Running Head: STUDY STRATEGIES FOR PHYSICS
Study Strategies for Physics: A Guide
Mohammed Rafey
University of Georgia
Department of Math and Science Education
Aderhold Hall
Athens, GA 30602
rafey96@uga.edu
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1. Introduction:
When most people hear their advisor tell them that they have to take physics, their body
fills up with a sense of dread. I know I sure felt that way even though my major was
Astrophysics. I knew what I had signed up for, but the beginning courses were hard and I
struggled a lot, but over time I learned a few study habits that made these classes a lot easier. For
most people, physics seems daunting because of two things: The math involved and the general
mindset of the populace.
As is the case for a sizeable portion of the population, math is one of the toughest
subjects around as it involves understanding a maelstrom of concepts and intertwined equations.
So, when you take this already daunting subject and combine it with a science that focuses on
understanding the laws of universe, you get the bane of all students’ existence: physics. The
universe is complex place with complex systems that governs how everything behaves. So, it
stands to reason that the science dedicated to understanding such a complex place will be hard,
and then we are adding math to top it all off. It also seems like a daunting task to study physics
when students come into the course already convinced that they will have a hard time.
Mindset is important when learning physics, and if students already come in with a
defeatist mindset, they will have a difficult time when faced with confusing concepts as they will
give up a lot more easily. So, it is important to try to check our biases and preconceived notions
about physics when we take a course related to it. Here is the most important lesson for physics
students: The learning process is difficult. If a student is doing homework or studying and there
is no struggle, there is no learning. Without confusion, the student either already understood it or
never tried. So, there will be a struggle to learn, but following these few tips will help students
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study effectively and struggle a little less: collaborating with fellow students, actively learning,
getting enough sleep, reading the texts, and practicing working the problems.
2. Collaboration:
One of the key things I learned during my time as an undergrad is that collaborating with
others will help learning in the long run. First and foremost, the students have to try to work out
the problems and concepts on their own, but after a while, if there is still no breakthrough, there
is no shame in either working with other students or asking the instructor/teacher for help. The
key to success in any collaborative activity is the total involvement of all parties involved. A
study by Van Boxtel et al. found that “individual learning outcomes were related to the
participation of a student in the interaction” as a study group (2000, pg. 72). This means that
when working on problems or studying for an exam as group, all students need to actively
participate in the discussions. The discussions could be related to the underlying concept of the
problem or the steps to solving the problem itself. Van Boxtel et al.’s results suggested that “the
amount of collaborative elaborative interaction is especially related to individual outcomes. More
collaborative elaborative interaction in the dyads was associated with higher scores for the
posttest” (2000, pg. 72). So, students who actively participate in study groups tend to score better
on their exams as they have a better understanding of the concepts and problems.
Collaboration for learning physics does not have to be limited to just physics specific
study groups. One other way to participate in collaborative activities that improve a students’
understanding of physics is by observing tutoring videos as a group. Now, I know this sounds a
little confusing, but it is rather simple. We live in a world that is dominated by technology, and
this technology has found its way into our classrooms by way of the Internet. So, it is in our best
interest to utilize this tool to help us improve our understanding of tough concepts. During this
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activity, students observe a tutoring session in which the students are able to listen to the
dialogue between the tutor and the tutee without being able to participate in the session. Recent
studies have found that observational learning as well as observing worked problems are
effective avenues for learning concepts (Craig et al., pg. 779). However, it has been noted that
when students collaboratively observe a tutoring session, meaning they are collaboratively
solving problems while observing a tutoring session, “they tend to have more active
collaboration, which is followed by increases on long-term learning measures. This finding
provides more evidence that active learning can improve learning from observing” (Craig et al.,
2009, pg. 787). Results also show that collaboratively observing tutoring favors long-term
retention and transfer of knowledge (Craig et al., 2009, pg. 785).
The biggest advantage to collaborating in order to study for physics is that even when the
group temporarily fails at obtaining the right answer, the group members still greatly benefit
from having taken part in the problem solving session. This phenomenon is referred to as
“Productive Failure.” It was first identified in quantitative studies in computer-supported
collaborative learning. Research has shown that students who fail at a low-structured physics
problem solving activity tend to score higher on subsequent high-structured problem solving
activities than their peers who succeeded at a high-structured problem solving activity (Pathak et
al., 2011, pg. 57). This study indicates that students who have to navigate through a problem
solving activity on their own without many supports tend to perform better on subsequent
activities. Their success could be attributed to the fact that even though they struggled and failed
in the initial activity, they gained valuable insight into their own critical thinking abilities. These
students had to draw upon their prior knowledge and apply it to this activity in which they were
given close to zero support. The honing of their critical thinking abilities and the opportunity to
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engage deeply with the problems helped the students in their subsequent problem solving
sessions even though they failed in their initial activity. So, the point of productive failure is that
even when we fail as a group, we should not view collaboration as a negative studying tool. For,
even though we did not arrive at the right solution to the problem, we will have benefited by
having to sharpen our critical thinking abilities.
