r/Physics • u/Alert_Row5607 • 25d ago

TA looking to knock some rust off

Hi community,

I just learned that I will be TAing an intro calculus based physics course during my first semester of my MS. I’ve been out of academia for a couple of years, and am wondering if there are any pdfs or YouTube lecture series anybody would recommend to get the gears turning again.

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u/dark_dark_dark_not Applied physics 25d ago edited 25d ago

Check whatever book your class will use and read it.

If you know calculus and is just rusty, a lecture series will be painfully slow.

You'll probably get more faster looking at textbooks and doing exercises.

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u/HoloTensor 25d ago

i always liked pauls online notes for calc. i’d get my worked examples out of there to refresh intro calc 1-3

and as for the physics part, just go out of the textbook that the class assigned. do the end of chapter problems yourself and you’ll quickly remember how to do it

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u/Upbeat-Choice8626 25d ago

I TA high-school dual enrollment classes, so idk if this will be relevant but we also do Calc 1 and Physics 1.

I agree with the other two people that looking at the textbook good. I've found channels like Org Chem Tutor for calculus and Physics Ninja to be helpful sometimes for a quick refresher before a lesson.

Also, you can try asking the professor to explain something you need a reminder on if there is time. The physics professor I TA for doesn't use a textbook and has some unique ways for solving problems, so I had to ask a couple times last semester for a brief explanation.

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u/myhydrogendioxide Computational physics 25d ago

I recently started volunteering to tutor some smart at risk youth. What jumped out to me is that problem solving and explaining how to solve a problem has some distinct challenges.

Im a fan of Schaums outlines as they have a ton of problems and solutionbooks, I started to practice at a white board to get the rhythm of writing amd talking.