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                                                        Fall 2000

              MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
                      DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
                  CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139

              Students' Advice on Succeeding in 8.01

Two years ago 34 students chosen at random were interviewed in
depth about their experiences in 8.01. The students interviewed
included those who did well and those who did not. One of the
questions asked was "What would you tell a freshman next year
about how to succeed in 8.01?" . Here is their advice.

  1. Keep up and do the problem sets regularly.

  2. If you are not familiar with the stuff, go to the lectures,
     go to the recitations and do the problem sets. It sounds
     pretty simple, but a lot of people don't do that.

  3. Do the homework sets. Keep doing them!

  4. Take 8.01X.

  5. Success in 8.01 is figuring out the pace and figuring out
     what you need to do.

  6. Attending lectures and recitations is important because the
     material is not new - is high school level physics - but
     that way he knows what material to study, what to expect on
     tests.

  7. Keep up with the work. With physics, you need to do a lot of
     physics problems to get the concepts.

  8. Keep up with the problem sets.

  9. ....

 10. Put effort into 8.01 and you will pass.

 11. You have to work the problems. Don't put them off.

 12. Definitely set time aside to do the problem sets and do
     every problem that is assigned.

 13. Do a thousand problems until you cover every kind of
     problem that can be asked on a test.

 14. Do the problem sets to be sure you know what you think you
     know.

 15. Do the homework and pace yourself - don't put off the work
     until the test time.

 16. Do the problem sets.

 17. The best way is just learning through hard work. The problem
     sets are the most helpful to learn the materials.

 18. .....

 19. Try to be more alert about how exactly they go about solving
     problems.

 20. Pay attention to units.

 21. Keep on top of the problem sets and get extra help if you
     don't understand something.

 22. Doing the problem sets and not just reading the solutions.

 23. Do your problem sets. Go to tutorials.

 24. Keep abreast of the material.

 25. ....

 26. Just do the work.

 27. Do what you have to do to learn the stuff.

 28. Can not understand how people can fail if they do these
     problem sheets.

 29. Do your problem sets and go to classes.

 30. ....

 31. Work with other people!

 32. Do the problem sets.

 33. They should not take advantage of the fact that the homework
     isn't graded; they should definitely do it.

 34. Definitely do the homework - it is most important.