Problems with High School Physics - Sixty Symbols 

Doing maths in physics was much easier than the actual subject. Giving the maths a meaning helped so much. It's not the physics that's the problem in my opinion, it's the way maths is taught.

My high school teacher was an older guy, 75 or so. He was a former NASA scientist and university lecturer, and retired to high school in order to keep his brain active on a daily basis. He was a great teacher.

I often replay the Minute Physics video, but I don't think I ever saw this video before today, 14 March 2024. I have seen lots of your company's later videos, some more than a few times, so, thank you for that. I have wondered how you all could teach more math and 20-21 Century physics to students who weren't planning on working in the physics realm. I graduated high school in the early to mid 1980s, and I have realized that musicians could've stood to learn more about logarithms since 'Western' music bases its scale on stepping through fractional powers of 2 {equal temperament}.

My perspective from an American high school environment Physics may only cover the older information however there is an emphasis on mathematical application and labs. I plan on taking the AP Physics C exam this spring.

I'm 29 year old and I wish i could start all over again to learn more math. I do sometimes read in my spare time.

I actually study Physics at University and the best thing about it is that there is a lot of Mathematics in this subject. I'd rather do a lot of Maths than just reading plain theory. And what I noticed when I came for first time in UK and really irritated me was that there were so many people to know some profound theories in Cosmology, but they didn't know any real physics or maths, unfortunately

To summarize this video: 5:37, this guy is such a beast. tellin like how it should be told.

I'd just like to point out that the example question is not from an AP equivalent; it's more like the lowest of the standard level. The way the GCSE questions are designed is, to the best of my knowledge, based on the grades, so that question might be one you're expected to answer to get a D grade in a lower qualification. If you're interested, find the AQA A-level physics past papers ont heir website for more of an idea what the AP sort of questions are like. I tried to link, but couldn't =]

yeah but you are forgetting that several people require a guide (teachers) to walk them through the process of learning. not everyone can grab a book and fully understand it from the get go. I consider myself a pretty smart person but i still require someone with higher knowledge to help me better myself educationally, better understand the information on books and provide me with answers to questions that surface when studying Our system is flawed, yes. but if it gets "better", then the US

You are right. The problem stems from laziness.

4:35 so true. Especially quantum theory is so much more fundamental than classical physics. Classical Physics is most often just the large-mass-limit or many-particle average of incredibly many quantum particles. We just can’t understand it as well because understanding the behaviour of the very small and very large did not help us in evolution

The comparison between an O level and a foundation level gcse paper is extremely misleading. That paper today would get you 2 GCSE’s (chem, bio and physics together) with a maximum level of 5 (a c in old money). The higher tier papers that you have to do to take A-level physics are as hard if not harder than the o level

My high school physics teacher actually started out the class this year by stating "physics is a math class disguised as science".

I think students at school level should be taught about the importance of modern science. Most of the general public doesn't really understand the need for funding in science. So even if we can't teach them the actual intricacies of physics at least they'll know WHY is it important to study this stuff.

The things on the whiteboard scare me, but then I think for a second and realise how much I want to learn and understand it.

although I always will criticize my outdated Indian Teaching system to the end, I have to give credit to it for the way it presents Physics in grade 11 and 12 (basically a-level) which is great! It has all the "scary" math and calculus parts but it makes it all less scary and more fun by making us DERIVE all the physics equations before making us work on them. it not only eliminates the need to memorize countless formulae, but it also gives us a deep intuition behind them, making us think the way scientists who developed those formulae did. A-level physics and US Physics of the same level is very dull, by comparison, imo. But apart from that, they're still better

It's unfortunately all too true. Until I developed an interest in physics, I recall that I quite frankly didn't care for mathematics. Oh, I could learn it ok, do some problems, etc., but at least partially due to American culture, I did not see the beauty in it, nor the intricacy with which math is intertwined with reality and how necessary it truly is.

He should be concerned with the way that everything is taught in highschool in America

7:12 Never go full Daily Mail. Never.

I'm a little annoyed that Phil didn't go into the higher tier papers and the last questions. The foundation paper is designed for people who cannot understand physics and will not go into college to learn physics let alone university. It's just a legal requirement to of taken science at GCSE.

This is why 90% of the Math and Physics students are now exchange students from abroad - from countries which still understand the importance of math instead of ridiculing it.

A level physics has become hard for me because I favour maths and the amount of maths in the course has been reduced

The biggest reason people have a problem with maths in the context of physics is it is not often enough taught in concert with the theory. Comming from a background in engineering and taking a something like Fourier analysis I tried to understand it many times and failed until the theory as to how and why it worked was explained and how it works to give the result. Most people cannot fully understand maths as an abstract idea. One of my favourite units of study was physics and I blitzed the maths in it even though in general it's my weakest subject because we were lead to understand the maths befire we applied it, it was given meaning.

