Is the physics in an Engineering degree much harder than A Level physics?
I want to become an engineer but I dont like physics and struggled with it at A Level. I’m considering changing my degree to a maths degree as I’m scared the physics in an engineering degree will be much too hard, if anyone is studying or has studied engineering please could you tell me how much harder the physics gets compared to A level.
Original post by amy.scerri
I want to become an engineer but I dont like physics and struggled with it at A Level. I’m considering changing my degree to a maths degree as I’m scared the physics in an engineering degree will be much too hard, if anyone is studying or has studied engineering please could you tell me how much harder the physics gets compared to A level.
The material will be quite a bit more challenging than A-level physics. However, not being the strongest at physics at this stage does not necessarily preclude you from being able to study engineering. Is physics something you could improve at if you worked on it more, or got some help, or are you basically allergic to physics type problems?
(edited 9 months ago)
Original post by amy.scerri
I want to become an engineer but I dont like physics and struggled with it at A Level. I’m considering changing my degree to a maths degree as I’m scared the physics in an engineering degree will be much too hard, if anyone is studying or has studied engineering please could you tell me how much harder the physics gets compared to A level.
Personally I'd argue the magnitude of difference (both in content and difficulty) between A-level Maths and a maths degree is several times that of a A-level Physics and an engineering degree.
Also worth noting that the physics you do in an engineering is largely more similar to the kind of mechanics you do in A-levle Maths than a lot of the physics you do in A-level Physics, since unlike A-level Physics it's not all about "command words" and "key words" but actually just setting up and solving the differential equations. Electronics/electricity and magnetism content does build directly on A-level Physics in an engineering degree, if you are doing one which incorporates those topics (which not all do).
Original post by amy.scerri
I want to become an engineer but I dont like physics and struggled with it at A Level. I’m considering changing my degree to a maths degree as I’m scared the physics in an engineering degree will be much too hard, if anyone is studying or has studied engineering please could you tell me how much harder the physics gets compared to A level.
Hi there,
I am a Mechanical Engineering student at Coventry University. I am not too sure you could say it becomes much too hard compared to A level physics, maybe the right way to put is that it is a step up in the level. Also, don't let Physics put you off, as for example say even if you are finding it difficult once you are at uni, you will have lots of support available to help you get through it. Once you have a good grasp of the concepts, it doesn't seem hard at all. It is basically representing engineering phenomena using functions and equations!
Kind regards,
Juzer
Coventry University Student Ambassador
Original post by Smack
The material will be quite a bit more challenging than A-level physics. However, not being the strongest at physics at this stage does not necessarily preclude you from being able to study engineering. Is physics something you could improve at if you worked on it more, or got some help, or are you basically allergic to physics type problems?
The reason I am worried is that although my maths is very strong (I did further maths at A level) I still struggled immensely with the maths questions in physics due to the wording of the questions. But isn't this just the application of maths, which is heavily used in engineering? Additionally, when revising for my A levels I spent the majority of my time revising physics and got extra help from teachers etc, yet I still found it extremely hard, harder than further maths, so I'm not entirely sure I will be able to improve, and maybe it is that I am allergic 😂
Original post by amy.scerri
The reason I am worried is that although my maths is very strong (I did further maths at A level) I still struggled immensely with the maths questions in physics due to the wording of the questions. But isn't this just the application of maths, which is heavily used in engineering? Additionally, when revising for my A levels I spent the majority of my time revising physics and got extra help from teachers etc, yet I still found it extremely hard, harder than further maths, so I'm not entirely sure I will be able to improve, and maybe it is that I am allergic 😂
Yes engineering degrees are essentially the application of physics, which itself is basically applied maths (for engineering purposes). For a taste of what you might encounter you could search YouTube (for example) for worked examples, tutorials, past paper exam questions, etc.
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