{"id":2882,"date":"2010-11-30T12:37:20","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T20:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2010-11-30T14:37:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T22:37:12","slug":"how-to-get-better-grades-in-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2010\/11\/30\/how-to-get-better-grades-in-physics","title":{"rendered":"How To Get Better Grades In Physics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Enrico<\/a>Ben Shank is a Ph.D. can\u00addi\u00addate in physics at Stan\u00adford, where he also serves as a teach\u00ading assis\u00adtant (TA) for an under\u00adgrad physics course. At our recent Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading par\u00adty he began rat\u00adtling off advice to one of our stu\u00addents on how to get bet\u00adter grades in physics (or almost any tech\u00adni\u00adcal course). Said stu\u00addent was amazed and beseeched Ben to make this infor\u00adma\u00adtion more pub\u00adlicly avail\u00adable, and so he typed it up and sent it to our Chi Alpha email list<\/a>. <\/p>\n

With Ben\u2019s per\u00admis\u00adsion, I also share it below (empha\u00adsis is mine):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. From the first day of class, sit in the front of the room toward the cen\u00adter<\/b>. At least one study has shown that stu\u00addents who sit in the front are 2\u20133 times more like\u00adly to get an A and 6 times less like\u00adly to fail than stu\u00addents sit\u00adting in the back even when seats are ran\u00addom\u00adly assigned on the first day of class. We can debate why this is so all day, but it is so, so take advan\u00adtage of it. (By \u2018the front\u2019 i mean the first ten or so rows of Hewlett 200.)<\/li>\n
  2. Be sure to get plen\u00adty of sleep the two nights before the exam. Of all the bad con\u00addi\u00adtions you could be in going into a physics test, being tired is prob\u00ada\u00adbly the worst one that is legal.<\/b> Stud\u00adies indi\u00adcate that the sec\u00adond night before the test is even more impor\u00adtant than the night imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly before. A clear, think\u00ading, cre\u00adative mind is your sin\u00adgle great\u00adest asset for any physics you might encounter. If you have been keep\u00ading up with the class, get\u00adting two full nights of sleep is prob\u00ada\u00adbly more impor\u00adtant than any amount of study\u00ading you might do dur\u00ading those two days.<\/li>\n
  3. That said you will prob\u00ada\u00adbly want to do some study\u00ading. If you haven\u2019t already, I high\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend find\u00ading some\u00adone else in the class to study with. Go over prob\u00adlems togeth\u00ader. Go into the lat\u00ader prob\u00adlems in each chap\u00adter and pick some that you\u2019re not sure you can both do. Tak\u00ading an exam well is very sim\u00adi\u00adlar to teach\u00ading the grad\u00ader how to do the prob\u00adlems, so even if you are teach\u00ading a friend how to do some\u00adthing you already know, you are prepar\u00ading for the test.<\/b> If you both (or all) get stuck on some\u00adthing, con\u00adtact a TA.<\/li>\n
  4. Read every prob\u00adlem at the begin\u00adning of the test. Your mind will con\u00adtin\u00adue to process prob\u00adlems you are not look\u00ading at, pro\u00advid\u00aded it is awake.<\/b> (See Tip 2) Stud\u00adies show that you are best served load\u00ading all the ques\u00adtions into your brain at the start to give your\u00adself max\u00adi\u00admum time to con\u00adtem\u00adplate. If you get real\u00adly stuck on a prob\u00adlem, leave plen\u00adty of space and move on. Odds are you\u2019ll have bet\u00adter insight when you come back to it.<\/li>\n
  5. DON\u2019T PANIC. Attempt every ques\u00adtion.<\/b> This sounds real\u00adly obvi\u00adous, but we occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly get blue books that have a few scrib\u00adbles labeled \u2018Prob\u00adlem 1\u2019 and noth\u00ading else. As best we can tell, these stu\u00addents are look\u00ading at the first ques\u00adtion, pan\u00adick\u00ading and star\u00ading blankly at the paper for forty-five min\u00adutes or just walk\u00ading out. This is some\u00adthing worth prac\u00adtic\u00ading to avoid. If you find your\u00adself in a pan\u00adic: stop, look away from the paper while slow\u00adly count\u00ading to ten. If you are feel\u00ading calm, you can go back and draw a dia\u00adgram or write down some pos\u00adsi\u00adbly rel\u00ade\u00advant equa\u00adtions. If you start pan\u00adick\u00ading again, repeat Steps 1 and 2. If you are not feel\u00ading calm, turn a cou\u00adple pages and start the next ques\u00adtion. Things will look bet\u00adter when you come back to this one. Trust me.<\/li>\n
