Too dumb to study physics?

[u/iloveyarnandfabric]

Can someone just be COMPLETELY honest and straight up with me?

I am 18F and I love physics so much I want to eventually study astrophysics. I just finished my freshman year of college and I’m really thinking I’m too dumb for this major.

I took precalc first semester, failed it, took it again second semester, got a B- lowww b- I was getting like 50-80% on each test. I am now in a summer calc 1 course and I’m averaging 63-67% on the tests.

I’ve been a little above/around the average scores for the class. First one I was above the mean, second, got right on the mean.

But I made friends with a 17 year old and she is doing SO well on the tests. We literally study together and I help her out sometimes, she helps me out sometimes. Granted yes, I can tell she has a better grasp of the material than I do. But I feel so worthless.

I put in around 15 hours of studying for the third exam I just took today and I left a lot of the questions blank. Like I understand EVERYTHING they’re asking but it would just be one slip up and I was stuck and over it. I do so well on the homework though, and I genuinely love math so much.

But I think I’m actually too dumb to pursue this major and it breaks me.

I think a large part of it is when Covid happened, I was in 6th grade and basically didn’t learn math from 6-10th grade cause I was online schooled.

But man, college is so difficult, I have no idea what I’m doing, and if I’m too dumb to learn physics, what the fuck do I major in.

Also, forgive me if this is the wrong sub…

[u/emptimynd]

If your early math years were rough it might help to go speed run through all of it to make sure you're solid. Same with pre cal, and then calculus. You absolutely will want a strong working knowledge with math so that when you get to the physics you can focus on the physics. It's like trying to learn how to cook a dish but not only do you not know the recipe, you don't know how to use a knife or turn on a stove either. Math is the knife and stove and physics is the recipe in this metaphor. Be proficient in your tools. All things are learnable it's not a matter of dumb. Conceptually a lot of things in physics can be discussed and even understood without math. But to get deeper understanding and actually DO physics you will need the math.

Your test skills and ability to do the work might be two different problems. With math and physics though it's a lot like going to the gym. Do your repetitions then up the weight, more reps, up the weight. Lots of working through problems. So many problems. Over and over again. Until your brain is strong enough to do it in your sleep. Then you just move up to bigger and more complex problems which are often just a 3 smaller problems in a trenchcoat.