How to Successfully Study for Physics at Virginia Tech

As a Virginia Tech engineer, at some point in your studies you will be required to take two physics classes: PHYS 2305 and PHYS 2306 (commonly known as Physics 1 and Physics 2, respectively). 

Maybe you are a first year and will not be taking physics for a semester or two – enjoy it while it lasts. Or maybe you are finished with the freshman/sophomore grind, and you will never touch a physics textbook another day in your life (if you have it within you, you should become a physics tutor – Ut Prosim).

Finding the Best Resources

If you are taking physics now, or will be taking physics soon, you’re going to need some help along the way. After all, a semester is simply a year’s worth of knowledge crammed into four months. To make it through physics, if you are anything like the thousands before you, you are going to need some help. The physics department and Virginia Tech as a whole offers an abundance of resources to ensure your success in one of the hardest sophomore level classes you will take.

GTA Office Hours

The physics department offers an extraordinary amount of office hours led by GTA physics students. They are so available that you would have to be in class every hour of the day to not have time to meet with them. They help with homework, labs, and exam preparation. These office hours are in addition to the office hours your section’s professor will offer. The office hour schedule can be found on both Canvas and on the Student Success Center’s webpage. Sometimes the term “office hours” makes a student shy away from going. Whether it be intimidation, fear of embarrassment, or something else, think of this time as a guided study, like having a tutor you don’t have to pay for.

Tutoring

The Student Success Center (SSC) offers tutoring (free to the student) for a variety of subjects including PHYS 2305 and 2306. You can check out their website to see the full list of subjects they offer. The SSC offers both appointment based tutoring and drop-in tutoring. Appointment based tutoring is limited to three in-person and three virtual sessions per course per three weeks. For Fall 2025, you can attend all drop-in tutoring sessions, available for PHYS 2305 on Tuesday/Thursday and PHYS 2306 on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday.

Study Systems

How often do you sit down to do school work without a plan? Every engineering profession has a system for achieving a task, and planning is at the very beginning. Most students study with a “ready, fire, aim” strategy. That strategy only works for so long. One of the best study methods students use to succeed in all classes, not just physics, is reading (or skimming) the textbook before class. If we are being honest with ourselves, textbooks tend to often get overlooked by students. However, there is no need for that in physics. In fact, the physics textbook Virginia Tech uses is genuinely comprehensible. Additionally, reading the textbook before we attend the lecture prepares us for what we are about to learn. Think of a movie you have watched more than once. Do you remember the first time you watched it? Do you remember how when you watched it a second time, you noticed all these things you didn’t notice the first time? It is the same way with learning. If the lecture is the first time you see the class material, you are missing out on a lot of potential knowledge.

Even if we are too busy or distracted, we could at least skim the textbook the day before class. Just look at a few of the equations and when you get to class your brain will make the connections for you. Believe it or not, most learning happens when we are asleep. If you only study physics on Monday and Wednesday in class, you are drastically decreasing your chances of success. Reading just a little bit of the textbook a day or two before class will drastically

improve your comprehension. 

Studying in intervals is scientifically backed to improve retention. How often do you sit down to do all of your physics homework at the same time? Maybe you have a free Saturday and you sit down to knock out all your work for the week. Or maybe the due date for your assignment is in three hours and you haven’t started it yet. Would it surprise you to know that sitting down for hours to crunch out all your work at once is the second worst way to study (with the worst being to not study at all)?

As already mentioned, we learn when we sleep. Spacing out our studies to multiple days rather than one big crunch gives us many nights to sleep on what we learned. Without reinforcement, we forget up to 60% of what we learned after just one hour!

The best system for learning in intervals is using the Pomodoro Technique. This method uses 25-50 minute intervals of studying with 5-10 minute breaks. Spacing your learning time with breaks allows the mind to rest, which avoids overload, and also increases retention (commonly known as diffuse mode learning). You can even include rewards into these breaks, optimizing the brain’s incentive reward circuit.

For example, if you were studying for PHYS 2306 and also had work for other classes to do in one study block, you could study for 1.5 hours, with 25 minute working sessions with 5 minute breaks. These breaks aren’t designed to be opportunities to do other work or move on to the next task. These breaks should include some down time for your mind to ponder over what you just learned. This could be a coffee break, bathroom break, or a walk around the library. You don’t want to overstimulate your mind by pulling out your phone, answering emails, or doing anything that detracts from the learning process. There are many other study systems online that may work better for you. Remember that an improvised plan is better than no plan at all!

We all get bogged down with other classes and it can be hard to choose what work to do when. But a consistent study system will make sure we never have to worry about poor time management or missing a due date. Implementing some of these strategies and taking advantage of the resources available to you will help you complete your physics class with the grade you deserve.