Advice for Physics Olympiads

[untilthecern]

Hi, I'm a high school student and I want to get accept to Oxford University, so I need a strong self-history for UCAS motivational letter, and I think the Olympiads must be the correct door for it. Could you guys give me some advice for physics Olympiads? What topics or lectures should I go deeper? What strategies should I follow when solving an Olympiad question?

(Note: I have almost 2 years to work on it)

 

[GlitchedGluon]

I don't know about getting into Oxford, but for the Physics Olympiad the best strategy is probably to solve a lot of problems from previous years.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

I know that students who partake in the physics olympiads have gone through Irodov.

Maybe even Kleppner and Kolenkow as well.

 

[GlitchedGluon]

You may also be interested in checking out Kevin Zhou's webpage: https://knzhou.github.io/
He has coached the US Physics Team for some years. There is a good deal of useful material in there, including advice.

 

[TensorCalculus]

Hi, I'm a high school student and I want to get accept to Oxford University, so I need a strong self-history for UCAS motivational letter, and I think the Olympiads must be the correct door for it. Could you guys give me some advice for physics Olympiads? What topics or lectures should I go deeper? What strategies should I follow when solving an Olympiad question?

(Note: I have almost 2 years to work on it)

Are you currently living in Britain and preparing for BPhO? (You don't have to answer this, but it would make it easier help wise to know which country's olympiad you're preparing for and whether you're applying to Oxford as a foreign student or not - I'm going to assume you are from Britain for now)

There is no guarantee that an Olympiad will get you into Oxford University (from what I've heard from many people who've applied, and got in, or not got in, to Oxford for physics), not even near. Your main motivation for doing Olympiads should be enjoying them: I cannot stress enough how much of a difference for preparation this has made for me!!

In terms of help, you've asked for it in the right place, here is my suggestion as someone also doing a lot for BAAO/BPhO:

• Books with lots of questions (practice practice practice!) My favourite is Young and Freedman's University Physics which you can get for quite cheap second hand, but another good option is Halliday, Resnik and Krane's Fundamentals of Physics. Both of them explain well and have an absolute wealth of questions. If you're looking to do astronomy, Salvatti's Fundamentals of Astronomy is GREAT.
• Knowing the exam - knowing how long it is, how many marks it is, what sort of questions come up. For example in BAAO R1, the paper 2 always has an observational astronomy question which is the least answered question but has the highest average score and is often the least time consuming too.
• I've personally found ZPhysics's videos, newsletters (you can sign up on the site!) and LinkedIn posts to be quite helpful - other Youtube channels like the official BPhO channel can also be helpful particularly for touching up on weak topics
• Notes and guides - Kevin Zhou's already been mentioned but there are other great guides like this one which are worth going through.
• Past papers. This and the syllabus honestly might be the single best resource you have. Do them, and go through them well. If you run out, do the past papers of other countries, e.g. try the F=ma. Keep practicing.

But also, speaking of Oxford, if you're interested in applying they have a great course about preparing for the PAT which you might find handy!
Hope this helps! Also, a lot of these resources were actually suggested to me by @Muu9 so shoutout to them :)

 

[berkeman]

Great reply, @TensorCalculus

Are you currently living in Britain and preparing for BPhO?

Their Profile/About page says they are in Turkey.

 

[untilthecern]

Are you currently living in Britain and preparing for BPhO? (You don't have to answer this, but it would make it easier help wise to know which country's olympiad you're preparing for and whether you're applying to Oxford as a foreign student or not - I'm going to assume you are from Britain for now)

There is no guarantee that an Olympiad will get you into Oxford University (from what I've heard from many people who've applied, and got in, or not got in, to Oxford for physics), not even near. Your main motivation for doing Olympiads should be enjoying them: I cannot stress enough how much of a difference for preparation this has made for me!!

