Who&#x27;s doing crappy Advancing Physics OCR B?

I'm doing Edexcel Salters Horners, which is probably just as bad, except coursework at AS is worth 100 ums :smile:

Reply 3

AdvancedWave

Oh God don't even get me started. The course is crap, the coursework is ****ing horrible. Most exam questions have nothing to do with physics. Not to mention that whole section C thing. I mean seriously how is that going to make me better at physics? Oh and the course "textbooks" are about as useless as... I'll think of something.

Reply 4

OP

haha....AS person! Dude honestly- unless u wanna be a physicist- drop it next year! trust me its the worst nightmare. While doing AS i thought OMG its SO bad- nothing compared to the grief at A2!

NO resources, HORRIBLE CD, Textbooks filled with random stories and some difficult physics which is explained NOwhere. So you really need fab teachers else you're screwed like me!

Reply 5

Ouch. Lucky i'm going to do AQA! ( I thought girls don't like physics anyway )

Reply 6

OP

AH! well i suppose most dont! but i think its THE most fundamental science. As a subject its the most interesting thing you could do.

Its just this course has just crushed the physics love out of me!

Reply 7

SouthernFreerider

12

im not bothered tbh.

mainly cause i can do well at it haha.

though section C **** is such *******s.

Reply 8

Wow that's bloody strange, most of my indian friends (im indian too) don't even like science, they just slap down biology and chemistry for medical careers. I seem to be the only one that enjoys sciences.

AQA specs didn't look too bad, some of the questions in the first unit I could answer quite nicely. Apparantly there isn't much of a jump in physics.

Why don't you complain to your college/sixth form? I hate it when schools choose pisspoor boards.

Reply 9

OP

You dont know- this advancing physics course is a joke amongst other science teachers in our school. LIterally everyone know how crap it is from our chem/bio teachers to our headteacher. But our head of science loves this course! apparantly it trains us for Uni. BUT if they keep going- NO-ONEs gonna TAKE physics at UNi so its their loss!

I love science! ppl say im mad but ive taken all sciences and maths. I hate it even more when they assume that- Oh ur indian-so THATS why you went for those choices. Im just like SHUT UP. I do them caus i like them! heee story of my life...

Reply 10

OP

anyway guys nice chatting with you. I still want to know whos doing this course so please tell me!
will return tommorrow.

Reply 11

Happyness

14

yh im doing this. I think you have really blown this out of all proportions. Its not that BAD. I mean if you dont like the CD or the book, why dont you use your class notes or the revision CD. someone said on here the question are not related to the syllabus. Well, erm, i think they are, its just that they are put into a real-world context.

THis course has gone on for 8 years; if it was that bad they would have stopped it way earlier. Dont tell me about the new changes in spec, because they are doing that for everything in OCR and nearly everyother board. I mean this course covers everything the QCA ask for in a physics alevel, so its not easier or harder than the other boards.

IF you want to revise from the book, my teacher advises JUST learn the yellow boxes because my teacher has covered the substance of the text in his class notes. One thing you have to agree is the rev cd is brill. Also A2 papers are way more cooler than AS.

Reply 12

Drummy

10

I think OCR B is fantastic.

by the way I have taught AQA, JMB and Nuffield too so my views are based on valid comparisons. And I am very familiar with the others.

In terms of content there's not much difference between all of them, there's not allowed to be thanks to QCA. But I like the up to date, problem solving approach (which evolved out of Nuffield) and the support materials are very good.
It is the only course developed with the Insitute of Physics.The kids I teach it to enjoy it a lot and do very well.

Section C is a bit daft but that disappears in September 2008.

Reply 13

OP

@ Drummy - seriously? thats quite amazing then because its exactly the opposite in our school. No-one likes it. Not one person- and thats what 30ish people. I think it depends entirely on how good the teachers are. Ours- one of them doesnt have any experience in this course (or frankly with physics it seems). Neither of them use the CD/textbook/revision CD to teach so we dont know what we need for the course. Its great learning all those things but at the end of the day u have to give an exam.

I cant believe you think the support material is good though- i think i have literally not one single resource that I can use independently- that heres this book- if I learn everything on it I'm sorted. Its more like- where do I get good notes for this topic from- where is this topic explained well. too much sifting - not enough work. All i wanna do is some decent straightforward physics. Is it too much to ask?

Reply 14

Krystal

You dont know- this advancing physics course is a joke amongst other science teachers in our school. LIterally everyone know how crap it is from our chem/bio teachers to our headteacher. But our head of science loves this course! apparantly it trains us for Uni. BUT if they keep going- NO-ONEs gonna TAKE physics at UNi so its their loss!

I love science! ppl say im mad but ive taken all sciences and maths. I hate it even more when they assume that- Oh ur indian-so THATS why you went for those choices. Im just like SHUT UP. I do them caus i like them! heee story of my life...

only thing I hate being indian is, no career is a 'wow' unless its medicine/dentistry.. really annoys me sometimes

Reply 15

Robob

17

Krystal

@ Drummy - seriously? thats quite amazing then because its exactly the opposite in our school. No-one likes it. Not one person- and thats what 30ish people. I think it depends entirely on how good the teachers are. Ours- one of them doesnt have any experience in this course (or frankly with physics it seems). Neither of them use the CD/textbook/revision CD to teach so we dont know what we need for the course. Its great learning all those things but at the end of the day u have to give an exam.

I cant believe you think the support material is good though- i think i have literally not one single resource that I can use independently- that heres this book- if I learn everything on it I'm sorted. Its more like- where do I get good notes for this topic from- where is this topic explained well. too much sifting - not enough work. All i wanna do is some decent straightforward physics. Is it too much to ask?

IIRC, they have boxes at the end of each part of each chapter with everything you need to know.

Also there's a checklist on the CD of what you need to know.

It couldn't really be much clearer.

Reply 16

OP

If you say so... :smile:

@ trance addict- im going to do medicine too so ur probably like OMG no not another one. But again- unlike most people who just do it caus they are indian- and thats whats been drummed into them, I have genuine love and reasons for doing the subject. Honestly- I would have gone for physics had I been bright enough for it but it would have been just beyond my grasp.

Reply 17