How to be good at A-Level Maths Mechanics?

I absolutely HATED mechanics to start with. I couldn't understand it at all and got really depressed in mechanics lessons feeling so hopeless and stupid!!

Practice, practice, practice.
That's my best advice really.

I've just go my results from M1 (AQA) and will be doing M2 as part of further maths next year. To be honest I'm kind of dreading it because I struggled to get to grips with Mechanics at first (and I'm the only one in my further maths class who hasn't taken physics) but I kept going through past papers and revising modules with the help of one of my teachers and managed to come out with an A in the exam this year!

Just keep trying and soon enough it will click, then you'll wonder how you ever found it difficult.

I completely agree with the post above.

I absolutely HATED mechanics to start with. I couldn't understand it at all and got really depressed in mechanics lessons feeling so hopeless and stupid!!
For M2, I couldn't answer a single question, and I got a D in my first mock.

Then... I went through every example and every question in the textbook and it became my favourite subject and I got 100 in M2!!!! My best module

Go through every example, every question and post any questions you have on here.
There are some absolutely LOVELY, remarkably clever people on here who can help you. They helped me so much (ghostwalker in particular)

This is exactly how I felt! I think there's a pattern emerging here :P

as the title says i want to be good at modules like m1, m2 etc
so i would be grateful if anyone can tell me from his own experience

Thank you

I completely agree with the post above.

I absolutely HATED mechanics to start with. I couldn't understand it at all and got really depressed in mechanics lessons feeling so hopeless and stupid!!
For M2, I couldn't answer a single question, and I got a D in my first mock.

Then... I went through every example and every question in the textbook and it became my favourite subject and I got 100 in M2!!!! My best module

Go through every example, every question and post any questions you have on here.
There are some absolutely LOVELY, remarkably clever people on here who can help you. They helped me so much (ghostwalker in particular)

Hey, did M1 - 4 here. For M1 and M2 it's all about practice and understanding. Make sure you understand the what resolving forces means and how you do it. Make sure you understand how the energy of a system changes as something moves. DO PAST PAPERS! I can't stress enough how important past papers are. You need to have some idea of what situations are most likely to arise in exam papers and how you would tackle them.

I did all the past papers, making sure I understood everything and why I was using certain formulas and resolving in certain directions and using the right equations of motion.

Ended up getting 95% in M1 and 100% in M2 (edexcel) by doing these things.

M3 and M4 are more about the understanding than the practicing in my opinion, but you didn't ask about them so I assume you're not doing them.

I'm thinking of doing M3 and M4? What scores did you get and how did you achieve them?

How many months of practice would you say you needed for M2 content wise before you went to start past papers? For example, if you start M2, M3 right now, when should you finish it by and start papers?

M2 is quite a small module without much in it, it introduces variable acceleration, newtons law of restitution and centres of masses, which although they are not hard, they are completely new and can be hard to understand to start with. So if you were to do about 4 hours practice a week I would say you can cover the whole book in 4 - 5 weeks easily. But I would say to finish a chapter then do some past paper questions based on that chapter before moving on. Then when you finish you should be pretty set to do full past papers and get quite good grades.

I self taught M1 and that's what I did for that. I had a teacher for M2 though.

M3 is a bitch of a module. Basically completely new topics, simple harmonic motion, circular motion, 3D centers of mass which require volumes of revolution. If you haven't done C4 there really isn't too much point starting M3, but if you have then you could probably finish M3 in about 6 weeks.. You could easily finish both M2 and M3 by christmas if you started now. At least I did (I had teachers for both though).

M4 was an amazing module, my favorite module. The exam didn't go to plan though, it was hard paper for me with 65/75 being 100% UMS if I remember correctly, despite this I still didn't do too well. You NEED FP2 to do M4, it has lots of first and second order differential equations but is a tiny module (the new book is about 104 pages I think). The content is not hard but you have to understand it. I personally found it easier than M3, but messed up the exam.

I ended up with

M1: 95
M2: 100
M3: 86
M4: 77

Thanks for the detailed answer. Much appreciated and repped. Might PM you if that's okay

Can't rep at the moment but will do so.

as the title says i want to be good at modules like m1, m2 etc
so i would be grateful if anyone can tell me from his own experience

Thank you

I donot understand calculus , will I understand Mechanics?