Physics 1a or 2a?

S-Dub · 11-02-2009, 06:17 PM

im human bio major and i was wondering if i should take 1a or 2a?

i_lose · 11-03-2009, 11:29 AM

1a for the easier time, 2a if you want to learn.

oneeyeddeacon · 11-04-2009, 04:09 AM

Neither. Take Physics 4a.

W. Ericsson · 11-05-2009, 01:07 AM

I am in Phys 1a right now, and I must say, I hate it. I regret having chosen the 1 series. i_lose is correct in saying 1a for the easier time and 2a if you want to learn. Well put, and props to that person. I think lectures are a waste of time to go to. I actually learn the most from the labs (and the "course reader" we have).

I'm starting to think that UCSD knows that physics is a waste of time for those that don't need it, so they are okay with having a professor teach 5-minute material in a 50 minute time span, and having all the students think it's a joke.

Schw1ng · 11-06-2009, 03:00 AM

Hahaha, well, when you think of it, if a student is pre-med (like most students in Biology who take the 1 series since med schools want students to have a year in general physics, che, bio, and math) haviing an easy class is a plus. But yeah it could get annoying very fast, and degrading almost.

OoPurestOo · 11-06-2009, 02:38 PM

^ Despite Phys1A being extremely easy, the averages, for some reason will still be very ****ing low. This goes to show you how many incompetent "pre-med" students there are at this school. I could say even worse for the Organic Chemistry series.

W. Ericsson · 11-08-2009, 07:49 PM

^ That is very (unfortunately true). I remember seeing my first phys1A quiz and thinking ***. The problem (in my opinion, based on what happened to me and a few of the people I've talked to) is that some of us imagined the quiz to be similar to the lectures and the example problems we go through in class - easy. Nuh-uh, mistake. What was a simple one or two step problem in lecture turned into a multi-step problem with multiple concepts involved. The average for my class was a 4 out of 9, I think.

Since then, some of us (those that I've talked to and myself) have increased our preparation for the quizzes and gotten much better results, but the majority still seem to not grasp how much preparation is actually needed (based on the results of our second quiz).

To get the A, all you need to do is adjust your study strategies and be fully prepared.

Schw1ng · 11-11-2009, 06:57 PM

Well, speaking of incompetent students in general, I've noticed a lot of people struggling here with seemingly easy courses, it's because people do not prepare, they just procrastinate and then panic on quizzes/tests (and write crappy essays).

Honestly, if people put in the time for classes, as in actually going to lecture/section, doing even a minimal amount of homework (including reading for writing classes... I mean how can you write a good essay on an article... if you don't read it?), getting high grades is really not that difficult... especially if you "work the curve" in classes (Like the Chem 6a curves are hilarious) People are just in "DGAF" mode since they have some notion in their head that they "just have to pass", but that mentality doesn't cut it for grad schools or med school. But in the end, those who know what they're doing can just say less competition. lol.