3. Active Learning:
If you have ever taken an English or Literature course in high school or college, you will
definitely have heard your instructor say something along the lines of “you need to be actively
engaged with your text.” So, this meant that you are to make connections with other texts or your
own experiences. More often than not, students use highlighters or sticky notes to engage with
the text. This is one example of active learning. In physics, there is also active learning, however
it is a little different.
The most common example of active learning that is presented in a physics classroom is
a compare and contrast activity. In this activity, students are given a sample case and asked to
compare and contrast different examples. For example, students are asked hypothetical questions
regarding the velocity of objects that have different masses. In this case, students will notice
what they already know about the objects, such as the material and shape, and their behavior,
such as it will go fast versus it will go slow, rather than discovering the underlying explanation
behind the phenomenon (Chin et al., 2016, pg. 2-3). This activity is helpful in developing
procedural and perceptual learning, but it does not help students develop a solid grasp of the
concept. However, by asking students to outline a single, general explanation for a phenomenon
across different cases, researchers found that students would consider how variations across the
different cases were related. From here, the students were able to search for and find a unifying
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functional relation across the different cases. These students scored higher on the tests displaying
that they had a better grasp of the underlying concepts. The difference in results shows that
engaging in different types of active learning yields different results (Chin et al., 2016, pg. 1415).
Another active learning activity that can be used in a physics classroom is the Reading,
Presenting, and Questioning (RPQ) model. In this model of studying, students read/study popular
articles and online resources that they themselves have discovered. Afterwards, students present
what they have learned from their readings. Finally, students formulate questions regarding their
own readings or peer presentations. By using this model, researchers found that students felt that
physics helped to develop both their logical and creative thinking abilities (Marušic & Sliško,
2014, pg. 35). This activity also provides students with an opportunity to collaborate with one
another as either part of a group, or through peer presentations. The blending of active and
collaborative learning has shown to improve student competency with regards to physics
concepts, and has also helped to develop the efficiency of student collaborative work (Nam,
2014, pg. 121). The researchers found that the RPQ method is particularly helpful in developing
the creative thinking abilities of high school students as they will already have had exposure to
the traditional methods of physics learning, and this new method will help to elevate their
understanding of the concepts (Marušic & Sliško, 2014, pg. 38).
4. Reading the Texts:
When I was going through school and college, the only time I ever wanted to read the
textbook for any class was if I needed clarification about a concept. Let’s face it, textbooks are
boring since they are information heavy, but that’s also why they are so important. The writing
style could be better, but I am not here to critique the writing style of the authors. First and
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foremost, textbooks are important in physics due to their narration which helps to break down
complex concepts. Reading about concepts before receiving instruction in those areas has shown
to improve student achievement. This type of learning is referred to as exploratory learning.
Research has found that exploratory learning helps improve student achievement (Weaver et al.,
2017, pg. 36). One of the main advantages of reading the text ahead of the lecture or class is that
you will have two opportunities to be exposed to the content, thus helping in understanding the
concepts a little bit better. By reading ahead, you also eliminate the need to catch up with
readings as the instructor moves on to different concepts.
Reading the texts also helps students understand scientific reasoning. By being able to
understand the reasoning behind the derivations of formulas and worked examples, students will
be able to better understand the concepts. If all the students had available to them were just the
formulas and examples without any explanation, it would be hard to understand the material. So,
just as is the case with particular examples and equations being confusing without an
explanation. So is the case with regards to understanding overall concepts without an
explanation. By improving students’ scientific thinking, reading the texts helps the students gain
a more concrete understanding of the concepts while still helping to increase student
achievement (Marušic et al., 2012, pg. 156).
Another way that the textbook can be used to help improve physics understanding is
using the textbook as a tool when studying conceptual physics. Conceptual physics refers to the
study of physics concepts without the hardcore derivation and equations. This study strategy
involves active reading of the textbook when thinking about the conceptual aspects of physics.
Research has found that students who integrate reading with conceptual physics tend to gain a
better understanding of the abstract concepts of physics such as optics or electricity, and that they
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also score higher on tests design to measure overall competency (Taslidere & Eryilmaz, 2012,
pg. 195-197).
