rumbleroar
Survivor of the HSC
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2011
- Messages
- 2,271
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2014
Hello 
I've been seeing a few threads lately about how to write physics notes (mainly from those who are entering prelim physics) and decided to compile a guide (which by no means is a right or wrong way of doing things) on how to make a really great set of physics notes. I don't know if this has been done before, but here you go anyway!
A bit of background info:
I did physics in year 11, dropped it in year 12 (was one of my "weaker" subs and had a dodge teacher lol) and I ranked 4/62 for it at a top 10 school. I did enjoy the subject, but the way my school taught it was just bad, so yeah, goodbye! But I'm sure the tips on writing prelim notes can also be applied to writing hsc physics notes.
Resources
The main question I see pop up is which textbook is "better"? My school used Jacaranda, but I hated it because I found it un-concise, and very clunky. A lot of the definitions were either very verbose or not defined enough. I really liked Physics in Focus, as it covered all the dot points in a detailed manner. Some of the information was a bit excessive, so you need to learn what to cut out.
I mainly relied on my tutoring notes, a few sheets from school and PIF. My tutoring notes were very concise (sometimes a bit too basic) and did the job really well. But I understand not everyone has the opportunity to go to tutoring, so I would recommend PIF. It was the only textbook I touched during yearlies as well
Structure
The best way (I'm sure many more people can confirm this) is to use the syllabus, which can be found here:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/physics_stg6_syl_03.pdf
You want to answer each dot point like an exam question:
- Find keywords and define them
- Use the technique of PEE: Point, Explain, Example (often for questions worth higher marks though, I wouldn't use examples on basic questions)
This ensures your notes will be detailed enough for your exams. For example:
Explain qualitatively that pitch is related to frequency and volume to amplitude of sound waves
o Pitch: pitch is in proportion to frequency
• The higher the pitch, the higher the frequency
• The lower the pitch, the lower the frequency
o Volume: volume is in proportion to amplitude
• The lower the amplitude, the lower the volume
• The higher the amplitude, the higher the volume
(There were also diagrams in between)
I also used diagrams, tables and graphs wherever possible because I found it really helped and consolidated my knowledge. Tables were often used when I had lots of definitions of words and wanted a clean layout that would structure my information really well.
I also had a "formula sheet" and a "summary of key points/terms" that accompanied my full set of notes. The formula sheet was really helpful, but I barely looked at my summary of key points/terms because I had retained most the information from my full set of notes anyway. But it depends on how you learn as well. I like learning in big, detailed chunks because it stays in my head. A lot of people are different, so you need to find a system that works for you.
Writing your notes
Now you have a basic gist of how to structure your notes, the difficult part is writing them. First, you have to get into the habit of doing them on a regular basis. It really helps you to develop good study habits for year 12 and for your other subjects. Ideally, I would do around 2-3 dot points a week, and do the ones I learnt at tutoring. Reality was that I would cram a lot of it in a week or two before my dot points were due (for tutoring, I did nothing in class LOL). So learn from my mistakes and leave a regular slot during the week to do them!!
(I also made my notes look really nice because if they looked ugly, I wouldn't want to read them. But that's just me LOL)
I got this tip from my friend, who was really good at science (did 3 sciences!! crazy!!) and what she did was she had several sources laid out in front of her and read all the information from each one. Then she cross-referenced the information to check it matched up and typed her dot point in a way she found that would help her learn best. She would also see which source defined something the best and use that definition. I think this is one of the best ways to use your resources.
What I did was different, I pretty much used all my tutoring homework and notes to type my notes up and then if I felt my notes were lacking in some detail, I would add some extra detail from PIF or the internet.
I would always include example questions they could ask (re: the second column that often involved calculations and what not) in my notes as well. Although these were a bitch to type up (formula on word sucks), it was really worth it.
(If you want a sample of my notes, feel free to PM me, just to see how I structured them as well)
To summarise or not to summarise?
