How to get better grades in my Physics Bachelor Studies?

[RFeynman]

Hello everyone!
I’m physics student and I have been getting mostly C’s and B‘s and it doesn’t please me at all. Yes, I demand a lot of myself, but is just because I love physics and I want to be the best in what I love.

1-When I’m studying usually , I read my notes and then I do some exercises .
Clearly, this isn’t working that well.

Can you guys help me get a better studying method, so I can improve my grades, please?
All suggestions are good!

2-what if the problem isn’t in the way I study, and maybe I reached my academic limit?

Thanks you for time,
Hope you have great day :)

 

[symbolipoint]

Depends - If you are just at the start of your degree, maybe you have not learned how to adapt. This either changes and you improve or not changes and you continue struggling getting mostly C's. Fundamental Physics courses you learn to read and reread, do examples exercises and check yourself, do the assigned AND lecture--presented examples, and reread, learn to draw diagrams for exercises and identify needed formulas and solve exercises, ask for help as needed from professor. If you adapt, and can learn better (reaching grades B's and A's) then maybe you stay with Physics; otherwise, you should consider change in major field.

 

[Choppy]

Some general tips (in no particular order):

1. How are your math skills? One common issue for students struggling in physics is that their math skills aren't where they need to be.
2. Time in. Do you find you do better if you increase the amount of time that you're studying? While this may seem like a no-brainer, sometimes when you really track it, students just aren't putting the time in that they need to be.
3. When you're studying, are you distracted at all, or can you focus on what you're doing? Does a new environment help? Put away your cell phone or tablet?
4. Do you study alone? Often it can help to surround yourself with other people studying the same things who have similar goals. Feed off of your friends.
5. Have you tried explaining what you're studying to others (this is another reason point 4 helps)? Sometimes you can identify shortcomings when you have to stand in front of someone and explain something that you believe you understand.
6. How are your class notes? Are you able to understand what the professor has been explaining based on your notes or do you need to spend a lot of time re-reading stuff that you've already covered?
7. How frequently do you take advantage of office hours?
8. When you practice problems are they limited only to the ones assigned? Do you attempt the more challenging ones with stars next to them? Do you make up your own problems?
9. When preparing for exams do you struggle with predicting what's going to be on your exams? Do you spend most of your time going over stuff you already know or working on stuff that you don't know? Are you able to predict, within reason, the kinds of questions that will on each exam?
10. What other things are going on in your life? A job? Relationships? Volunteer work? Research? In most cases your studies should come first.
11. Are you taking good care of yourself? Eating properly? Getting adequate sleep? Quality down time? Getting real exercise?

 

[vela]

1-When I’m studying usually, I read my notes and then I do some exercises .
Clearly, this isn’t working that well.

Can you guys help me get a better studying method, so I can improve my grades, please?
All suggestions are good!

I'd start with trying to figure out where you're having problems. Once you've identified specific areas to focus on, you can devise a strategy to remedy the situation. For example, maybe you find you're making math errors because you try to do everything in your head. You could fix this by writing down more intermediate steps.

2-what if the problem isn’t in the way I study, and maybe I reached my academic limit?

That's highly unlikely. It is almost certainly the way you study. You've taken the first step in recognizing you need to change something in order to improve. Now you just need to commit to trying different strategies to find those that work for you.

 

[Augustine Ivon]

I would really discourage you from thinking that you may have reached your "academic limit." Sometimes it feels like that, sure. Especially when you don't get the results you're seeking. I'm sure we all feel like that sometimes. After all, we're studying physics. In my opinion, people don't hit a ceiling, but rather get to a point that they no longer find what they're studying interesting enough to dedicate the time that their field requires.

As far as study methods go.. I've actually found that sitting down and reading my textbook like a novel doesn't work at all for me. My eyes are basically looking at words. I need to sit down with a highlighter and my paper and pencil ready to go. I take notes in the margins, even if it's just a simple thought or connection. I try to put each subsection into a single sentence, maybe up to three if it's really dense. But this is for conceptual items. For the problem solving, you need to sit down and problem solve and get it wrong so many times that you finally start to get it right. That's where you start to really learn, I've found. You kind of have to experiment and find what works best for you, though.

I think Choppy has some good advice up there. For me, I think it's that I don't put enough effective time in. I'm reminded of something Stephen King wrote in his memoir On Writing. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” If you want to be a pro, you have to go to work.

Good luck.

 

[CharlieCW]

In general I rarely studied during undergrad since I grasped the concepts inmediatly, mastering the topic while doing the homework exercises. However, I noticed that I managed to learn fast since I always found creative ways to connect what I just learned with what I already knew, so at the end physics became for me like a huge network of ideas that could be understood through mathematics.

My main advice, besides having a good grasp of mathematic tools, is to understand physics more as concepts and less as equations. Never, I repeat, never learn a formula without understanding its deeper physical meaning and why it exists in the first place.

Take for example, the classical formula for noble gases which you usually learn in high school:

$$PV=nRT$$

This formula implies that, if we set the temperature of a gas as constant, the pressure and the volume are inversely proportional. And it makes sense, because the more I compress a gas, the smaller it gets, and viceversa. So then I can predict how much volume a gas will occupy if I know how much pressure it's receiving at a given temperature. Now what happens if I put the gas in a bottle (setting volume as constant), and I start heating it? It's obvious that the molecules of the gas will move faster and exert a bigger pressure on the walls of the bottle, so I can see that if I raise the temperature then the pressure increases, that is, they're directly proportional...

You can eventually do the same for other topics such as electromagnetism, relativity, etc., you get the idea. My point is, never try to learn physics just as a bunch of equations and concepts alone, but try to connect the pieces and see how they help you make sense of the world around you. That is the beauty of physics!