How to Learn Physics Well?

Physics explores why and how the universe works, from subatomic to universe scales. It is the basic science that underlies all the natural sciences.

New discoveries by physicists can cause a dramatic shift in our perception of the world and contribute significantly to the development of society. Students learning physics nowadays all have the potential to become the ones who drive society forward in various fields. It is then particularly important to learn physics well and to build a good foundation in secondary school.

To find out more about what is physics, the video below may help.

But how can we learn physics well?

The first thing we need to know is the difficulty we might encounter when studying physics. It is only after we know the problem that we can suit the remedy to the case.

Main Difficulty: Hard to understand the concepts and apply the rules

A blend of multiple subjects

Because physics utilizes elements of other branches of sciences, biology and chemistry for example, it has the reputation of being more complicated than other sciences. Apart from that, mathematical skill is also significant in learning physics.

In O level Pure Physics and A Level H2 Physics, more than 50% of the marks require mathematical calculation.

The requirement of cross-subject abilities and the integrated knowledge makes physics very complicated and difficult to understand. Even though you have grasped a good understanding of basic physics principles, it’s still difficult to apply them to solve the real questions. That’s because each physics question often requires more than one knowledge point to solve. If you could not understand one topic and be able to apply it fully, you may have more difficulties in applying the knowledge in a cross-topic question.

In O Level physics syllabus, physics are divided into: Mechanics, Thermal Physics, Waves, Electricity, Magnetism.

In A level Physics syllabus, you will learn the following themes: Mechanics, Gravitational Field, Electric Field, Oscillations, Thermal Physics, Waves, Electricity, Magnetism, Electromagnetism, Quantum Physics, and Nuclear Physics.

Memorize =/= Understand

Also, many of us tend to memorize the concepts and formulas rather than understand and question them. In fact, we haven’t fully understood what we’ve learnt, we memorized them. Just memorizing everything doesn’t always work!

In O level Physics, you can get 30% of the total marks if you memorize the rules and directly use the formula, whereas in A level Physics, without a deep understanding, you may get at most 10%!

How can we solve these difficulties?