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Advice for Physics HL and Maths SL?


Recycle Bin

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So today I got my Physics and Maths results of my first IB1 semesters. They weren't too great at all. I got a 3 in Physics HL and a 4 in Maths SL. It's pretty upsetting because I want to study Engineering but I'm not doing well in the subjects needed for it :( I see all these other people getting 6s and 7s in these subjects and it makes me feel insecure. I didn't do well on the Physics HL paper because the questions were generally tricky for me, and there was a question on the Maths SL paper for  which I screwed up and didn't have time to correct because the paper was so lengthy. Please, can I have any advice on how to study for both of these subjects and get higher grades? Thanks in advance.

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I give some overall guidance of how I and many of my friends approach these two subjects. 
Emotional/Psychological: You should prepare for defeat. You should also prepare to overcome any fear of completely not knowing what's going and persevere to understand the material. Believe in yourself that it is not impossible, not by others' measures, but by your own capabilities. 

Actions to take: Never give up on a problem. Ensure you understand the material. Never go too quickly to the answers. It is more beneficial to get 3 hard questions right on your own (with help of graphing calculators even notes) than to get over 10 hard questions right with partially glancing at answer key. Understand that it is normal for struggle in many questions and cherish the learning process.

Mindset: 1) Ask questions. Be skeptical. Do not take physics or math for granted or as a matter of fact. You should understand the principals and all the subtle features. 2) Justify all your work logically. Hastily jumping to an answer often results in errors. 

Practice: Physics and math are not subjects you can study for simply by reviewing notes. You need to practice regularly, way ahead of examinations, and practice questions that link multiple topics (eg forces and energy, or probability and distribution) 

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1 hour ago, kw0573 said:

I give some overall guidance of how I and many of my friends approach these two subjects. 
Emotional/Psychological: You should prepare for defeat. You should also prepare to overcome any fear of completely not knowing what's going and persevere to understand the material. Believe in yourself that it is not impossible, not by others' measures, but by your own capabilities. 

Actions to take: Never give up on a problem. Ensure you understand the material. Never go too quickly to the answers. It is more beneficial to get 3 hard questions right on your own (with help of graphing calculators even notes) than to get over 10 hard questions right with partially glancing at answer key. Understand that it is normal for struggle in many questions and cherish the learning process.

Mindset: 1) Ask questions. Be skeptical. Do not take physics or math for granted or as a matter of fact. You should understand the principals and all the subtle features. 2) Justify all your work logically. Hastily jumping to an answer often results in errors. 

Practice: Physics and math are not subjects you can study for simply by reviewing notes. You need to practice regularly, way ahead of examinations, and practice questions that link multiple topics (eg forces and energy, or probability and distribution) 

Do you think deactivating social media is essential throughout IB (I keep checking it)? Thank you for the amazing response by the way! Much needed.

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3 hours ago, Recycle Bin said:

Do you think deactivating social media is essential throughout IB (I keep checking it)? Thank you for the amazing response by the way! Much needed.

"Cold-turkeying" may work, but more important that you develop a good habit of working nonstop for 30-45 minutes and short breaks. 

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I was in your same position about a year ago (I am just finishing my finals now!) :) I do Physics HL and Maths SL, and although I obviously don't know what my final marks are, my predicted marks for both of the subjects are a 7. However, when I first took Physics HL I was barely passing, and also got a 3 at one point. Similarly for SL maths, there was a a term or 2 where I got a 5, and couldn't manage to pull my marks up. Here are a few tips I used to change my marks around:

Firstly for Physics, the main thing is understanding the concepts really well -- for this to happen, you need to study from a good book or resource which explains all the concepts in a student-friendly way. As a bit of background information, I completely hated Physics HL until about a few months ago when I started using these books -- I was not naturally talented in this subject like a few of my other peers, and really struggled to enjoy or understand it. However, a few months in the lead up to my final exams, I used the Oxford 2014 Physics Study Guide and the Cambridge 2016 2nd edition Physics book (written by Tsokos) simultaneously to form my notes. Although some people may tell you that these books are a bit funny, I personally found them very easy to learn from; furthermore, as you may have heard, the May 2016 exams were unbelievably hard. I used these above two books to study, and managed to push my way through the May exams for my mocks (got a 7) and found the November exams a few days ago quite easy. In terms of study, what I did was firstly look at Chapter 1 in the Tsokos book and made my notes; then, I went back to the Oxford study guide, and added to my notes accordingly. This way, you get to see 2 different viewpoints from 2 different books. 