If I was introduced to even the general idea of things like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle or Schrodinger's cat back in in elementary or highschool, I'm sure I would've taken an interest much earlier and actually taken math and physics in highschool. But it was as if they picked out all the fascinating parts of the topics and left in everything sure to put off 90% of students. Maybe it's different now; my 12 year old sister is learning about the structure of atoms and the wavelike properties of electrons, so already it seems much more exciting and less dry than much of what we did.

the teacher doesn't explain the use for the formula, they say to you to do, you have no idea how to link the formulas to use in the useful way. You have a N number of formulas and only knows what to do individualy, and if you have a problem thats have to use more than one formula you are screwed.

You think Physics has got it bad? At least you GET a subject at school. Palaeontology doesn't even have a subject and it is the ENTIRE history of Earth from 4,600,000,000 to 10,000 years ago. That's a HUGE chunk of history that the public just don't know about, and it contains past examples of climate change, invasive species and many other things that ordinary people now have the power to vote on. If we don't start to take Palaeontology seriously, we won't be prepared for the world ahead. It's like trying to decide whether to go to war with a country when you know nothing about its history more than a week ago!

I agree with the sentiments at 5:34. Actually, I think the GCSE standards ought to go up too. In GCSE maths, you spend months finding gradients of curves by drawing tangents on graph paper and then measuring the change in height by change in length. And finding areas under curves by summing trapeziums together. If I recall correctly, not once did we even discuss the possibility of making those trapeziums infinitessimally narrow or taking any limits, or anything resembling calculus. Certainly at higher tier GCSE, there ought to be a basic introduction to differentiation and integration. Then that gives you much more scope to introduce more mathematical rigour into the Physics A-level syllabus.

GCSEs in general are far too easy. Also A level maths is pretty easy - it wasnt that uncommon for people to get 90%+ all the time. People are so obsessed with getting the grades that teachers teach you how to pass the exam rather than learning the content.

5:37 - From the entire video this is what I appreciated the most. It's an incentive to students who are just entering university and haven't seen yet some of the beautiful but difficult concepts involving physics and mathematics.

If you ask any esteemed and well engaged person if their particular subject of interest or profession should be taught more in school and understood by everyone, presumably they will say yes because of their cognitive biases. Should physics be more in depth for everyone? I would say no; not without their consent at least. It's not that it isn't important, but it shouldn't be monopolized for people's way of thinking - and by extension - no one subject ever should be. You get to a point where you're trying to shove a square into a triangle shaped hole. Diversity is a quality of humans, so some people may not like physics. Physics (or any other subject) ARE IMPORTANT, but in conjunction with every other one. We need people to be best at what they are best at, and should allow them the materials to explore what that may be; instead of us trying to be the Thought Police

you picked P1 the easiest physic paper you will ever get this is for those schools who need a science gcse for their students

Absolutely, totally agree with this entire video, especially towards the end. I took GCSE physics and am taking A level in a few months and I have definitely noticed that these courses have a minimalist amount of actual physics in them! As the video displayed, it's all basic knowledge on electrical circuits or power stations etc and there seems to be no fundamental, new elements of physics within these courses (like quantum mechanics). With no disrespect whatsoever, I really think that exam boards need to apply a more realistic representation of physics within their courses.

Can't agree more. I remember taking chem in college, thinking the Bohr model was THE model of atoms. I had never heard of wave functions, and frankly it confused the heck out of me. I can remember being so frustrated because i am a science-minded kind of guy, and should not have been having so much difficulty at a concept in a 100 level course. Of course, it wasn't the fact that it was truly complicated, it was just the fact i was trying to not only absorb and understand the actual purpose of the lecture, but on top of that, also re-imagine the entire structure of atoms at the same time. Add to that the lack of math at the primary level, which also has to then be incorporated into the college level courses as though they go hand in hand (because they DO - we're just not taught that until it is almost too late). The Shakespeare example is perfect - i may not be an expert on Shakespeare, but i've read most of his plays, understand the contribution he made to literature, and thoroughly enjoy his stuff. I may not be able to explain in detail WHY his plays were so special, but i do know know them and have gained an appreciation for his work. Why is science and math treated differently?

The difficulty of GCSE and Alevel will be increased in the future years, so good luck, my fellow students :D

Even people in my AS Further Maths seem to be this way of feeling it's unimportant to not be able to understand maths so I would definitely agree that there is an underlying problem with how mathematics is viewed in general. For physics in particular, I would say that about 50% of my class would completely switch off when 'hard' maths came up.

People say Maths isn't cool...yet they use mobile phones, laptops and the internet..which rely on Mathematics in order to be created. I guess people nowadays simply don't know the benefits behind Mathematics.

