The Physics Help Room is B2 North Kedzie. It is used by several different physics courses. It will be staffed by instructors for Physics 183 all day Monday and Tuesday. In addition, there will be office hours Friday in Prof. Borysowicz’s office, room 325 Physics & Astronomy.

The help room instructors for Physics 183 are Prof. Jerzy Borysowicz, Prof. David Tomanek, Amy Engebretson, and Young-Kyun Kwon. Their sole job is to help you learn physics. Any questions about the course structure or grading should be directed to Profs. Birge or Pope after lecture or by e-mail.

Many students find physics difficult. Since Physics 183 is a 4-credit course, you should plan to spend 8-12 hours per week on the course outside of class. But as you know, just putting in the hours does not ensure that you will succeed. The following are some suggestions as to how to organize your study time.

1. Do the assigned reading before you attend lecture.

2. Read the textbook a second time and review your lecture notes before you start doing the homework problems.

3. Do as many of the problems as you can over the weekend. (Better yet, get a head start Thursday night and go to office hours Friday, when you can get lots of individual attention.) Then go to the help room Monday to get help on the problems you are having trouble with.

4. Find somebody to work with. But make sure it is somebody who is willing to discuss the problems and explain what he or she is doing. If somebody just gives you a formula without explaining where it comes from, you will learn nothing. The bottom line is, you must figure out how to do the problems in a way that you understand, otherwise you will be clueless during the exams.

5. If you are having difficulty, get help soon! Don’t wait until after the first exam.