Tackling Neet - Ug How To Deal With Physics
Prateek Singh
How to prepare Physics in these last two months? In these series of articles about Tackling NEET students have already been acquainted about the pattern of the paper, marking scheme and much more. In the two previous articles I discussed about how to prepare for the Biology and Chemistry portions in detail, now here I am providing a practical way to deal with and ace your score in Physics section.
As far as this subject is concerned it is considered the toughest of all by majority of the NEET aspirants and the reason which I conclude about it is simple, since the students opting Biology subject in class 11th have to bid goodbye to Mathematics (unless one have opted Biology and Mathematics i.e. PCMB in class 11th ; which only a few students do) and thats what it is, the root cause of all problems. Since Mathematics is the language of Physics and if you are weak in Mathematics then you will definitely find it difficult to understand, learn and solve problems in Physics.
How to start preparing for Physics?
The perfect way to start preparing for Physics its by sticking to the basics, brush up your concepts of basic trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus (differentiation and integration), AP (Arithmetic Progression), GP (Geometric Progression) and well known algebraic formulae. The better command you have over Mathematics easier it will be for you to solve numericals in Physics.
Understanding The Basic Outline of The Physics Paper In NEET
The core intention of the examiner while setting up the Physics paper is to check the basic understanding of the student towards the subject and most of the questions asked are easy to moderate, some questions will definitely require higher order thinking skills since it is a competitive exam but almost 60-70% of the questions can be solved with ease if you have a basic understanding of the concepts and know how to use the formulae which you have learned during your preparation. If we talk about percentage then almost 60% of the questions asked are directly formula based and can be easily solved if you know the formulae involved in these questions. The rest 5-10% of the questions are factual and just involve memorisation of some common facts and orders like frequency order for electromagnetic radiation, order of penetrating power of different rays etc. The perfect strategy for solving these type of questions is to read the summary of each chapter given in your NCERT textbooks and it will serve the purpose. The rest 20-30% of the questions require deep understanding and knowledge of the concepts involved as they cannot be always solved through formulae.
Chapterwise Weightage of Physics Paper
With my experience of guiding and helping students for the NEET examination and myself being an aspirant earlier, here I am providing the trend of the physics paper as how many questions are generally asked on an average from each chapter of Physics. The data which I am providing is solely based on my experience and analysis of the previous year papers and the latest trends observed. You can expect this same trend in your paper too.
Chapter/Topic No of Questions Expected
Expected The Physical World……………….…..0-1
Unit, Dimensions and Errors…….……..1
Measuring Instruments………….………1
Kinematics……………………….…….1-2
Circular Motion…………….…….………1
Newton's Laws of Motion……….……1-2
Friction……...........………………….…0-1
Work, Power and Energy……………....2
Rotational Mechanics…...………….…..3
Properties of Solids……………….……1
Fluids……………………………….….1-2
Thermal Physics……………………...1-2
Thermodynamics…………………….….2
Simple Harmonic Motion………….……2
Waves…………………………...….….1-2
Gravitation……………………….....……2
Electrostatics...............………….……2-3
Current Electricity………………...……..3
Magnetism…………………..….……..3-4
Electromagnetic Radiation….……….1-2
Alternating Current…..…………………2
Electromagnetic Waves…..……………1
Ray Optics………….……….…………..3
Wave Optics…………..…….…………..2
Atoms…………......................………….2
Photoelectric Effect………….…...……..1
Nuclei…………………………...………..2
Semiconductor Devices…….………….3
NOTE: The chapter Communication Systems is not included in the NEET syllabus and till now no question has been asked in the previous years. It is only a part of the JEE syllabus and CBSE boards examination.
High Yielding Topics in NEET Physics Paper
The high yielding topics in NEET physics include the Rotational Mechanics, Current Electricity, Semiconductor devices and Ray Optics. These chapters/ topics together combined can yield a total of 12-13 questions so these chapters cannot be ignored at all however tough they may seem. Apart from this there are many chapter and topics which are easy and small and don't require much of your time and efforts and can easily fetch you one to two questions and hence these topics must be prepared after the above mentioned bulky chapters. These topics include: Unit and Dimensions, Errors, Measuring Instruments, Kinematics, Mechanical Properties of Solids, SHM (Simple Harmonic Motion), EM waves (Electromagnetic Waves) and Wave Optics.
