Study Suggestions

Weekly homework

• Read the assigned section in the required text. All assignments and due dates are in the calendar section of the syllabus.
• A pdf of the lecture slides is included in each online lecture folder. Use this to take additional notes as you watch the online videos. The controls for the videos are summarized here. There are plenty of example problems included in the online lectures.
• As you work your way through the videos, try the bonus homework questions embedded with the videos. If you later want to change your response, you can always do so. Lon-Capa will accept your last submission as your official submission.
• Attempt the homework problems and keep a good record of what you're trying. Use the help room and/or the discussion board if you run into difficulty. You'll want to give course staff or your fellow students something to work with. Simply saying help or I don't know how to do this does not give other students, the TAs or me anything to work with in assisting you. Be as specific as reasonably possible on the discussion board and bring your work with you to the help room.
• While relying on yahoo answers, chegg or other similar sites to do your homework may lead to a good homework score, it also leads to failing scores on exams. Part of studying physics involves practicing via problem solving and not just plugging numbers into an equation someone has else has come up with. The person taking the time to derive the solution would likely do well on a similar exam problem, whereas a person simply using the result and copying the equation to a note sheet, would have a high probability of answering a similar problem incorrectly. Further, solutions on these sites at times lead to a correct result, but with faulty reasoning or are just plain incorrect.
• Once you complete each set, put together a mini set of notes corresponding to that week's work. This will help you to better prepare for the exam.

Exams

• Use your mini sets of notes to construct a good, well organized original hand written note sheet for our exam. The problems on our exams will be organized in the order we cover material in the class. This helps with both recall and putting together a good note sheet.
• A good notesheet will focus on process and important general equations. Do not try to account for each specific application of a concept on your note sheet, as this is impossible as even dozens of pages would not be enough space to account for each specific case.
• Use the draft of your note sheet to attempt the practice exam problems corresponding to the specific exam. This will help you find any areas in your note sheet lacking coverage. Revise your note sheet for use on the exam.
• Review old homework problems and example problems.
• One downfall of the exam being organized chronologically is sometimes, one of the questions near the start of the exam is the most challenging question on the exam. If you find yourself unsure how to proceed on a problem, don't waste all your time on just one problem. make an educated guess and move on. Quite often, a student will find problems later in the exam which they'll find less challenging and guessing at the earlier challenging problem gives them time to complete later less challenging problems.
• Keep your midterm note sheets. Revise them further after the exam and/or as you work through the correction exam. This will help with your final exam note sheets.
• After the due date of each correction exam, a solution to the midterm exam will become available in Lon-Capa. Problem solutions will be given in one of three forms:
  • A static pdf with a reference to an online lecture where the solution to a substantially similar problem is located.
  • A reference to the section in our require text where the solution to a substantially similar problem is located.
  • An online lecture solving the problem.

Physics 231C Home

Last updated: December 10, 2019