Okay so apparently I have to complete Physics 1B03 by next year since I did not take in my first year (Life Sciences). I wanted to ask, how much harder is Physics 1BB3 than Physics 1B03? Because I'm not sure if I should take 1BB3 next year, or take it in my third year. Would I "lose the flow" if I wait till my third year to take 1BB3?

I didn't find the difficulty difference to be to great. I thought the material was pretty easy to understand. Be prepared to memorize formulas or learn to derive them.

I wouldn't think you would lose the flow. They cover mostly different material, check out the attachments.

Most people I've talked to about it consider 1BB3 easier than 1B03...Simply because of the material covered. Many students struggle with fluids and waves (Simple Harmonic Motion) because math is not their strong suit...this material is found in 1B03.

If you're decent enough with math, sines, cosines, changing variables...then Simple Harmonic Motion should be no sweat, and then 1B03 and 1BB3 shouldn't be too bad.

The course expectations are almost identical, except that 1B03 has weekly, 2 hour labs, while 1BB3 has bi-weekly 3 hour labs with write ups (which can be annoying).

But the labs in 1BB3 were a lot more interesting than the ones in 1B03.

Correction:

jhan found the labs in 1BB3 more interesting. (As did I)


Some people hate electricity and magnetism, and prefer things like momentum and kinematics. To these people, the labs in 1B03 were more interesting. Interest is a relative term.


EDIT: Haha...they say "You teach electricians about plumbing by using electrical analogies. You teach the rest of the world about electricty using plumbing analogies."

Lol, that's true.

The reason I liked 1BB3 labs better than 1B03 isn't because of the material though. I just found it boring to just look at a screen the entire time and push carts around. In 1BB3 you get to use different objects and materials, look at cool equipement (like the hydrogen spectrum thing). There was something different every lab.

True enough. But I always felt like in 1B03 the information was tangible...and in 1BB3 you had to 'trust' the apparatus.

It wasn't something intuitive like, "hey, I see cars moving this way every day" and instead was "Whoooooa, some scientist I've never even met built this machine that I'm supposed to believe will do yadda yadda."

I'm not calling its validity into question...merely my personal experience with said apparatus. What does this machine mean to me?

That is true. But where would we be in as a society if we didn't trust what others have made? XD

But yeah, it all comes down to what the individual likes. I'm positive there are people that like to look at a screen all day and analyze the data that way.

But surely, 1BB3 is not an easy 11+ course, right? I mean, how were the midterms, lab gradings, final exam, etc?

I think it's very possible to get an 11 in the course... I ended up with a 10 in the course and that's with leaving lectures 10 minutes early and studying last minute. I was on top of my labs, but at the beginning it was hard to adapt to what they were looking for. It's very different from 1B03 labs (which is like a guaranteed 90%+), but I did manage to get a low to a mid 80 average in the labs.

Final exam was somewhat easy, I believe I scored equal or slightly higher than what I was going in with. I think the midterms were about the same difficulty.

iClickers are pretty much guaranteed 90%+ if you attend all the classes, she only counted half of the iClickers and you get 1pt for trying and 2pts for getting the right answer.

It's definitely possible to get 11+ on the course. As long as you study and understand the concepts it's not too difficult.

The main difference between 1B03 and 1BB3 that I found is that the material is a lot more conceptual than in 1B03. I didn't find the waves to be too bad as the derivations of formulas made sense unlike the kinematics ones that I fail to remember.