Improving Academic Standing: Tips for Preparing for Physics Exams

[Jakarto]

Hello, so ever since I entered University, my grades have been low. I got dismissed from my University and I always had the habit of slacking off, except for my Freshman year. I only slacked off a little in my Freshman year, but after that it got worse and worse. I am trying to pull myself together. My grades in Math and Physics have either been C/C-s and Fs and now I have taking electricity and magnetism for engineering physics at a community college and Heat/Waves/Optics/Thermodynamics Physics (all one course). The thing is I don't recall much Calculus (just simple derivatives and simple integrals, not the difficult ones), and I don't recall much of Mechanics Engineering physics. My exam for the thermodynamics/heat/waves is in 9 days and I do not know how to prepare for this. I tried, but I feel like formulas are being pulled out of thin air. I literally don't know what is going on. Please do not tell me to drop, because I really need these courses to get back into my University. What is the best I can do to get the best score possible in both classes ( I think my exam for electricity/magnetism is a week after my Thermo. physics class exam? What should I go over in mechanics and calculus? What about the formulas that seem like they are being created by the problem solver. It's just confusing to me. I don't know what to do. I'll admit I haven't put my best effort, but how can I do well on these exams if my educational background sucks? Everyday just trying to learn physics seems hopeless, because I do not understand it.

 

[Dishsoap]

Unfortunately, in a low level thermo class, a lot of the formulas *do* seem to come out of thin air. Have you been reading the textbook faithfully? How are you doing on the homework?

 

[Jakarto]

I haven't been reading. I'm a slow reader, so I'd figure going through my notes and watching videos would be better. As for the homework, I looked up the worked out solutions online. Some things I get (the easy problems), but the ones that matter more for the test (the difficult ones) I have difficult time understanding. I mean I don't know how I should learn? Should I look up how all the formulas are derived. I tried that, but it takes a long time, but it seems like the est way to learn something (aka learning it holistically). Both my professors for both classes said the exams would be difficult (more difficult for E & M though), but for E/M my professor said we don't need to worry much about the calculus (like difficult derivatives/integrals, but easy ones we should know), he cares more about how we set up the problem. For Thermo. physics, we need to know the prerequisites (even the calculus part), and he probably will ask us a proof or two on the exam. Mechanics, we should know for both.