Guest karl Posted August 13, 2001 Report Share Posted August 13, 2001 Does anyone have any tips for a guy who kind of has a bit of trouble with the numerical problems in the physics section? I understand the theories, but sometimes I just can't think in such a short anmount of time - as to what direction i should take with a particular problem. For example - Energy problems - there are different ways you can approach them - does anyone have any tips to simplifying physics - problem-solving??? Thnx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bibs74 Posted August 13, 2001 Report Share Posted August 13, 2001 From what I remember of the physical science section was that there were always alot of questions that made it look like they needed "number-crunching," and they really did not. One of the constant themes in the prep books to be able to identify these questions. By being aware of the concepts and looking at the choices, the answer sometimes was obvious (a simple example - question about ideal gases, asking you to determine the new pressure if volume was increased; you know that the pressure will decrease, out of the four choices there is only one value for pressure that is lower than the original). Also,simplifying your calculations is also key. If the values for the 4 choices aren't close to each other, simplify your calculations by rounding up/down the provided values: ie. if given a bunch of initial variables like a=9.8; b=147; c= 222; you could simplify them to a=10; b=150; c=220; making a much simpler calculation. If you are not doing these things already, you may want to because they will save you some time that you could use thinking out more complex problems. There are a ton of other tricks that I used, if you don't have it, get "The Gold Standard" book, it has a ton of tips for short cuts in physical science section. Good luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bill Posted August 14, 2001 Report Share Posted August 14, 2001 Generally the physics problems to not require anything other than simple math. If you find yourself doing difficult computations you are likely on the wrong track. I think the key on the physics section is to not be intimidated. If you understand the concepts just try to answer the question in the most intuitive way. Don't make it harder than it is. Once I took this approach I was able to inncrease my score from 10 to 14. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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