Improving your performance in Physics is not going to happen overnight. It will be a slow and difficult process. Luckily, there are a few steps you can follow to improve your conceptual understanding and test-taking ability within the field of physics.
Fall in Love with Physics
This is the easiest way of improving your performance in physics. Every equation that you write in your notebooks, has an absolute, well-defined impact on the natural world.
When you start loving the subject, the subject starts making more sense to you. So, rather than seeing physics as the toughest subject asked in entrance exams, look at it as a subject that explores and unravels the mechanism and working of the universe !
Read More : 10 Reasons to Love Physics
Have a Strong Hold in Basic Concepts
It helps to start from the basics. So, memorize basic constants. In physics, certain ideas are assigned mathematical constants. This is a way of saying that these forces are usually represented as the same number regardless of where or how they’re used. It’s a smart idea to memorize the most common constants (and their units) — often, they won’t be provided on tests.
Below are a few of the most frequently-used constants in physics:
- Gravity (on earth): 9.81 meters × second^-2
- Speed of light: 3 × 108 meters × second^-1
- Molar gas constant: 8.32 Joules/(mole × Kelvin)
- Avogadro’s number: 6.02 × 1023 per mole
- Planck’s Constant: 6.63 × 10-34 Joules × seconds
These, while intuitively comprehensible, are some of the few things you will actually have to memorize in Physics. The rest must be understood conceptually.
Understand Equations and its Impact
Conceptual understanding in Physics is best reinforced through equations. In physics, the relationships between the many, many different forces acting in the universe are described with equations.
Some of these equations are very simple, while some are enormously complex. Understanding them is critical when tackling both simple and complex problems. Even difficult and confusing problems are often solved by using several simple equations or modifying these simple equations so that they fit new situations.
It is worth noting that these equations are what you can use to create definitions rather than memorizing them. For instance, we know that, in a uniform gravitational field, g = F/m. This allows us to define gravitational field strength as “the force acting on an object per unit mass in the gravitational field of a larger mass”.
The equation also allows us to derive the units of gravitational field strength, here N kg^-1. Dimensional Analysis is a crucial technique you can employ, especially in multiple-choice questions, to find the correct answers for your questions. It is also vital that you know the derivation of every single equation.
Visualize and Imagine Concepts at Work
Despite all this, the ultimate key to physics as a subject is to understand that it is all about visualization. The more effectively you are able to picture a question in your head, the more likely you are to get the response correct (This is especially true in mechanics and electromagnetism-related questions).
But no amount of knowledge in the field is useful without a thorough intuition of the ideas at hand. A better understanding of physics means a better knowledge of the universe—and that’s exactly what you, as a student, should aspire to achieve.
Tackle Physics Numericals
Numericals form an important part of Physics. If you follow the above steps, you should be able to tackle these numericals. Steps like understanding impact of equations on a certain problem, visualizing the problem statement will help you in solving virtually any physics numerical.
Read More : How to tackle Physics Numericals
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