Another question I see popping up is whether or not another summary should be included, on top of a complete set of notes. I didn't really use my summaries, because I had remembered everything (or most things) from my complete set of notes. If you learn best from summarising your information, do so, but don't forget about the details. It's honestly up to you. Other people will beg to differ about writing summaries, but I personally found them a bit useless because I had remembered most chunks of my notes. If you do write a summary however, remember to include:
- formulas (i.e. a formula table similar to what I mentioned earlier)
- definitions of key concepts from the topic
- anything you didn't fully understand
Experiment and see what works for you
Best of luck to anyone doing physics for year 11 and 12
I've been seeing a few threads lately about how to write physics notes (mainly from those who are entering prelim physics) and decided to compile a guide (which by no means is a right or wrong way of doing things) on how to make a really great set of physics notes. I don't know if this has been done before, but here you go anyway!A bit of background info:
I did physics in year 11, dropped it in year 12 (was one of my "weaker" subs and had a dodge teacher lol) and I ranked 4/62 for it at a top 10 school. I did enjoy the subject, but the way my school taught it was just bad, so yeah, goodbye! But I'm sure the tips on writing prelim notes can also be applied to writing hsc physics notes.
Resources
The main question I see pop up is which textbook is "better"? My school used Jacaranda, but I hated it because I found it un-concise, and very clunky. A lot of the definitions were either very verbose or not defined enough. I really liked Physics in Focus, as it covered all the dot points in a detailed manner. Some of the information was a bit excessive, so you need to learn what to cut out.
I mainly relied on my tutoring notes, a few sheets from school and PIF. My tutoring notes were very concise (sometimes a bit too basic) and did the job really well. But I understand not everyone has the opportunity to go to tutoring, so I would recommend PIF. It was the only textbook I touched during yearlies as well
Structure
The best way (I'm sure many more people can confirm this) is to use the syllabus, which can be found here:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/physics_stg6_syl_03.pdf
You want to answer each dot point like an exam question:
- Find keywords and define them
- Use the technique of PEE: Point, Explain, Example (often for questions worth higher marks though, I wouldn't use examples on basic questions)
This ensures your notes will be detailed enough for your exams. For example:
Explain qualitatively that pitch is related to frequency and volume to amplitude of sound waves
o Pitch: pitch is in proportion to frequency
• The higher the pitch, the higher the frequency
• The lower the pitch, the lower the frequency
o Volume: volume is in proportion to amplitude
• The lower the amplitude, the lower the volume
• The higher the amplitude, the higher the volume
(There were also diagrams in between)
I also used diagrams, tables and graphs wherever possible because I found it really helped and consolidated my knowledge. Tables were often used when I had lots of definitions of words and wanted a clean layout that would structure my information really well.
I also had a "formula sheet" and a "summary of key points/terms" that accompanied my full set of notes. The formula sheet was really helpful, but I barely looked at my summary of key points/terms because I had retained most the information from my full set of notes anyway. But it depends on how you learn as well. I like learning in big, detailed chunks because it stays in my head. A lot of people are different, so you need to find a system that works for you.
Writing your notes
Now you have a basic gist of how to structure your notes, the difficult part is writing them. First, you have to get into the habit of doing them on a regular basis. It really helps you to develop good study habits for year 12 and for your other subjects. Ideally, I would do around 2-3 dot points a week, and do the ones I learnt at tutoring. Reality was that I would cram a lot of it in a week or two before my dot points were due (for tutoring, I did nothing in class LOL). So learn from my mistakes and leave a regular slot during the week to do them!!
(I also made my notes look really nice because if they looked ugly, I wouldn't want to read them. But that's just me LOL)
I got this tip from my friend, who was really good at science (did 3 sciences!! crazy!!) and what she did was she had several sources laid out in front of her and read all the information from each one. Then she cross-referenced the information to check it matched up and typed her dot point in a way she found that would help her learn best. She would also see which source defined something the best and use that definition. I think this is one of the best ways to use your resources.
What I did was different, I pretty much used all my tutoring homework and notes to type my notes up and then if I felt my notes were lacking in some detail, I would add some extra detail from PIF or the internet.
I would always include example questions they could ask (re: the second column that often involved calculations and what not) in my notes as well. Although these were a bitch to type up (formula on word sucks), it was really worth it.
(If you want a sample of my notes, feel free to PM me, just to see how I structured them as well
)To summarise or not to summarise?
Another question I see popping up is whether or not another summary should be included, on top of a complete set of notes. I didn't really use my summaries, because I had remembered everything (or most things) from my complete set of notes. If you learn best from summarising your information, do so, but don't forget about the details. It's honestly up to you. Other people will beg to differ about writing summaries, but I personally found them a bit useless because I had remembered most chunks of my notes. If you do write a summary however, remember to include:
- formulas (i.e. a formula table similar to what I mentioned earlier)
- definitions of key concepts from the topic
- anything you didn't fully understand
Experiment and see what works for you
Best of luck to anyone doing physics for year 11 and 12