In terms of help, you've asked for it in the right place, here is my suggestion as someone also doing a lot for BAAO/BPhO:

• Books with lots of questions (practice practice practice!) My favourite is Young and Freedman's University Physics which you can get for quite cheap second hand, but another good option is Halliday, Resnik and Krane's Fundamentals of Physics. Both of them explain well and have an absolute wealth of questions. If you're looking to do astronomy, Salvatti's Fundamentals of Astronomy is GREAT.
• Knowing the exam - knowing how long it is, how many marks it is, what sort of questions come up. For example in BAAO R1, the paper 2 always has an observational astronomy question which is the least answered question but has the highest average score and is often the least time consuming too.
• I've personally found ZPhysics's videos, newsletters (you can sign up on the site!) and LinkedIn posts to be quite helpful - other Youtube channels like the official BPhO channel can also be helpful particularly for touching up on weak topics
• Notes and guides - Kevin Zhou's already been mentioned but there are other great guides like this one which are worth going through.
• Past papers. This and the syllabus honestly might be the single best resource you have. Do them, and go through them well. If you run out, do the past papers of other countries, e.g. try the F=ma. Keep practicing.

But also, speaking of Oxford, if you're interested in applying they have a great course about preparing for the PAT which you might find handy!
Hope this helps! Also, a lot of these resources were actually suggested to me by @Muu9 so shoutout to them :)

That was great and technical, thank you soo much for giving the information, I'll check them all.

 

[untilthecern]

Are you currently living in Britain and preparing for BPhO? (You don't have to answer this, but it would make it easier help wise to know which country's olympiad you're preparing for and whether you're applying to Oxford as a foreign student or not - I'm going to assume you are from Britain for now)

There is no guarantee that an Olympiad will get you into Oxford University (from what I've heard from many people who've applied, and got in, or not got in, to Oxford for physics), not even near. Your main motivation for doing Olympiads should be enjoying them: I cannot stress enough how much of a difference for preparation this has made for me!!

In terms of help, you've asked for it in the right place, here is my suggestion as someone also doing a lot for BAAO/BPhO:

• Books with lots of questions (practice practice practice!) My favourite is Young and Freedman's University Physics which you can get for quite cheap second hand, but another good option is Halliday, Resnik and Krane's Fundamentals of Physics. Both of them explain well and have an absolute wealth of questions. If you're looking to do astronomy, Salvatti's Fundamentals of Astronomy is GREAT.
• Knowing the exam - knowing how long it is, how many marks it is, what sort of questions come up. For example in BAAO R1, the paper 2 always has an observational astronomy question which is the least answered question but has the highest average score and is often the least time consuming too.
• I've personally found ZPhysics's videos, newsletters (you can sign up on the site!) and LinkedIn posts to be quite helpful - other Youtube channels like the official BPhO channel can also be helpful particularly for touching up on weak topics
• Notes and guides - Kevin Zhou's already been mentioned but there are other great guides like this one which are worth going through.
• Past papers. This and the syllabus honestly might be the single best resource you have. Do them, and go through them well. If you run out, do the past papers of other countries, e.g. try the F=ma. Keep practicing.

But also, speaking of Oxford, if you're interested in applying they have a great course about preparing for the PAT which you might find handy!
Hope this helps! Also, a lot of these resources were actually suggested to me by @Muu9 so shoutout to them :)

I'm preparing for the olympiads in Türkiye, because I can not apply IPhO before passing the Türkiye exams. İt's name is "TUBITAK-2202 science olimpiads"

 

[Muu9]

I'm preparing for the olympiads in Türkiye, because I can not apply IPhO before passing the Türkiye exams. İt's name is "TUBITAK-2202 science olimpiads"

Once you've studied a bit (e.g. completed your first pass of a textbook) you can take a practice test here: https://bilimolimpiyatlari.tubitak.gov.tr/tr/online-sinav
I also found the 2022 Turkish physics olympiad: https://bilimolimpiyatlari.tubitak.gov.tr/files/hShW7apN5771Xs5IrWJzoPHgFw1rONE5RHrDBVYz.pdf
And 2021 one: https://bilimolimpiyatlari.tubitak.gov.tr/files/gbz8KYPUgPReobRrg0tzMJs459CDDdqK0kWQEyeE.pdf
I think this is the syllabus: https://bilimolimpiyatlari.tubitak.gov.tr/files/cZrsqLGB55Bpbk39bv797NtlUpXsEc5keO0F9NhU.pdf
You can try to look for more documents here: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:https://bilimolimpiyatlari.tubitak.gov.tr/+fizik+filetype:pdf