Secondly, for physics, the best thing you can do is to try practice papers. Whilst you may have heard this from everyone, there is no point in just completing past paper after past paper, and then expecting to do well. Firstly, you need to complete the physics paper under timed conditions; if the HL Paper 2 exam runs for 2 hrs 15 mins, then push yourself to finish it by 2 hrs. This way, when you're in a stressful place like the exam room, you're not pushed until the last minute. However, the most important thing about completing practice papers is once you've finished it, mark it and really look over the questions you got wrong. If the question you got wrong was a polarization question, then go back to Question Bank, and try all the polarization questions you can find. Maybe go and watch a few physics videos online about this topic -- this way, you target your weaknesses well. If you spend 2 hrs doing the exam, I would recommend at least spending 1 hr on looking back over the exam. Also, highlight the questions you got wrong on the exam, and try them again about 2-3 weeks later. This allows you to see if you have learnt something from when you first did the exam. 

For maths, the best thing to do is Question Bank. Maths is something that requires daily practice even for the smartest students. Personally, I would recommend doing 1 hour of maths every 2 days regularly in order to keep your mind refreshed. However, in this 1 hour, this doesn't mean you simply rote-learn things from your maths textbook. I used to try 10 random questions from Questionbank every 2 days, and this really ensured that I didn't forget the maths I learnt over time. Furthermore, although trying questions from the textbook is good, Question Bank pushes you to complete difficult questions.

In terms of the maths paper, I think there's 10 questions throughout the paper (7 in Section A and 3 in Section B). You need to give the most amount of time for Section B because they make up a lot of marks. If you don't complete a question from Section A, the maximum you can lost is 7-8 marks but for Section B, you can easily lose 15-17 marks. Everyone has different ways to approach the maths exams, however for me, I generally push myself to complete the first 5-6 questions in Section A within 25 minutes. This sounds very short, but the first few questions in the exam become easier and easier as you start to do more practice from places like Questionbank. Usually question 7 in Section A takes about 10 minutes roughly. So, for Section A, you should spend approximately 35-40 minutes and NO MORE. If you're in the exam and you get to the 40-minute limit and still haven't finished all of Section A, just move on regardless. You can lose 5-6 marks there, rather than waste time and realise you're going to miss 15 marks in a section B question you didn't have time for.

For section B, if you follow the time I've mentioned, you will have almost 50 minutes, which is plenty of time for you to stay calm and think the questions through. Looking at the format of Section B questions across the years, 1 question from Section B is always about vectors, or probability (i.e. binomial distribution, normal distribution etc). Therefore, know these two topics very well because you're guaranteeing yourself approximately 15 marks when they come up. 

However, regardless of all the advice I've mentioned, the most important thing you need to do is stay calm and confident. I know how it feels to have everyone surrounding you do much better than you regardless of how well you study -- however, with the correct tips, you can improve beyond what you think. As cliched as it sounds, it's not about how much you do, but how well and efficiently you study. This is coming from someone who  went from the same marks you mentioned to getting a predicted score of 44. Stay calm, don't worry about what everyone else is getting because believe me, things will change over time in unexpected ways. You still have a long time before your exams so there is plenty of time to change things around. :) 

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8 hours ago, hello_there said:

I was in your same position about a year ago..(cont.)

Oh my, thank you so much! You don't understand how happy you've made me. Thank you for sharing your success story, it really raised my confidence. Also, thank you SO MUCH for the tips on balancing the time for Maths!! I lost so many marks on paper 2 because I couldn't check it in time. Good luck on your exams. <3 (I'm totally following every single one of your tips, btw.)

