Ugh Physics!!

[jesskiss312]

Hey guys. I am taking my test next saturday and I am so incredibly nervous about it. My grade on physics is soo bad when I practice and I just don't know what to do at this point. I've been using all of kaplans stuff. I wanted to know if anyone has any advice as to scoring points on this section. Is it better to jump around to questions I know, or to take my time and fill in random B's in the last 5min? Any advice would be great. Thanks!

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[pre_opt_sku]

Hey guys. I am taking my test next saturday and I am so incredibly nervous about it. My grade on physics is soo bad when I practice and I just don't know what to do at this point. I've been using all of kaplans stuff. I wanted to know if anyone has any advice as to scoring points on this section. Is it better to jump around to questions I know, or to take my time and fill in random B's in the last 5min? Any advice would be great. Thanks!

You will have plenty of time for the physics section. As long as you remember the formulas, the questions are very straightforward. Good luck.

 

[jesskiss312]

You will have plenty of time for the physics section. As long as you remember the formulas, the questions are very straightforward. Good luck.

thanks. i just do horribly on the kaplan..maybe the actual exam is easier or something. i really hope

 

[lemonhead43]

thanks. i just do horribly on the kaplan..maybe the actual exam is easier or something. i really hope

when i took the oats last year, the physics portion was similar to kaplan but what i saw was that it was very conceptual in the most part. so what im doin now to study for the physics portion is im goin onto www.wikipedia.org and reading over the concepts. surpriseingly, they also have examples of the concepts ie. thermodynamics, newtons laws, etc. i know that the oats when i took it has a lot of friction problems. hope this helps. good luck on ur exam!!!

 

[scvcstar]

Hey! Don't worry, I'm doing really bad in Kaplan physics too...just keep reading those explanations!! Eventually it'll start to click and you'll start to remember some things...I know that when I read explanations, I understand them and then forget them in like 2 hours. But the questions repeat themselves in various ways, and by the 6th time you've seen a similar problem, you should slightly remember how to do them. =)

But yeah, I've heard that the real OAT's are more conceptual than problem-solving...so check out Sparknotes Physics at http://www.sparknotes.com/physics/index.html and the SAT II quick review at http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/physics/

Good luck! I'm taking my test next Wednesday. Ahhh!! =)

 

[iiiimonica]

yeah sign me up for the i hate physics club! i was scoring around 240-270 on the practice tests and decided to just skip doing them because it was to depressing! so day of the oat comes (fall 03 so still paper only) and i am chugging along thinking "yeah i got this mother hubbard" and then i get to physics and my next thoughts are - "oh well i guess it's feb oat for me". i ran out of time and guessed the last 10 - yup random bcbcbcbcbc. i ended up with a 330 on the physics section! it was SWEET.

so i am sending you all good physics score karma, circa 2003

 

[scvcstar]

lol THANKS!

yeah I've gotten 290 on physics for both the midterm AND final...I just took the 5th physics subject test yesterday and by the time I got to #25 (out of 40!), I was already like, "ugh...just want to give up now..." I think I went and had dinner and came back. =P

 

[catzeye523]

Hey,

Don't stress too much over the physics section. I was going through the same thing...scoring HORRIBLY on practice exams, yet I ended up knowing more than I thought when I took the OAT. Physics was sadly one of my weaker subjects in undergrad, but I pulled through with a 330...not spectacular, but definitely not horrible either. I agree with everyone else...study the concepts, especially Newton's Laws and know the Kinematics equations like the back of your hand because I rememeber there were at least 2-3 questions on those...along with elastic and inelastic collisions and friction. If you are stuck on a question, mark it and go to the next. Do not waste time staring at one question for too long because you could be using that time to knock down the next 2 or 3 questions for more points. Skip around, get to the end, then go back...if you only have 3-5 minutes left, you might as well do the "bcbcbcbc" thing to whatever is left. It's better than leaving anything blank.

Good Luck! Relax, and you'll be fine.

 

[jesskiss312]

Hey,

Don't stress too much over the physics section. I was going through the same thing...scoring HORRIBLY on practice exams, yet I ended up knowing more than I thought when I took the OAT. Physics was sadly one of my weaker subjects in undergrad, but I pulled through with a 330...not spectacular, but definitely not horrible either. I agree with everyone else...study the concepts, especially Newton's Laws and know the Kinematics equations like the back of your hand because I rememeber there were at least 2-3 questions on those...along with elastic and inelastic collisions and friction. If you are stuck on a question, mark it and go to the next. Do not waste time staring at one question for too long because you could be using that time to knock down the next 2 or 3 questions for more points. Skip around, get to the end, then go back...if you only have 3-5 minutes left, you might as well do the "bcbcbcbc" thing to whatever is left. It's better than leaving anything blank.

Good Luck! Relax, and you'll be fine.

is the bcbc thing better than just picking one letter and putting those for the ones you skip?

 

[catzeye523]

is the bcbc thing better than just picking one letter and putting those for the ones you skip?

To be honest, I just went "bbbb" for whatever may have been left, if any. I was just quoting the person before me. It's just all about randomness since you have no clue what the answer is, meaning you can't cancel one option out. I don't think it makes a difference which letter you would choose because you're still answering that question blindly.

 

[lemonhead43]

hey guys, i found another website that would help with the physics portion. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html its called hyperphysics and they have a pretty good breakdown of physics in general. this goes into a lot more detail than the sparknotes website i posted earlier. hope it helps and good luck

 

[Rachael1285]

Studying physics for the MCAT is really making me angry. I have never liked physics, and now for some reason no matter how carefully I read the lectures, I don't do as well as I'd like on the practice tests. I'm using Examkrackers, but my pre-med advisor has the Kaplan set from I think 2 years ago that someone gave her, so I'm thinking about borrowing the physics book from her to see if maybe a little different form of explanation would help. I always think I understand the concepts until I see them in an actual problem....