My First Year Engineering Experience- No HSC physics (1 Viewer)

[shutupnsmile]

For all you students who did not do Physics in high school and wish to take up engineering. DON'T STRESS.
My semester 1 courses:
ENGG1000/MATH1131/PHYS1121/COMP1911

I did not do any physics during my HSC stage with math level of extension 1, UNSW suggested me to pick up PHYS1111 but you learn the same thing basically in 1121. So don't fall into this trap.
Although i struggled a lot, in the end I still passed the exam where PHYS1121 has a 40% fail rate (from students).
I still go out with my friends after uni (not everyday) but you just have to PUSH YOURSELF AND STUDY HARD!

Lectures attendance - 90%
Physics Tutorial(other) attendance-30% - I would of done better if i attended all classes as they help A LOT!
However, the reason I killed the exam was because I read every required chapters in the text book and doing the problems.

This may not turn out the same for everyone but if you start to slack off, you wouldn't see results.
This is just my experience to share to you guys because I was looking for this advice when I was in High School.
This video may inspire everyone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yUXVzs0Qw

 

[kaz1]

I did HSC physics and it was zero help for PHYS1121

 

[failwhale]

I did HSC physics and it was zero help for PHYS1121

pretty much lol

 

[maru]

Hi Everyone,
I would also like to share the fact that I didn't do HSC Physics and I somehow managed a pass (results not released yet) in PHYS1131.
Although I did Maths Ext 2 in high school, I wasn't good at the mechanics parts (at all, mostly due to lack of study?)
The courses I picked this semester are ENGG1000, MATH1141, PHYS1131 and COMP1911.
Throughout the semester I had put minimal effort into physics (most of it admittedly went to Computing ==')
I did like one set in the tutorial questions, didn't attend the tutorial helps and went to like the first 50% of lectures
I managed to do well(ish) in the Labs and online quizzes (mostly from combined efforts however the textbook was a good place to start)
At this point my knowledge of physics was probably at like 10% AND I had realised that if I didn't study for the finals I would fail the course...
Anyway this is what I did...
Time: 1 week before the physics exam (unfortunately, first exam...)
The week before, I made my notes for mechanics, thermal and waves! (yes, this should've been done earlier)
Mechanics was a pain since the lecture notes were like really hard to understand and of little use so I used the textbook combined with the cengage slides to make these (my understanding was poor though).
For thermal and waves, I didn't attend a single lecture but these were considerably easier to understand since Dr. Angstmann had lecture videos online which were fantastic and extremely useful and it was all I went through.
Oh yeah apparently the webassign tutorials were very helpful but I didn't have time to go through them :/
After making my notes I had like one and a half days left to cram the past papers (only did 2011, 2010, 2009, skimmed through 2008) before I ultimately gave up as they were quite difficult (In the process I also realised the T2 were considerably easier than the T1 papers ==').

Moral of story: Try not to cram all the concepts and formulas in a week as it is most definitely brain-draining (but possible)

So you do not need to do physics in High School

 

[kaz1]

k cunts this how I passed (1 mark from a fucking D) PHYS1121

With the quizes and online mid sem- collaborate and get answers off friends so that you get close to 100% for this section
with the labs ask heaps of questions if you don't know what to do and you're sure to get 4/5 or 5/5
and with the final exam I pored over the textbook like 3 hours a day each day about 1.5 weeks from the final exam

The lectures and tutes were useless I learnt absolutely nothing

 

[soloooooo]

Mid session exam Isn't online.

 

[kaz1]

Mid session exam Isn't online.

It was when I did it

 

[Equilibrium1]

For all you students who did not do Physics in high school and wish to take up engineering. DON'T STRESS.
My semester 1 courses:
ENGG1000/MATH1131/PHYS1121/COMP1911

I did not do any physics during my HSC stage with math level of extension 1, UNSW suggested me to pick up PHYS1111 but you learn the same thing basically in 1121. So don't fall into this trap.
Although i struggled a lot, in the end I still passed the exam where PHYS1121 has a 40% fail rate (from students).
I still go out with my friends after uni (not everyday) but you just have to PUSH YOURSELF AND STUDY HARD!

Lectures attendance - 90%
Physics Tutorial(other) attendance-30% - I would of done better if i attended all classes as they help A LOT!
However, the reason I killed the exam was because I read every required chapters in the text book and doing the problems.

This may not turn out the same for everyone but if you start to slack off, you wouldn't see results.
This is just my experience to share to you guys because I was looking for this advice when I was in High School.
This video may inspire everyone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yUXVzs0Qw

Thank you heaps for posting this. Im in year 12 and I was thinking about doing engineering even though I only do MXI and no HSC physics or MXII. Your post was really reassuring!

 

[jamesfirst]

Me = First internally for HSC physics

Now = Failed PHYS1131 with a mark of 38/120


My friend = did not take HSC physics

Now = passed PHYS1121.

 

[4025808]

bump for those doing phys/higher phys 1a this sem

 

[anomalousdecay]

Just with this thread title.

If you do PHYS1231 (or PHYS1221 but idk who does that) then HSC Physics is very helpful.

It's only PHYS1121 or PHYS1131 where you just need to be decent with maths (really good with MX1 or average MX2) and you'll be set. Year 11 Physics content is very useful as well, but not necessary if you study enough.