#1: Memorise? Memofall.
Many students fall flat in force-memorising Physics.
With limited memory space, students struggle by the end of the syllabus.
Memorising is often inefficient, unlike understanding, organising and making links, which take time and expertise, but pays off.
It also often does not help much in application, unless even more effort is spent memorising every scenario.
#2: Mass-produced, fast-food education.
There are good schools and tuition centres out there, but class sizes can often be overloaded.
Even in large tuition centres, lessons are pre-decided, catering only to a perceived majority.
Physics deals with math, language, visualisation and application skills.
Hence, many end up falling behind based on their different weaknesses.
Introverts especially may not get the most out of the lesson.
Without sufficient attention and personalisation, many latent issues in learning can go undiscovered.
#3: Myopic and superficial focus on grades.
Many focus on subject-specific content and exam grades.
This may not be transferrable (e.g. skills from 1 subject to another) nor long-term (e.g. how to prepare for university, jobs and in society).
Furthermore, grades are but a diagnosis of some deeper symptoms, such as:
- poor study habits
- inefficient study methodology
- difficulties in focusing, or
- struggling to be motivated and on-task.
These symptoms in turn have root causes, such as:
- attention deficiency
- neurodivergence
- personality traits that hinder learning,
- even neglecting of general well-being (especially sleep!),
- and more.
Hence, even if grades is the end goal, a good time investment would be to develop important thinking skills, especially metacognitive skills.
This will naturally boost study and exam skills in and beyond Physics, and often with greater success.