One thing you all must have noticed that I have not mentioned the importance of MODERN PHYSICS till now. For a fact if you are a serious NEET aspirant then its not worth mentioning. Every NEET aspirant must have heard about this topic and they know that it is the easiest of all the topics and high scoring for Physics section. No serious candidate can even dream of getting selected without mastering this topic; it is a must do topic for NEET.
The Modern Physics unit consists of three chapters namely: Photoelectric Effect, Atoms and Nuclei. It will yield you a total of 5-6 questions which you cannot bear to let go of. The best thing about these chapters is that they have a very similar relation of concepts and formulae which you have already learned in you Chemistry sections of Structure of an Atom and Chemical Kinetics, so preparing these chapters is a cakewalk for you all.
Time Management during Solving the Physics Section
The common problem which students face while solving the Physics paper is that they fell short of time and end of leaving many questions unattempted which they could have easily solved otherwise.
The best way to deal with this problem is to solve your entire paper in 3-4 layers. Whenever you are about to start your physics portion first have a quick glance over all the questions in your paper in 2-3 minutes and analyse as to which question is from which topic and how much time you are going to devote to each question. Mark those questions which are very easy and can be solved within few seconds. Then you should start solving your paper with those easy questions and try to gain maximum number of questions which are easy in the first 25-30 minutes of your time. Then go for the moderate level questions and finally proceed to the tough and lengthy questions. In this entire process whenever you are unable to solve any question in the first attempt, mark and leave that question for reviewing later. This is your first layer of solving the paper, make sure that in this first layer you have solved nearly 50-60% of the questions. In the second layer go for those easy and moderate level questions which you were unable to solve in this first attempt and give them a try again. If you are unable to solve some of these questions in the second attempt also then accept the fact that you will not be able to solve them further. In the third layer, just make sure that you have not skipped any of the questions that were easy; since you are not going for questions serially, there are chances that you might have missed, solve those questions. Now if the time allows, then you must go for the fourth layer in which you should try out your hands on the questions which you think are tough and lengthy.
I call this technique of solving the paper as LAYER TECHNIQUE and it has proved really useful to many of the students previously. One thing worth mentioning is that this technique is only effective if you have already practiced it well in the mock test papers and you are already aware of your strengths and weaknesses. So if you feel that this technique can be useful to you then you must practice it many folds before appearing for the main examination.
Some Important Tips
· Physics is a subject which requires a lot of practice and it is not a subject which you can mug up and succeed. So as they say for Mathematics that, THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN MATHEMATICS, IS TO DO MATHEMATICS; the same applies for Physics also.
· Make a list of all the important formulae and summary of all the chapters of physics at one place. Since there are so many formulae, assembling all these at one place makes it easy to revise. Make sure to take a glance of these notes just before going to bed.
· While solving the numericals for practice, keep your formulae notes with you and analyse whether you could have solved the same problem more easily using some other concept or formulae.
· Make sure to focus on those formulae which are involved more often and which ones are being used only in some special cases. This will help you understand as to which topics are yielding you more questions.
· Your major focus should be on the previous year papers, as some of these questions can appear directly in your paper.
· While reading a problem sum try to understand the basic concepts involved and analyse how much you are aware of the concepts and which formula is appropriate for the given situation.
Acing Up Your Preparation
Since Physics is a very vast and versatile subject you cannot have command over all the topics. Hence it becomes necessary that you know as to how to approach any question irrespective of the fact that you are unaware of all the concepts involved fully. The core reason that you must remember all the formulae is that you should be able to solve the problem if one of the variables is missing from the question and deduce the answer.
The only way to ace up your preparation in Physics is by practice. Try to develop speed and accuracy in your solutions. First focus on developing accuracy, and then speed at which you are solving any problem sum.
At last, I feel that the information provided by me must have helped you all in some extent to overcome your fear of Physics.
As you will learn the subject you will surely realise that this subject is the language of the universe and any and every phenomenon happening around you are governed by the laws of Physics. Then you will start loving this subject.
Be confident, have faith and practice, practice, practice!
All the best to all the future doctors of this country.
(The author is a NEET Coach. He can be reached at prateeksinghtalks@ gmail.com)
Views expressed are personal.