Courses Help with learning phyics over the course of the year

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Starting sophomore year, a student plans to study for the physics olympiad while managing a heavy workload from a competitive high school. They aim to learn mechanics and thermodynamics at an introductory undergraduate level using "Physics" by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane. The student seeks advice on daily study management, proposing to dedicate about an hour each day. Suggestions include completing two to three sections in that time frame, with some recommending up to an hour and a half if the workload allows. A user shared their experience of spending a week on each chapter, dedicating weekends to problem sets, which took a year plus summer to complete both volumes of the book. The discussion emphasizes balancing physics study with other academic responsibilities while maintaining a steady pace.
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Hey guys, I'm starting my sophomore year in high school this week and I'm intending to study for the physics olympiad for the next two years but I had a question about how to manage my work load. I already get a lot of work as I go to one of those competitive high schools, but I'm making it my duty to learn all of mechanics/thermo at intro undergrad level (I sort of did already but not as focused as I'm intending to do so now). I'm using Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane. So my question is:

How much physics should I manage to do every day without really screwing up with my other classes. I've decided that an hour or so every day will do fine (although other opinions/ideas are surely welcome), but in that hour how much should I get accomplished?

Two or three sections? More than that? There's a total of 26 chapters of thermo and mechanics in the book.

Maybe a better question is, are there any colleges that use this book that put the reading assignments on a website or something so that I can have an idea of how I can do the work within maybe 6 months time?

If I finish mechanics by then, I can try to get through E&M by the end of the summer and work on Irodov and such until the olympiads.
 
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Well it really depends on your schedule; if you have a busy work load for other classes 1 and a half hour is good. However, if you have spare time in hand 2 will be fine. =)

Good luck
- Maroc
 
when I self studied HRK's Physics I spent one week on each chapter, probably about an hour or so (whatever I could finish at that time span). most of the time that kind of pacing was fine, and then starting friday night I'd work on the problem sets at the end of each chapter. took me the whole weekend (about 2 or so hrs each weekend day) to complete the entire problem set.

at that rate it took me the whole year + the summer to work through vol. 1 and 2, which I thought wasn't bad.
 
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Yesterday, 9/5/2025, when I was surfing, I found an article The Schwarzschild solution contains three problems, which can be easily solved - Journal of King Saud University - Science ABUNDANCE ESTIMATION IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT https://jksus.org/the-schwarzschild-solution-contains-three-problems-which-can-be-easily-solved/ that has the derivation of a line element as a corrected version of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein’s field equation. This article's date received is 2022-11-15...
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