5. Importance of Practice Problems:
Very closely related to the importance of reading the texts in physics classes is the
importance of practice problems. I cannot overstate how important it is to work through practice
problems if you are hoping to do well in a physics course. physics is a very tricky subject, we
have already established this fact, and we know that there is no one catch all strategy or shortcut
that will miraculously make physics easy. The most common critique of physics as a subject is
that it does not make sense as it has a lot of invisible variables involved in many problems, and
these variables affect the various problems in various different ways. So, there is not quite a
formulaic approach to solving these problems. However, I promise that if you work through as
many practice problems as you can find, physics will eventually start making sense. You don’t
necessarily have to successfully solve all the practice problem; you just have to make an honest
effort to engage with the material, for as we learned, “productive failure” will help us out in the
end. A study found that students engaging with their homework material frequently, rather than
just on days when the homework was due, is a very effective predictor of success on exams
(Kortemeyer, 2016, pg. 703). The idea behind this study strategy is that no two problems will
ever be the same even if the concept for these problems is the same. We just have to become so
intimately familiar with the various physics concepts that we will start to feel comfortable with
any problem that might show up on an exam.
Some of you who read this guide will have no interest in pursuing physics past the scope
of the introductory courses as your interests lie elsewhere in the academic world, and you may be
struggling because you have never had to deal with problems such as the ones facing you in that
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pesky introductory course. Well, I am here to tell you that it is ok that you are struggling. As I
mentioned earlier, struggling is part of the learning process, and also that you are not alone in
your struggle. A plethora of studies have found that “studying physics for non-physics majors is
usually a process of struggle and frustration” (Lazarova, 2015, pg. 17). Research has shown that
these students have been able to succeed in their physics courses, and the biggest predictor of
their success has been their performance on homework assignments. The students were able to
develop their problem solving abilities through the help of their homework assignments, and
were later able to apply these problem solving abilities to problems on their exams (Lazarova,
2015, pg. 19-20; Kontur and Terry, 2013, pg. 14). So, as demonstrated by this research, we see
that any student is capable of succeeding in physics courses as long as they consistently put in
effort to complete their homework assignments.
6. Importance of Sleep:
Sleep is very important for the human body. If we go without sleep for an extended
period of time, we risk our sanity and our health. Sleep is of the utmost importance, and its
effects have been the subject of countless studies. Even though we know the importance of sleep,
we regularly sacrifice sleep for other activities. Since this is guide is of an academic flavor, I am
going to assume all the readers are sacrificing sleep in favor of studying. Well, I need all of you
to stop doing that. Studying is important for the well-being of our GPA, but sleep is important
for our overall well-being. However, sleep is also directly related to our GPA. A study of
undergraduate students found that students who maintained a consistent sleep schedule or got 8hours of sleep a night had a higher GPA than those students who got insufficient sleep or had an
inconsistent sleep schedule (Chiang and Arendt, 2017, pg. 67).
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Another cause of concern for instructors and students alike is the tendency of some
students to stay up all night in order to study for an exam the next day. Not only is this cramming
session not an efficient way to study for an exam, it will also have a negative impact on a
student’s performance. Lack of sleep the night before will make a person sleepy during the day,
and being sleepy during an exam will negatively impact performance as a person’s cognitive
abilities will be greatly affected. Research has shown that “that sleep-deprived students
performed poorly on learning capacity skills such as attention, memory, and problem-solving
tasks, and that the lack of sleep therefore affected their academic performance” (Chiang et al.,
2014, pg. 74). Other studies have found that lack of sleep also leads to inadvertent lack of effort
on the part of the students (Lewin et al., 2017, pg. 208). This is one of the negative cognitive
effects due to the lack of sleep, and I don’t think anyone would want to give less than their best
effort on an exam. So, it will be in the best interest of all students to ditch the habit of pulling allnighters to study for an exam as the lack of sleep will negate any progress that may have been
made in the night.
7. Conclusion:
As we have seen throughout the course of this guide, scientific research has shown that
following these handful of study strategies will help in improving the academic performance of
students taking a physics course. We learned about the benefits of collaboration, and the different
methods that can be used as a collaboration exercise. We also learned about the importance of
reading the texts for physics courses, and the benefits of actively learning in these classes. The
importance of sleep and practice problems has also been stressed in this guide. If a student were
to follow this guide and all the associated suggestions, there is no doubt that the student will
achieve success in their physics course.
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References
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