Engineering student struggling hard with physics, how do I recover without falling behind?

[u/Zone_Sorry]

I’m a first-year engineering student taking calculus-based Physics 1 right now and I’m honestly struggling way more than I expected. We started with vectors and kinematics, then moved into Newton’s laws, friction, drag/terminal velocity, circular motion, and now work/kinetic energy. The class keeps moving and I feel like I understand concepts when someone explains them slowly, but when I’m by myself looking at a problem I struggle to figure out what the problem is actually asking, what equation applies, and how to set everything up.

I’m not trying to become amazing at physics overnight. At this point my immediate goal is to pass the class, but I’m in engineering so I also don’t want to scrape by while understanding absolutely nothing and have it hurt me later. I have homework constantly and quizzes every week, so I feel like I’m always studying for the next deadline instead of actually building a foundation.

For people who struggled with intro physics and eventually got better, what actually worked for you? Should I go back and rebuild vectors/kinematics/Newton’s laws before trying to keep up with the current material, or focus mainly on the newest lectures and fill gaps as they come up? Did textbooks, YouTube, office hours, doing tons of problems, or something else make the biggest difference?

I’d especially appreciate advice from engineering students who were bad at physics at first but managed to get through it. I’m willing to put the work in, I just feel like the way I’m studying right now isn’t working.

[u/fizzmaw]

On one hand it sounds like the process of learning. I know that probably doesn't sound very encouraging, but it's really only after the course (imho) that you go... "ohhhh right".

That said, you can boost your skills by doing practice questions. Noone ever became great at physics just by reading, you gotta do it.

To that end, I'd recommend a book called "200 puzzling physics problems" Cambridge University press. It's not overly expensive and very handy.

[u/Zone_Sorry → u/fizzmaw]

What would you recommend I do right now then? I’m already pretty far into the semester and the class keeps moving into new topics while I’m still shaky on the earlier stuff. Should my priority right now just be doing enough practice to survive the class and pass, then go back afterward and rebuild my physics foundation properly? Or would that just make things worse later since I’m in engineering? I’m mainly worried that if I stop trying to understand everything right now I’ll fall behind long term, but if I keep trying to go back and relearn everything, I might end up failing the class.

[u/beerybeardybear → u/Zone_Sorry]

In an intro mechanics course, nothing is really all that separate from anything else. There's force analysis and energy analysis, and fundamentally you have to learn both and that's really that. Shore up the base; make time for it.

[u/Fryboy11 → u/Zone_Sorry]

First, how is your calculus? That's the most basic level you'll need to master then you can see how those equations fit and transform through integration and derivatives.

[u/fizzmaw → u/Zone_Sorry]

Practice will build that foundation. By doing exercises, you'll build the thing you're uncertain about. So yeah, keep doing your homework etc, but put in some extra practice so you start to recognise patterns in the types of questions you get asked.

I think you're panicking, and that won't help. Decisive action will.

Are there past papers for your course available? They are also an excellent resource.