  6. Now for a few tips on get\u00adting the most [points] out of your graders. Grad\u00ading a midterm takes 4\u20135 hours. As much as we try to assess each of you accord\u00ading to all the knowl\u00adedge of physics you demon\u00adstrat\u00aded, we are going to get tired and even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly parts of our brains are going to go on autopi\u00adlot. If your answers are in clear\u00adly marked box\u00ades (prefer\u00adably near the left side of the page) and they are right, there is a reduced chance of any error in your work being marked off.<\/b> If an answer is wrong, but it\u2019s in a box near the left side of the page imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly below the work that pro\u00adduced it, then it is very easy for us to find the one lit\u00adtle error and give you most of the points. I know hav\u00ading all the answers in one box at the bot\u00adtom of the page feels con\u00adcise, but if one of them is wrong we have no idea where on the page to look for the mis\u00adtake. On a relat\u00aded note, it is bet\u00adter if you work one part of a prob\u00adlem and then work the next one below it. Believe it or not, grad stu\u00addents can get con\u00adfused if part c is to the right of part b instead of below it. It\u2019s sil\u00adly, but after a few hours of grad\u00ading that\u2019s the way we are, so you might as well not let it hurt you. As a gen\u00ader\u00adal rule, each line on the page should only have one equa\u00adtion or state\u00adment on it. (pic\u00adtures exclud\u00aded)<\/b> You may use up more pages that way, but there\u2019s no short\u00adage of blue books.<\/li>\n
  7. When\u00adev\u00ader pos\u00adsi\u00adble, draw a pic\u00adture. Not only will it help you think, but it also helps us know what you were think\u00ading.<\/b> If you are not absolute\u00adly con\u00adfi\u00addent in your solu\u00adtion, a minute spent draw\u00ading a decent pic\u00adture is prob\u00ada\u00adbly worth it in terms of par\u00adtial cred\u00adit. Too often I\u2019ve sus\u00adpect\u00aded a stu\u00addent knew more than their answer indi\u00adcat\u00aded, but they did\u00adn\u2019t leave a good record of their thought process so I could\u00adn\u2019t grant par\u00adtial cred\u00adit. And that makes me sad. (Orga\u00adniz\u00ading graph\u00adics are also great anti\u00addotes to pan\u00adic, see Tip 5.)<\/li>\n
  8. When you get an answer, check that it makes sense. Neg\u00ada\u00adtive lengths and times are often indi\u00adca\u00adtors that you\u2019ve made a mis\u00adtake<\/b>, as are e.g. mega\u00adCoulomb charges and kilo\u00adAmp cur\u00adrents. If this hap\u00adpens to you, go look for the error and fix it. If you can\u2019t find it, let us know that you don\u2019t like the answer and why. One of the eas\u00adi\u00adest ways to tell that some\u00adone is lost is if they give you a non-phys\u00adi\u00adcal answer and don\u2019t blink. As a physi\u00adcist, it is much eas\u00adi\u00ader to grade lenient\u00adly if a stu\u00addent indi\u00adcates that they under\u00adstand why the result of their cal\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adtion can\u2019t be right.<\/b> If noth\u00ading else, the grad\u00ading rubric often has a point des\u00adig\u00adnat\u00aded just for hav\u00ading a result that could be true. You\u2019ll at least get that.<\/li>\n
  9. It is well known that hav\u00ading good hand\u00adwrit\u00ading improves the atti\u00adtude of those grad\u00ading your exam. What is less well known is that hav\u00ading tiny hand\u00adwrit\u00ading can hurt you.<\/b> Often what is per\u00adfect\u00adly leg\u00adi\u00adble to you while you are curled up with your nose 12 inch\u00ades from the paper makes our eyes hurt after the third or fourth hour of grad\u00ading. Obvi\u00adous\u00adly this vast\u00adly reduces the incen\u00adtive to hunt for that tiny lit\u00adtle math error you made in part a. This is not a small mat\u00adter. I, for one, tend to get a migraine when I bend over small text for too long. So imag\u00adine a three hour migraine and then gauge the incen\u00adtive to just mark you off so I can stop look\u00ading at your paper. Find a test that you have tak\u00aden recent\u00adly. If you (or bet\u00adter, a friend) can\u2019t clear\u00adly read your text at arm\u2019s length, you might con\u00adsid\u00ader con\u00adscious\u00adly writ\u00ading larg\u00ader on all tests from now on. Grad\u00ading fatigue isn\u2019t lim\u00adit\u00aded to physics TAs.<\/b> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And that\u2019s what Ben has to say about that. Hope it helps you out as finals draw nigh. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ben Shank is a Ph.D. can\u00addi\u00addate in physics at Stan\u00adford, where he also serves as a teach\u00ading assis\u00adtant (TA) for an under\u00adgrad physics course. At our recent Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading par\u00adty he began rat\u00adtling off advice to one of our stu\u00addents on how to get bet\u00adter grades in physics (or almost any tech\u00adni\u00adcal course). Said stu\u00addent was \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cHow To Get Bet\u00adter Grades In Physics\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-integration","category-resources-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-Ku","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}