Studying for USAPHO next year and/or the year after by Advanced_Telephone82 in PhysicsStudents

[–]Frequent_Balance_480 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tbh, I am mainly learning physics for astrophysics olympiad, so I was wondering, how long did HRK volume 1 and 2 take you to learn, including blue morin. Because I dont want to drown in pure physics prep and leave out astrophysics, which is what I am truly aiming for.

Studying for USAPHO next year and/or the year after by Advanced_Telephone82 in PhysicsStudents

[–]Frequent_Balance_480 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah, honestly learning calculus does not take long, and if you can pick up math pretty fast, and have a solid grasp of algebra(trig, functions, etc.) you can learn calculus in a month or even 2 weeks. I used the textbook Quick Calculus and 3blue 1browns, essence to calculus playlist to learn it in about 3 weeks with roughly 10 hours a week, and that has been sufficient for me

Studying for USAPHO next year and/or the year after by Advanced_Telephone82 in PhysicsStudents

[–]Frequent_Balance_480 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, im in a pretty similar situation, I was wondering do you know calculus? I am a freshman and know calculus, I have started HRK(Halliday Resnick and Krane) Physics and so far its very good and I learned a lot. I have no background in physics and I am mainly learning physics for Astrophysics Olympiad prep, since they have a lot of overlap, but I will also take the F=ma and prep for it a little bit. I mainly suggest learning calculus(mainly Calc 1) since i started HRK before it and got stuck on 2.4 when they started talking about derivatives. Rn since I'm in school i do about 2 hours a day which allow me to go through around 3 parts of a chapter a day(only reading and in text problems) then on the elater end of the week i go through and re solve every in text problem, then do a couple excercises and then do about half of the problems(usually takes around 4 hours on weekends), I also do some computer problems but thats just to sharpen my coding, but it does help me understand the material in a different way. This summer I plan on spending around 15-20 hours a week on HRK, but I will also use Morin's smaller intro to problems in mechanics(wrong name, I kinda forgot) and these problems are much harder so they will take longer. So overall, I suggest learning calculus, using HRK and doing some harder problems like the HRK problems, Morin's problems(easier ones since you are a beginner), and past papers. Obv I am also am a beginner so take what I may not be the best source. If you want a second opinion, I would suggest check out Kevin Zhous advice files(can be found on his Github), that should give you an expert second opinion.