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

Robob

All the stuff you need to know is in the boxes.

The OCR B course is very clear about what you need to know, there's a list at the end of each chapter and a checklist on the CD. Tell me how it could be any clearer?

I dont have a CD, well i got some kind of copy of one but i cant open any of the programs on it, so its basically for decorative effect. You cant defend the book based on the summary sections. Yes there is a summary but thats not all the info. If you learnt them off by heart then that would not be enough to pass. Therefore you need the rest of the textbook which is just like a big story. I admit some parts are described well, coming to mind is Sieverts and all that stuff. However its not the sort of book you can take notes from and its just a pain when you want to look up a formula. I have had to buy revision guides and get books out of the libary because it such a pain to use.

Reply 64

Hardest thing about the magnetism and currents parts of the syllabus (all the hand rules, lenz's law etc.) was realising that they are all just looking at exactly the same phenomenon but expressed slightly differently; not different laws at all. Lenz's law is simple a result of the hand rules etc and conservation of energy.

Reply 65

ok, thank you fointy. Ill look over it again with that in mind.

Reply 66

Rid1n

A the start of the year I thought how am I supposed to get my head round unit 1 when there is so much to learn from the book. Then when reading the book I had realised it was more like a history book with full of stories and nothing exam related apart from the yellow boxes. But I agree to what everyone or most of you guys are saying - the book is rubish!
The exam is not bad actually becuase section A easy 20 marks section C easy 27 marks (thats only if its a typical section C and none of those suprisy ones) and section B is more about calculus than anything else.

Reply 67

calculus????? i don't think ocr b has that in the course. It might show the equations but all you get marks for will be drawing a tangent to a graph or something. It's pretty rubbish.

I need to learn how to best answer those annoying molecule question on how they collide and transfer energy and all that.

Reply 68

Krystal

OP

1

Ok Guys.....A2 OCRBers....

Who's up for some discussion on the pre-released article? The kind of questions that can come up are on the gosford hill website but I think they are a bit limited on the equations front. Theres gonna be loads about magnetism, induction, waves, radioactive decay and fusion i reckon. Some questions I wanted to ask and didnt really understand:

Self-exciting dynamo - is that basically how any of real generator's work? Feeding in some of the power produced by it to create the magnetic field to keep the generator going?

Ive never understood, in fact never remembered the S and P waves thing in terms of earthquakes and that...?

There is a diagram Fig 1 on the article- It has letters most probably for labelling: whats A B and F? A looks like the north pole right? Is F meant to be anything?

Any other pointers and discussion most welcome!

Reply 69

Robob

17

jack2308

I dont have a CD, well i got some kind of copy of one but i cant open any of the programs on it, so its basically for decorative effect. You cant defend the book based on the summary sections. Yes there is a summary but thats not all the info. If you learnt them off by heart then that would not be enough to pass. Therefore you need the rest of the textbook which is just like a big story. I admit some parts are described well, coming to mind is Sieverts and all that stuff. However its not the sort of book you can take notes from and its just a pain when you want to look up a formula. I have had to buy revision guides and get books out of the libary because it such a pain to use.

Well that's you school's fault not the course's.

The summary sections tell you everything you need to know, if you know everything in them (and understand it) you'll get an A.

It's ridiculously simple.

Reply 70

i've avoided actually learning from the book and have been using other textbooks and stuff. you're saying i should try and decipher the course textbook now?

And yeah it'll be good to discuss the pre-release. I think i saw a thread on it somewhere, ah yes....
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=582841

i'll join in that but i think i need to read through the article again first.

Reply 71

Robob

Well that's you school's fault not the course's.

The summary sections tell you everything you need to know, if you know everything in them (and understand it) you'll get an A.

It's ridiculously simple.

To 'understand' the summary sections you should be able to get the info from inside the book. Thats the point, its a textbook for the course not a set of flash cards for revision. The other thing there are a lot of people who hate this book not just me.

Reply 72

Robob

17

jack2308

To 'understand' the summary sections you should be able to get the info from inside the book. Thats the point, its a textbook for the course not a set of flash cards for revision. The other thing there are a lot of people who hate this book not just me.

They are summaries of what's in the chapter...

I remember them having big yellow (?) boxes explaining everything important.

Reply 73

Robob

They are summaries of what's in the chapter...

I remember them having big yellow (?) boxes explaining everything important.

Purple 'You Have Learned' that are at about every 5 pages. They are useful but not everything. I use this book sometimes but others are better and easier to find answers when you get stuck on a question.

Reply 74

I tried reading it again but i just get too annoyed when i find something obviously wrong that i despair and go and read a good textbook instead.

I got about 5 pages in (skim reading over the crap about rabbits and breeding cus it is completely superflous non-information) and got to a bit about water clocks. It said that the the rate of water leaking out of the bottom depended on the pressure and that will be exactly proportional to the height as long as the container has a constant cross-section. Now I'm not a member of the Institute of Physics but even I'm aware that the volume makes no difference to the pressure and it is only the height of water above that relates to pressure.

the book sucks.

Reply 75