than they realize, particularly when class participation, recitation, and homework are taken seriously, which can raise quiz grades, and which is why we offer the incentive of points that can make a difference.

The most important thing is to have confidence in yourself. Believe you can get an A. It's not an easy class, and Georgia Tech is not an easy school, but if you have the confidence to get an A and you work hard, then you can do it. Attend class, go to your labs and recitations, and do your homework. The biggest part of the grade comes from quizzes and the final exam, so do those practice quizzes on the website. Recitation problems also follow the same format as quiz problems, so if you can handle recitation then there is no reason you can't do well on the quiz. For the practice quizzes, take your time and do them a few days before your test. There's no harm in having the solution open to see if you are doing it right. Lastly, don't ever cram. Most times it doesn't work, and if you stay up all night before a test then you are going to be crazy tired by the time you actually take your test. Do your studying in the days before a test, stay relaxed the day before and the day of your test as best you can (play video games or watch a movie or something) so it can sink in, and finally take your test as calmly as you can. If you get done early, hang back and check over your work and make sure everything sounds right and there aren't any silly errors. One thing to also keep in mind is that the integrals you will have to do are generally limited to very basic trig, rational, or exponential functions. If you get an ugly integral, you did something wrong, because the questions are designed to cancel out most of the complicated stuff and leave you with a single variable and a ton of constants.

Remember to have confidence in yourself, that's the single biggest thing about this class. There is a reason you're at Georgia Tech, and that's because you can handle it so long as you work hard and believe in yourself, as corny as that sounds.
-RD

Do the stinking practice quizzes. All of them. Very similar questions come up on the real quizzes, almost without fail.
Do the recitation problems. Similar problems and concepts may well show up on the real quizzes or final.
Do the work book. It doesn't take long at all, and it's a great way to get just a little more practice before getting your teeth kicked in on a quiz. It's also a great refresher if you haven't looked at the material in a day or two.

If your lab / recitation partners are sufficiently cool (that is, if you have good lab partners), then recitation is a great time to learn from your fellow students. Different people are good at different things, and you can learn some great tricks by seeing what a clever contemporary is doing.
-MB

First of all, attend lecture. You'll learn more in lecture than any other place. Going to recitation and lab is also very important to understanding the material. I would also recomend doing the extra homework with the masteringphysics. Understanding the masteringphysics assignments is also very important. A lot of times students will just google the answers and not actually learn the material covered by the assignment. As far as the Quizzes go, I recommend going through and working out the practice exams. It is unusual for material to be on the quizzes that isn't on the practice quizzes. Good luck!
-JG

One of the best things you can do to improve you chances of getting an "A" would be attend most of the lectures. For me, this cleared up the concepts presented in the reading and kept me on track with all the material. Additionally, from a mathematical point of view, participation is 5% of your total grade. Missing a majority of lectures would result in 3-5 points off your grade, meaning you would have to do exceptionally well in the other aspects of the course.

My other main suggestion would be to do all the previous quizzes and look over the solutions. This will definitely enhance your understanding of the course material. Additionally, free response questions tend to carry over from quiz to quiz, so you can get easy points.
-MK

Every student has his/her own style of studying. One might like listening to the lectures, or one might prefer studying using the book. There are a lot of different ways you can study for this subject. Find your way of studying and try your best. Whichever way fits you, without the adequate amount of your effort supporting it, it won't magically lead you to success. This IS a hard subject. Before complaining of the difficulty of the subject, try to find how you can improve your studying by utilizing every resource possible.
-SK

Hello future physics 2212 student.
This course is very diffucult. I'm not trying to say that to discourage you, but I'm just letting you know what to expect. It will require much effort on your part. Remember, [your instructor] is not responsible for your education, YOU are. If you don't understand something, [Your instructor] is very willing to set up an appointment with you and help you. Another suggestion is to read the material BEFORE you come to class. So many people don't do it, but trust me, it makes a huge difference.

I cannot emphasize enough the fact that you must do extra homework. What is assigned is probably not enough to fully understand the material. There are many problems at the end of each chapter; pick maybe 10 of them, and make sure you understand how to do them. Don't just know what to do, but HOW to do it and WHY you do it that way.

Practice tests are another great studying resource. Before you take a test, go through all of the practice tests posted on the course website, and make sure you understand every part; this is the most effective way to earn an A on a test, as many questions on the test you take will be very similar to the practice tests. I wish you luck in Physics 2212.
-ML

The main piece of advice I would give to future students would be to take the homework seriously.

Make sure you do the homework in it's entirety because it is probably the best way to reinforce and even learn the material that was taught in lecture. We all know the answers to nearly all the homework questions are available online if you know where to look. Take some advice from someone who didn't use those answers and earned an A in the class; the homework assignments are probably the most valuable learning tool provided to you, don't squander this tool by cheating just to finish a little early or get a hundred. I hope this helps you to succeed in this class like I did.
-GJ

The only advice I have is that students should really attend lectures regularly and actually complete the mastering physics assignments on their own. Without doing so it is easy to fall behind and harder to catch up. Sort of just reiterating what [my instructor's] been saying, but its true.
-WO

Mastering Physics homework is very important to learning concepts, especially the Saturday homework. If there's one you cannot solve, after you request the answer try to work backwards and see where you were making the mistake. Often it is a conceptual misunderstanding.

Class attendance is very important. The PRS questions should help you guide your study. If there's something that you didn't understand, go back and reread that part of the book.

Work on the old quizzes. Even if you don't have time to work through all the problems, I found doing the multiple choice helpful to verify that I understood the concepts.
-JH

When taking this course, my best advice is to avoid memorization and always strive to understand the underlying concepts. This seems to be the best thing to do in physics courses. Formulas can be helpful, but understanding where the formulas came from and understanding the physical interpretations are the most crucial aspects to focus on. To succeed in the course, excel on the quizzes. Practice quizzes are extremely helpful. But don't expect the quizzes to be exact replicas of these past quizzes. Use the quizzes to understand how to approach the problems and to get an idea of the big concepts that will be covered. Also, the recitations are challenging but very helpful, the homework assignments are important and provide a nice boost to your grade, and the book can actually be very nice at times. Don't forget to use it.
-MC

One thing that I tried to do was the week's worth of Mastering Physics Sunday nights. This helped me stay on top of the textbook readings and class lecture material and I could work on practicing example problems and past exam questions before just the week of the exam to understand the free response questions, and of course also the theory based Multiple Choice questions.

Attending class, not missing labs or recitation, doing the MP and being very familiar with past exams were the major factors in my grade this semester.
-LW

I don't know how helpful I could really by to future students. I did attend class daily and did all the homework, which did help with confusing topics, but I already had a very firm background in E&M from having a really great high school teacher. Mostly, the information was a review for me, with calculus added in (I did algebra-based physics in high school). But I found that reviewing the old tests, especially the previous multiple choice questions, was very helpful, as similar questions were presented on our tests. I'm sorry I can't be much more helpful than that!
-AJ