Physics Phobia

[internetwop]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here. Just wondering if anyone could give advice for the physics portion of the MCAT. I'm really lousy when it comes to physics & want to know best way I can tackle it! I started studying for the August MCAT...I hope 2 1/2 months is enough time to prepare!! It's difficult to get the energy to do this since I just got done with the semester!!!! Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[btowngirl]

I too was worried about the physics portion becuase I felt like I didn't understand much of the physics I took in school. But, I found that the physics on the MCAT is pretty easy relative to the bio and gchem portions. And physical science ended up being my best section on all the practice exams (12s consistently). You don't actually have to understand that much about physics. Just know the important equations and read the passages well. I often could figure out the equation to use to determine the unknown and just plugged numbers in when needed. Also, be confident. If you feel like you won't do well, then you not only have to master the material, but you have an uphill battle against yourself. Accept that you won't get all the questions right. Practice is important because you can get the feel for questions and maybe learn little tricks for yourself to get around difficult appearing questions. Good luck!

 

[btowngirl]

I forgot to mention one other thing. I used EK 1001 physics questions. It was unbelievably helpful. Doing question after question helped me understand my weak areas. In the end, my weak areas became my strengths becuase I had done so many questions. Yes it is true there are no passages, but if you aren't a real solid physics person, than this book will definitely help. Use it at the same time that you go over the physics material. You will find that problems are not as difficult as they first appear.

 

[javandane]

i've actually found EK's audio osmosis fairly helpful in conceptualizing physics. i was never a solid physics student, but i also never attended lecture b/c my profs were amazingly dull. however, i find that when concepts are explained in a somewhat colorful way, they tend to stick.

 

[internetwop]

thanks everyone for the advice!!

internetwop

 

[UseUrHeadFred]

I've found that breadth of knowledge is far more important than depth of knowledge on the physical sciences portion of the MCAT. The physics questions I had were really easy as long as you remembered the *MOST BASIC* concepts.

 

[IndyZX]

certain parts of EK physics were AWESOME: kinetics, E&M, optics, waves

unfortunately, they f*cked up their energy/heat sections (in both chem and physics) so badly, it was almost unreadable. talk about making something that isnt that hard into something barely comprehensible. they themselves said the MCAT tests of over BASIC physics, then they start throwing up useless (as far as the MCAT goes) physics trivia

 

[skiz knot]

I found it helpful to understand how the units were supposed to look in a correctly answered problem type. Often you can eliminate 3 wrong answers because of incorrect units. When there is more than one choice with the correct units it is easy to plug and chug the values from the problem or passage in a way that when cross multiplied they give the correct units, therefore the correct answer. This of course does not always work because you might not know the correct units for a given problem.
Beso of luck.

 

[N-toxicologist]

Lots of good advice here. I was deathly afraid of physics, to the point I had a serious mental block. I started doing some outside reading, some Stephen Hawking and stuff from Nature, etc. This just made me comfortable, and I lost the block. Knowing units, some basic equations, and general concepts helped. Sometimes, just plain common sense can eliminate some answer choices.

 

[jammin06]

indyzx, i just finished the thermo section of gen chem and the energy section of physics in EK and was thoroughly confused. I took a semester of thermodynamcis and i still couldn't figure out what the crap the book and questions were talking about. What resources did you use to make up for the sub-par presentation of the material by EK?

 

[IndyZX]

for thermo, i would just understand the core formulas and ignore that other stuff.

in EK, its way too complicated (PV work, non-PV work, etc). perhaps look through kaplans physics for thermo? i had the Kaplan big book, and it was sufficient; although, you may not even need that as long as you understand the formulas