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  • 2 months later...

Maybe this is already a late response but I will do it anyway

Well I'm taking both maths and physics HL, and I think sometimes that can be hard. But personally I believe the most important thing in these two courses is getting the concepts understood and WELL understood. Since you just finished IB1 I assume you were studying gravitation, waves and circular motion and Newton's Laws in physics HL? From my own experience these chapters WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT if you do not pay special attention to the concepts, especially in the wave chapter when they talk about single slit and double slit diffraction. That may be the reason why you feel tricked in the exams, since IB exams normally don't want to "trick" you. You are likely to be taking electrostatics and magnetism, atomic structure and quantum theory next semester, and these chapters will make you suffer if you do not understand the concepts---I speak form experience.

Do NOT spend all your time on memorizing the formulas since there will be a data booklet telling you the formulas and values of constants during the actual IB test. What matters is what the formula represents. The physics HL test is in fact very student-friendly. In general, when you are doing a question in the test, you just look at the question, choose your equation, plug in the numbers, tap on your calculator, and bam, there's your answer. What could possibly go wrong is in the "choosing formula" and "plugging in numbers" part. You need to understand what the equations are talking about, and what the question is asking you to do. Sometimes they ask you to calculate the gravitational potential while other times they ask you to get the gravitational potential energy. These are two very different concepts (in case you've forgotten, gravitational potential is a concept that is around ONE object, while you need TWO objects to determine the relative gravitational potential energy). Another tricky example is the difference between gravitational field and gravitational potential. The former is a measure of FORCE per unit mass while the latter is a measure of GPE per unit mass. You see the importance of concepts? To make matters worse, gravitational force, gravitational field, gravitational potential energy and gravitational potential all have very similar equations! If you do not distinguish these concepts carefully, it is very likely that you would choose the wrong formula and plug in the wrong data. This is just one example. You will encounter many new concepts and try to get hold of what they are.

For maths i don't have the authority to suggest on your situation since i'm in HL, but i can give you a general advice: practice, practice, practice. You might find yourself stuck at a problem during a maths exam, but do not panic. IB tests are NEVER too hard. The method used in solving the questions will not exceed your curriculum. The only problem is how familiar you are with these topics and questions. Like in trigonometry, the only formulas you need in IB (even HL) is the double angles, compound angles, and the "sin squared + cos squared=1". I guarantee you no other formulas are required. If you got stuck in a test, try to write down everything you know on the roughpaper and find their connections with the conditions given in the questions.

Final piece of advise on your dream of engineering: try to study as many calculus as possible outside classroom, take the "engineering" option in HL physics, and prepare for loads of hard work.

Good luck!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/5/2017 at 10:23 AM, foxy_5720 said:

Maybe this is already a late response but I will do it anyway

Well I'm taking both maths and physics HL...(cont.)

Thank you so much!! Yes, you were right on point with me not understanding the concepts. I never know which equation to use! I need to keep revising the concepts. Thank you!

 

(as for Maths SL, I have a hold on it. :))

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, to be honest, the best advices are at the top of the page but I want to give you some information that can make you a bit confident. The first thing is the Grade Boundary for physics HL is 65%. So if you do well in your IA you are most likely to get 7(Of course you have to work hard). The second thing is if you have extra time, to and talk to your teacher to let you participate in IB2 lessons in your free time. Most of them around this time are doing past papers with teacher so if you have some problem with any specific topic, you can ask your teacher when you write past papers. I hope it helped.

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On 3/9/2017 at 10:47 PM, SamirAliyev said:

Well, to be honest, the best advices are at the top of the page but I want to give you some information that can make you a bit confident. The first thing is the Grade Boundary for physics HL is 65%. So if you do well in your IA you are most likely to get 7(Of course you have to work hard). The second thing is if you have extra time, to and talk to your teacher to let you participate in IB2 lessons in your free time. Most of them around this time are doing past papers with teacher so if you have some problem with any specific topic, you can ask your teacher when you write past papers. I hope it helped.

helped a lot! thank you :)

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  • 2 years later...

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