Hey Everyone!

So the first midterm is on Monday and I was wondering if anyone could provide any advice on how I should prepare for this midterm? What sort of questions to expect? The difficulty? Also if anyone has any midterms from the past that they wouldn't mind sharing, please message me!

Thanks a ton!

Have you checked out .. http://www.physics.mcmaster. ca/phys1b03/ and click on Old Tests and Exams.

I took it in the summer, but found the questions straight forward, and pretty much like those ^.



I may be wrong but I believe last year the class average was 53% on the midterm. And there were a lot of complaints about it =/

I wasn't aware of that link, thanks! Who taught you the course when you took it over the summer?

Ken Sills, who was pretty awesome. Enjoyable demonstrations (+ labs).

I'm pretty sure the average on both midterms last semester was just under 50% :/ I felt really good about my 7 in the course when I found that out...

I took this course in the winter of 2010. Our class average was around 80 for the first test and in the 60s for the second test. The mark you get pretty much depends on how many problems you do as practice. So do as many as you can. Redo all the capas and do all the questions in the textbook that have answers. I did all the questions on the solution manual first, because they had most of the difficult questions solved step by step. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Ardougne

I took this course in the winter of 2010. Our class average was around 80 for the first test and in the 60s for the second test. The mark you get pretty much depends on how many problems you do as practice. So do as many as you can. Redo all the capas and do all the questions in the textbook that have answers. I did all the questions on the solution manual first, because they had most of the difficult questions solved step by step. Good luck!

80s and 60s?... wow... who was the prof?


last term the avgs were about low 50s for both

Hey guys,

I am a medical physics grad student who tutors physics. If anyone is looking for some extra help in 1B03, my email is [email protected]

-Brent

I think the best way is to do practice problems, but as you are doing the practice problems make sure you know understand the theory behind it. I don't know how physics was in your high school but mine was purely equation based, well we learned theory but it was needed in the kinds of questions asked. In university, I was quite surprised when there were questions based purely on theory.

I understand that concepts that are being applied and I don't struggle at all with any of the material covered in lectures or the CAPA questions. However, I haven't yet attempted to try practice problems from the textbook (b/c I didn't purchase a solutions manual), I will over the weekend though. Do the questions on the midterm resemble those from CAPA? Or the practice midterms posted in the link posted above? Thanks!

I took physics last semester and I'd definitely recommend doing the capa questions again, as well as the practice midterms.

Rheinsttaaaddderrrr

Forget about doing the problems. Understand the physics, and how it all links together.

Then when you do the problem :

Figure out what they are askng. (do you understand what voltage is for example?)

Link what you know to what the question wants.

Create a step by step process to solve the problem.

NOTE: You don't need to do the capa. If there's multiple choice then you have to understand the concept.
Trying to solving a mathematical physics problem without knowing the physics is like trying to learn a language by reading a novel.