The way math is taught has been an issue (at least in my experience). When I was in high school, physics courses were too basic to expose the use of real math, and math teacher failed to link their lessons to their usefullness in physics. The level of math in high school is far, far from being high enough to be in some sort of abstraction from physics problems that could illustrate their use. At high school level you won't lose any mathematician if you link the math notion to physics, but you will lose potential physicists because you can't get them to cope with math if its decorelated from anything concrete.

For motivated individuals, your argument may well hold true (though I wouldn't discount the possibility of a talented teacher inspiring students to try a new subject). However, school forces many people who would never motivate to self-teach to at least learn some basics. This minimum level of education across society is necessary for our civilization to make (somewhat) rational decisions.

50% of my first year lectures were maths. In the first two weeks or so we were all brought up to speed on things like partial differentials and vector spaces and then off we went. By Christmas we were deriving orthonormal polynomials as solutions to partial differential equations. Then it was contour integration, and starting in on Green's, Gauss's and Stokes's theorems. It was pretty brutal. Second year QM was even worse.

Okay, so here is a suggestion to you folks at Nottingham-include math in your videos. I know you have Numberphile, but should you add some of your proofs and mathematical justifications, even if we the viewing public don't entirely understand them, our exposure to the maths would be benefical. Remember, most of us coming to these videos are here out of a sense of curiosity, love of learning, and a strong interest in the subject matter, but for one reason or another were unable to pursue our passions further. I want to be challenged. I want to be reminded of that which I have forgotten.

i would just like to point out that that gcse paper is foundation and in a foundation you can only get a grade C highest. that question is probably a grade E/F so not even near any level of understanding that would be required for a Standard Level Physics course. If you have look at a A* question you will be asked to re arrange a formula and solve it. For example we had to rear arrange speed=frequency*wavelength to get the frequency instead of the speed. This is about as hard as it gets in GCSE. I personally would really like to see more quantum theory (even if it involves no maths) and maths in GCSE science but then I have tried to explain schrodinger's cat theory to someone else who is dong GCSE Physics and they just thought i was mad. BTW I am currently doing GCSE triple science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics)

Jennifer11963 , I found your comment very interesting. I don't start high school for another year and the one thing I was most excited for was a chance to actually be taught physics face-to-face with someone. I adore minute physics and pretty much anything to do with physics and astronomy, but now, I'm a bit disappointed in what I've heard. I just hope that I will have classmates like you and teachers like yours in high school.

If you don't like doing maths, STEM isn't for you!

I have friends - well-educated, intelligent, enlightened friends with degrees in microbiology and oceanography - who refuse to accept that quantum mechanics or relativity is real. They believe it's made-up nonsense. Or, that's what they say they believe - they may well be trolling me.

This is incredible. Thank you. I am in high school in the US and my school is not allowing us to have AP Physics C. 6 student, including myself, are fighting to have the class, but the school will have none of it. Thank you for showing us that we aren't crazy for wanting a higher level physics course. Especially since we are going to college in a year.

The excellent physicist of tomorrow are not afraid of maths.

Not going to lie this is why kids think this is too hard and uncool. The professors give rather shit motivational lessons. "its not too hard, it's just the way the world is." What??? That sentence gives no explanation as to what advantage you have to study this or why "hard" is a relative term. Maybe if these professors focused a bit more on articulating their ideas in a manner that hits the heart of their audience then this wouldn't be a problem. The irony is palpable.

Math is THE REASON I love physics. I was really disappointed that I couldn't skip to AP because AP requires you to be in a more advanced math class. I was doing AP physics homework in 8th grade because almost nobody in the actual class was smart enough to solve a quadratic. Also, when I was doing not-AP physics, I was getting problems wrong for applying Theory of Relativity. 1 more thing... from what I've heard about the AP physics class that uses calculus, I could have slept through that class using only the few calculus equations that I learned from the Internet. So, in my opinion, there really needs to be a better way to determine whether someone is ready for AP and there needs to be classes in high school for Quantum Physics and Theory of Relativity stuff.

It is indeed a shame that the country in which probably one of the brightest minds in human history was born and created the beautiful language of calculus is ripping calculus out of physics in school.

I'm better off watching MIT OCW than listening in class

What no teacher would ever explain to me is what I could do with any of this information. I have no problem doing the basic operations of math, but the explanations are almost non-existent. Just a small example is the square root. I was shown a check mark thing and some crazy bits of math that I did without understanding why. But one thing that was never pointed out was that you could actually make a square by stacking the roots up. Someone could have just shown me a drawing of a square grid at least one time and said, "Hey, this is actually why we call these numbers square or cubed." I had to learn that little tidbit far later. Teachers, and adults in general, tend to forget that what's obvious to them is not obvious in the limited experience of a child and that none of those kids have even had the same education for the most part. And let's not forget that most teachers just want you to shut up and read the book. *On a side note, I'm curious if there is a way to convert one form of math to another, such as a quadratic equation into geometry. I'm a very visual learner, which is the whole reason I'm looking at math, which I admittedly have very poor skill in.

