The following steps provide a generic outline for success in the first semester of the College Physics experience. This experience will demand a significant allotment of time—that is the nature of the beast. If you cannot put in the necessary time (which is different for each individual), then you should not expect to get the best grade. Nevertheless, the more closely you can follow this outline, the more efficiently you should be working toward the best grade for your investment.
Outline for Success
1. Read through the web lectures before the corresponding discussion session on those lectures. Don’t worry about all of the details if you get confused, but try to read through all of the lecture and examples.
2. Attend the discussion sessions. Even if it’s material that you think you understand, hearing it discussed and questions being asked and answered can only reinforce your understanding.
3. Work through the sample quizzes before the associated Problems Lab. You should also be able to do at least the simple homework problems in the Warm-up Exercise section. Read through the remainder of the homework problems—this will help give you an idea of the main points in the lecture (that is, things to watch out for!).
4. Carefully work through the spreadsheets with your group members. This is not a race to see who can finish first! Be careful to write out the given information and the question being asked (you should not, however, waste everyone’s time by trying to copy all of the writing in the spreadsheets; they should be available for you to work through outside of class if you wish to spend more time with them). Show your work using symbols and then show your final answer with the appropriate units. Work with your group members to understand how the answers are obtained while showing the appropriate work. (This will be good practice for the homework and exams!) Ask your instructor for help if you get lost. Don’t just sit at the computer staring at the monitor if your group does not understand what is going on. Your instructor is there to help—don’t be afraid to ask for it if you need it! (But on the other hand, you should not call over the instructor if your group members have not put their heads together and earnestly tried to solve the problem at hand!)
5. Apply step #4 for the activity. Look over mistakes that caused you to get points taken off in previous activities, and make sure that you don’t repeat the mistakes. Make sure that you understand how and why certain procedures or calculations are performed, especially dealing with uncertainties and the linearization of nonlinear data (two emphases in the Problems Lab).
6. After the Problems Lab, work through the corresponding homework problems. You should be able to tackle the majority of them. Refer back to the lecture examples and your spreadsheet solutions to help you out. This is a good time to call up some of your group members and ask them how they are doing with the homework, and to help one another out with the rough spots.
7. Strive to get your group organized and working on the projects early (if you are doing projects), so that you can get some preliminary results and discuss them with your instructor. It is very common to run into unexpected problems with even the simplest of investigations—be sure to allow time for this!
8. Seek help if you are feeling lost. Your lecturer, your Problems Lab instructor, your fellow group members (or former group members) are all possible sources of help. Don’t feel like you have to tackle things on your own. (Some people can do this, but it is not common.) However, you should not show up to your instructor’s office a day or two before the test and say “I’m lost!” (This, unfortunately, is not uncommon!) If you feel like you’re getting lost, and you have sincerely tried to work through the lectures and spreadsheets and things are not “clicking”, then you should find someone to help you immediately. It can make a huge difference.