Jump to content

How to Study for Physics? Textbooks, Resources and Tips?


Quajafrie

Recommended Posts

I have both books that appleme mentioned. The one published by Oxford is very poor, it has few examples and the explanations are extremely unclear. The Giancoli book is OK, but it's actually meant for universities, so it's sometimes hard to distinguish what's IB and what's not.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Which textbook would you best recommend for studying Physics with the new syllabus (I have the Giancoli one)? One that teaches the subject not reviews the material. Apparently our new IB Physics teacher is fresh out of college...: s I am not sure how much experience he/she would have, and want to be prepared just in case. Any ideas? I'd really appreciate it!

Link to post
Share on other sites

IBID press has different editions for the physics textbook, depends on which one ur using

i find the older one useless, but the latest one is quite okay

Tim Kirk wrote both the Oxford study guide and course companion

the study guide is really gd, but the companion doesnt include all option topics, and it lacks examples and exercises

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have to catch up on a good chunk of the syllabus since I had to be away for two entire months. Other than the IBID textbook, what are some ones you would recomment? I want a fairly comprehensive one that teaches me exactly everything that I need to know for the examinations.

Our class is getting the IBID text next year but I hear it's quite mediocre. I already have an IBID text for Chemistry and I have to agree, IBID doesn't do a good job with their textbooks. My teacher has given me a first-year university book by Eugene Hecht because he ran out of the Giancoli textbooks until september. The thing I'm having trouble is that with the non-IB textbooks, I really don't know what I need to know and what I don't.

Edited by LeeHits
Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest The X

I'd really recommend Giancoli. It's an extremely good textbook.

As it seems like you are using the vacation, every time you move on to a new topic, go through the syllabus (just search for it, you'll find it) and read up on what is there.

When you are done with the topic, download some Physics exam papers from FreeExamPapers and try out the problems which stem from that topic.

This works really well.

Link to post
Share on other sites

For HL, Giancoli is a very good choice, however it's not written for the HL syllabus. Hence, I recommend you also get a book that is written for the IB syllabus; it'll give you a better overview of what you need to know, as Giancoli is packed with advanced stuff that you don't have to know. I can warmly recommend the IB revision guide by Tim Kirk, I think it's published by Oxford University Press. However, this doesn't cover all extension topics, and it is a revision guide, so you might want to get another course guide. There are a few available, there's one by IBID press which I have not used and one by Oxford University Press called Physics Course Companion, written by Tim Kirk and Neil Hodgson. The latter one I can't call good, but at least it covers the whole syllabus. In my opinion, it lacks depth and has only few example questions.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Physics for the IB Diploma 2009 syllabus by Tsokos is an excellent book. Explains things more to the point than Giancholi (which i personally use to gain a more fundamental understanding of new areas) and is focused on the IB diploma using many questions all likely to be asked.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Physics for the IB diploma could not sound better to me. I'm getting one later this summer. I'm happy that you posted this because I don't hnave the best Physics teacher and our school get terrible physics scores... so hearing about these other books is really helpful.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
Physics for the IB Diploma 2009 syllabus by Tsokos is an excellent book. Explains things more to the point than Giancholi (which i personally use to gain a more fundamental understanding of new areas) and is focused on the IB diploma using many questions all likely to be asked.

I agree with ccccc. At my school, we're using the IBID text book, the Giancoli Physics text as well as the Physics for the IB Diploma by K.A. Tsokos. Personally, the IBID text book is good for quick revision, the Giancoli Physics text is good for fundamental understanding of the concepts but it doesn't do very well for the calculations apart and how to derive the formula. Tsokos did a very good job for the calculations and formula derivations part.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

its good that you're trying to prepare a week before hand, but the best mark can be acquired through understanding concepts: know your theories, and your material. and also know how to apply: know how to solve your questions, how to use the formulas.

and remmeber that you get all formulas.

cheers

Link to post
Share on other sites

They key to doing really well on physics tests is to do tons and tons of practice questions for half of your study time, and to read about concepts and do really hard problems for the other half. Usually I'll go through each topic, do a preread of the section in my textbook while writing down all the useful formulas (given and not given). Then I'll slug through maybe 20-30 of the easier questions in the book, skipping the really tough ones. It's also worth it to do the ones that say "state the bleh law of bleh." After that, I'll check my answers and read all of the laws and the really important conceptual stuff. Usually at that point it's the time to try the hardest questions you can find, because although IB never asks anything too difficult, they seriously improve your ability to grasp certain concepts.

For mechanics, you basically need to know all of the rules off the back of your hand. When you can put everything in terms of mass, velocity, acceleration and distance, there aren't any questions you can't answer. Some common mechanics problems are projectile motion and banked acceleration, so it's good to find lots of problems on these, and re-derive the formulas every time you do them. For thermal physics, you need to know Boyle's law and the second law of thermodynamics really really well, and just go and memorize all of the weird compression terms.

Usually it's best to look over past IB exams a few days before your own tests, and to do all the problems relevant to the topic you're studying. Paper 2 is the best place to look for this, though paper one questions are a great way to test your concept knowledge.

Link to post
Share on other sites

They key to doing really well on physics tests is to do tons and tons of practice questions for half of your study time, and to read about concepts and do really hard problems for the other half. Usually I'll go through each topic, do a preread of the section in my textbook while writing down all the useful formulas (given and not given). Then I'll slug through maybe 20-30 of the easier questions in the book, skipping the really tough ones. It's also worth it to do the ones that say "state the bleh law of bleh." After that, I'll check my answers and read all of the laws and the really important conceptual stuff. Usually at that point it's the time to try the hardest questions you can find, because although IB never asks anything too difficult, they seriously improve your ability to grasp certain concepts.

For mechanics, you basically need to know all of the rules off the back of your hand. When you can put everything in terms of mass, velocity, acceleration and distance, there aren't any questions you can't answer. Some common mechanics problems are projectile motion and banked acceleration, so it's good to find lots of problems on these, and re-derive the formulas every time you do them. For thermal physics, you need to know Boyle's law and the second law of thermodynamics really really well, and just go and memorize all of the weird compression terms.

Usually it's best to look over past IB exams a few days before your own tests, and to do all the problems relevant to the topic you're studying. Paper 2 is the best place to look for this, though paper one questions are a great way to test your concept knowledge.

thanx man! great plan, the test is in two days tho :/ so im kinda short on time, but now i know how to study for future tests. for this one, i rewrote all of my class notes on the computer and then im gonna go through it and make sure i understand everything, then im just gonna do questions until the test :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

They key to doing really well on physics tests is to do tons and tons of practice questions for half of your study time, and to read about concepts and do really hard problems for the other half. Usually I'll go through each topic, do a preread of the section in my textbook while writing down all the useful formulas (given and not given). Then I'll slug through maybe 20-30 of the easier questions in the book, skipping the really tough ones. It's also worth it to do the ones that say "state the bleh law of bleh." After that, I'll check my answers and read all of the laws and the really important conceptual stuff. Usually at that point it's the time to try the hardest questions you can find, because although IB never asks anything too difficult, they seriously improve your ability to grasp certain concepts.

may i ask what book/s u use for physics? :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...