How Can I Quickly Learn Physics for the MCAT With No Background?

[AmandaR0se]

This is going to sound crazy, but I am going to be taking the MCAT this year and I don't know a lick of physics. I grew up in a poor town with a crappy high school that didn't even offer physics and when I took physics 101 in college, the only professor who taught algebra-based physics was retiring at the end of the year and gave us open book tests that were just recreations of all of the problems he put on the board during class with just the numbers changed. In other words, I did not learn a single thing and refused to take physics 102.

I've been trying to teach myself but have I feel that I have been using the wrong materials to do so. I am someone who has no problem memorizing equations and formulas, but I never know how to apply them and use them. I have friends who have offered to tutor me, but being medical students, they tend to have fairly busy schedules.

I will be taking physics 102 this summer to complete my pre-med requirements, however, I need to learn physics 101 before starting the class. Does anyone have suggestions for self-taught physics books? Or just any advice at all? Please, any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[berkeman]

This is going to sound crazy, but I am going to be taking the MCAT this year and I don't know a lick of physics. I grew up in a poor town with a crappy high school that didn't even offer physics and when I took physics 101 in college, the only professor who taught algebra-based physics was retiring at the end of the year and gave us open book tests that were just recreations of all of the problems he put on the board during class with just the numbers changed. In other words, I did not learn a single thing and refused to take physics 102.

I've been trying to teach myself but have I feel that I have been using the wrong materials to do so. I am someone who has no problem memorizing equations and formulas, but I never know how to apply them and use them. I have friends who have offered to tutor me, but being medical students, they tend to have fairly busy schedules.

I will be taking physics 102 this summer to complete my pre-med requirements, however, I need to learn physics 101 before starting the class. Does anyone have suggestions for self-taught physics books? Or just any advice at all? Please, any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to the PF.

We have a whole section of the forum dedicated to "Learning Materials", and there is an Intro Physics sub-forum there that should be of help for you:

https://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=160

The MIT lecture series is supposed to be pretty good, for example. Good luck on the MCATs!