How to Succeed in Physics¶
Unlike for other disciplines that you may have encountered, memorization will not be sufficient. Physics is not simply a set of facts to memorize and reproduce. Physics teaches how to think and how to efficiently reason about the world around you. Physics is a method for organizing observations, identifying fundamental principles, and applying logical reasoning to predict behavior in unfamiliar situations.
[I do not] carry such information [as the precise speed of sound] in my mind since it is readily available in books. …The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.
Albert Einstein, New York Times (18 May, 1921)
Physics is a skill that you must develop with practice.
Physics as a Skill¶
The first step toward success is to change your mindset about exactly what you are learning. This will help you find study methods that are effective. If you think of physics as a modeling skill, rather than a collection of facts to memorize and repeat, then it will become more apparent how it can help you in your future goals and how it relates to all the various branches of science.
What are other skills that you know? Think of weightlifting, dance, woodcarving, playing musical instruments, gaming, speaking another language, and programming. These are all examples of skills that require development from dedication and regular practice. One is not born “good at” any of these skills. They all require time, discipline, and persistence to learn. Skills can only be mastered through consistent effort. If you do not put in the required effort, you will not learn the skill. There are no shortcuts.
Just as one cannot read a book about playing guitar and then suddenly know how to do it, one cannot just read about physics and suddenly know how to do it. Just as one cannot go to the gym a few times with large breaks in between and suddenly be able to run marathons or bench press their body weight, one cannot solve just a few physics problems in a few cram sessions and suddenly be able to use physics productively. Just as a dancer spends hours stretching, building muscle strength and flexibility, practicing moves and routines, and regularly self-assessing aspects of technique to improve before being able to headline a dance production, a physicist must spend hours practicing mathematics, critical thinking, logical reasoning, and applying concepts to idealized exercises before being able to use physics to solve nontrivial problems in a professional setting.
To get good at physics, you must spend the time to practice, make many mistakes, and keep trying until you succeed.
This point is frequently misunderstood by introductory students, who often give up after only a short period of initial struggle. Any skill seems hard, if not impossible, to do when you first begin. Physics is not exceptional in this respect. You do not need to be a “genius” to succeed in physics. You only need to be persistent, practice regularly, and make a point of learning from your mistakes.
Practitioners frequently highlight the quality of grit as being the strongest predictor of success in physics. Grit is the quality of stubbornly persisting through many unsuccessful attempts when trying to solve a problem until eventually finding a line of thought that leads to a creative solution. Not coincidentally, grit is precisely the quality that employers often look for in their star employees.
Do not fear failure just because you make mistakes. Mistakes are part of learning. Failure is part of learning. If you are not failing at first, then you are probably not challenging yourself enough to learn. Mastering any skill involves lots and lots of failing, especially when first starting. What is most important after falling on your face is to pick yourself up and try again and again and again until you succeed.
What Matters for Studying Physics?¶
Strategies that will be effective:
Understanding the core concepts and principles well
Reliably applying core concepts and prinicples to new and unfamiliar problems
Reliably translating real-life situations and word problems to precise mathematics
Reliably identifying the essential features of a problem to keep in a model, while discarding irrelevant information
Reliably using algebra, calculus, and other mathematics to derive correct solutions from core principles as needed
Practicing a variety of problems regularly to test your comprehension and abilities
Reviewing mistakes regularly to learn from them
Strategies that will not be effective by themselves:
Memorizing equations and formulas
Applying a memorized formula to a problem just because it has the same symbols
Applying a memorized step-by-step solution to a problem just because it looks similar
Solving practice problems once and then not going back to review them regularly
Cramming for exams the week before
How Should I Study?¶
Your study habits should treat physics as a skill that you are developing over a long period of time. Skills take discipline and consistency to develop. This means that you should budget time regularly (if not daily) to practice applying physical principles and solving physics problems.
You should revisit the core concepts repeatedly until they become second nature.
You should find problems to solve that you have not seen before to test yourself: If you understand what to do on a new problem and can obtain a reasonable solution, then you can be more confident that you are attaining mastery of those topics.
You should hone your ability to check answers even when you don’t have an “answer key” (e.g., check units, check orders of magnitude, check physical reasonableness, check significant figures, check limiting cases, check similarities to other known situations, etc.).
You should revisit problems that you have already solved and ask whether there are other ways of solving the problem, or simplifications you could have made. Continually look for ways to improve your knowledge and your techniques, rather than being satisfied with having solved a problem once.
Above all, you have to take ownership of your own learning.
No one can learn physics for you. You can only learn it yourself after lots of consistent practice. An instructor can point you in the correct direction, give you inspiration and corrective feedback, give guidance when you get stuck, and provide resources that clearly present the core material. However, there is nothing an instructor can do to help you if you do not also diligently practice, actively identify and correct mistakes, and hold yourself accountable for mastering the skill.