Strategies and Resources for

Surviving First Year Physics

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Lecture Strategies

•Attend class as often as you can.

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•Listen carefully to what your instructor is saying.

•Take good notes - indicate in your notes which topics were confusing so that you can ask questions later.

•Read over your notes after class.

•Read the corresponding section in your textbook before class.

Homework Strategies•Start your homework as soon as you can.

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•Try all of the problems by yourself before asking for help.

•Its ok to work with other students in your class, but you won’t learn anything by copying. (Copying is considered plagiarism by the SFU Code of Academic Honesty. )

•Bring specific questions about the homework to Open Lab or Office Hours.

•The only way to learn to solve physics problems is by doing a lot of them.

Exam Studying Strategies

•Attend class as often as you can.

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•Do all of the assigned homework.

•Try to do some problems that were not assigned for homework.

•Read over your lecture notes.

•Read over the corresponding sections in your textbook.

•Don’t cram the night before - it doesn’t work for physics.

Open Lab Strategies•Try all of the homework problems

before you come to Open Lab.

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•Ask the TA’s specific questions - not just “Which formula do I use?”

•Do not expect the TA’s to tell you how to do the whole problem.

•Open Lab is a good place to work with your classmates in groups if there’s room.

•Don’t wait until right before the first exam to attend.

Tutorial Strategies•Participate fully in the tutorial activities.

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•Ask the TA’s some of the questions you couldn’t ask in lecture.

•Do not expect the TA’s to tell you how to do the homework in tutorial.

•Tutorial is a good place to meet classmates and form study groups.

•Don’t wait until right before the first exam to attend.

Resources•Instructor’s and TA’s Office Hours -

often under-utilized.

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•Student Learning Commons - help with problem solving, note taking, exam taking skills, time management etc...

•Tutors - a list of graduate students willing to tutor for a fee is available in the Physics Department Office.

•Extra-help tutorials - designed for those who score in the bottom 20% on the evaluation quiz given early in the semester.