Love physics, hate physics A Level

Anyone else feel this way? Revising physics A Level is a pain in the bloody arse which is frustrating as it's such a fascinating subject imo. The questions are just so incredibly tedious, there's hardly any maths involved and the markscheme is always slightly different when a repeated question comes up. Why can't there be more emphasis on getting a long calculation right rather than counting squares to figure out the impulse or converting prefixes? **** you OCR A

Reply 1

TheFarmerLad

OP

22

@ombtom @Student403 @Zacken @physicsmaths

Reply 2

Student403

19

i do agree with you on the lack of maths part - I hate how many worded qs there are. But I don't mind revising Edexcel tbh but that's prob just cause I really like physics xD

Reply 3

TheFarmerLad

OP

22

Original post by Student403

i do agree with you on the lack of maths part - I hate how many worded qs there are. But I don't mind revising Edexcel tbh but that's prob just cause I really like physics xD

I just looked through a few edexcel papers, they're so much more interesting than ****ing OCR shite. OCR subtract marks when you leave your answer as an exact fraction and you lose marks if you use the trapezium rule instead of counting squares for impulse :biggrin:

Reply 4

Student403

19

Original post by TheFarmerLad

I just looked through a few edexcel papers, they're so much more interesting than ****ing OCR shite. OCR subtract marks when you leave your answer as an exact fraction and you lose marks if you use the trapezium rule instead of counting squares for impulse :biggrin:

Smh

I love maths much more because I you can use any method you like (unless specified - which makes it ez anyway) and get the right answer..

Today I imagined life without further maths. Could you imagine how boring it would be??

Omg YES I agree.

Original post by TheFarmerLad

Anyone else feel this way? Revising physics A Level is a pain in the bloody arse which is frustrating as it's such a fascinating subject imo. The questions are just so incredibly tedious, there's hardly any maths involved and the markscheme is always slightly different when a repeated question comes up. Why can't there be more emphasis on getting a long calculation right rather than counting squares to figure out the impulse or converting prefixes? **** you OCR A

Sums up my feelings perfectly.

Reply 7

TheFarmerLad

OP

22

Original post by Student403

Smh

I love maths much more because I you can use any method you like (unless specified - which makes it ez anyway) and get the right answer..

Today I imagined life without further maths. Could you imagine how boring it would be??

Totally agree, and there's always one right answer they're looking for, which makes it easier to score high on.

M1-3 has practically taught me half of physics a level, the rest of the physics mechanics modules are just thermodynamics (which I like) and wordy questions trying to trip you up (which I loathe)

Reply 8

Euclidean

11

Original post by TheFarmerLad

Anyone else feel this way? Revising physics A Level is a pain in the bloody arse which is frustrating as it's such a fascinating subject imo. The questions are just so incredibly tedious, there's hardly any maths involved and the markscheme is always slightly different when a repeated question comes up. Why can't there be more emphasis on getting a long calculation right rather than counting squares to figure out the impulse or converting prefixes? **** you OCR A

This drives me absolutely mad

Where the integrals at?

Reply 9

Palette

14

https://archive.org/details/AdvancedLevelPhysics

This is an A Level physics textbook from 1970 which heavily features calculus up to a C3/C4 level of knowledge. The mechanics section in some ways looks more like maths mechanics rather than physics mechanics. There are some bits that aren't covered (eg quarks) in that textbook but there are things featured there which we don't learn today (eg an integral sign with a circle on it). I may read this over the summer so that I can have a better understanding of physics.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 10

TheFarmerLad

OP

22

Original post by Euclidean

This drives me absolutely mad

Where the integrals at?

Lol so true. There was another question on finding the induced emf given a graph of mag flux against time, I differentiated and got the exact answer, MS said draw a tangent by eye and find the gradient :banghead:

Reply 11

TheFarmerLad

OP

22

Original post by Zacken

Sums up my feelings perfectly.

Am genuinely contemplating whether I'd enjoy revising STEP more than this crap. At least with STEP there's an answer to be found and they don't give af what method you use to get there!

Reply 12

Zacken

22

Original post by Palette

there are things featured there which we don't learn today (eg an integral sign with a circle on it

A path integral.

Reply 13

Zacken

22

Original post by TheFarmerLad

Am genuinely contemplating whether I'd enjoy revising STEP more than this crap. At least with STEP there's an answer to be found and they don't give af what method you use to get there!