Professor Padilla's notes show why he's such a wonderful physicist!

Come to Asia :D

Although I think Tony goes a bit too extreme, he got the (imho) central core, which is, it is cool nowadays to not understand and therefore not care for maths.

alevel physics make me feel like newton ; dead

Found my love for math and science only after high school, would've been an honour to study at this university.

Arty creativity seems to be the trend for higher education choices; sound engineering, graphic design, journalism, advertising etc. It's cooler to be able to write songs or design something everyone wants than solve equations.

I don't care. Math is fun.

I just graduated from high school and I just found out how much basic mathematics I lack because of the sick system 😑 .

My problem with HS physics .... The RAMP IS NEVER FRICTIONLESS OTHERWISE THE BALL WOULD NOT BE ROLLING!!!

As a current A-level student I also find the lack of maths within physics disturbing. I take both maths and physics and often find connections between the two, however when these things are taught in physics, you are taught a lot of facts and never told where they come from, especially in centripetal motion. It's like they are trying to not use maths at all! For example: instead of using trapezium rule or integration for the area under some curves we have been told to "count squares". WHO IS GOING TO SIT AND COUNT SQUARES ON AN EXAM? We need to be taught some A-level maths as part of a physics syllabus mainly because as it says in the video "Maths is the language of physics". if we don't understand the language, how are we meant to understand the syntax?

I remember my first fluid mechanics lecture it made me depressed, I think first lecture should make you feel interested, but not depressed!

A-Level physics was terrible. No calculus whatsoever. It was screaming for it. Physics was my least favourite A-Level because we were never pushed; the course was designed to cater for those who weren't doing A-Level maths. This shouldn't be how it is. If you're not going to do A-Level maths, then you should learn the mathematics yourself. Anyway, as I said, physics A-Level was my least favourite. So what did I go on to study at university? Physics, because I knew it would become a lot more mathematically involved. And I wasn't wrong.

You changed my life and the way I look at world. Thank you!

There are some problems in the arguments put forward in this video. For one, whilst calculus may be non-existent in the A-Level Physics syllabus, it IS in the Maths syllabus, which most Physics students also study. Also, multiple choice questions tend to exist only in the foundation tier in GCSE science, on which no grade higher than a C is obtainable. Practically all colleges/sixth forms require you to get at least a B at GCSE to continue a subject through to A-Level, especially in scientific subjects. It's highly unlikely that someone doing foundation level science at GCSE is going to study science at university. However, with all of that said, I do believe that education of science towards the general public needs to improve, especially new science. However, as people like Professor Brian Cox (and in fact RU-vid channels such as this) try to show us, the answer may lie in media rather than the education system (which I do in fact agree could be improved).

Wow. What he showed in the last part ("modern" tests) is taught in 3rd grade here (12-13yr old children).

that reminds me of the way deepak chopra talks physics... well not so much as talk about as spew buzzwords so he can sell books... every time i hear the guy say "quantum energy" or "quantum healing" ...i cringe

I agree with Tony, if I have to understand the music of the Renascence when I'm getting a degree in Animal Biology, people getting a Music degree should have to understand basic biology. But no, I have to take a course about music from 1500-1900, and they will never have to know why the mathematics of evolution is so ridiculously simple that it would be more extraordinary if it weren't happening.

A+ level certifications, IB, Pre-U, Running Start, Advance Placement should start around middle school level not the last years of High School. Your expecting an accelerated pace when in would be better to cover the material and reinforce it over a number of years. If the students want to take college and A+ certifications at an accelerated rate when they are 15 then they should have that choice, but we should offer advance placement as early as the sixth grade for those who have the academic chops and require students to make a choice about taking A+ certs or some type of advance placement program when they hit the 8th Grade. Regardless of the type of advance placement or A+ technical training a student chooses we should really push math with an emphasis to have introduced either Calculus or Statistics to all students by at least the end of high school/secondary school and we should have those classes available in the curriculum as early as the 9th Grade with students being able to take the prerequisites as early as the 6th grade.

Rip calculus out of physics? Excuse me but I think it is equivalent to a suicide attempt in physics.

As someone currently studying physics I've gotta say I really like the balance of what is taught, my biggest issue being how they balance content between AS and A2 making a lot of the harder bigger stuff crammed together in A2 meaning AS is like a cakewalk of well understood concepts that carry from GCSE and A2 seems to be a bombardment loads and loads of new stuff we may never get to fully appreciate. Lucky enought to have two fantastic physics teachers tho so :)

In the US, if you take an AP Physics, calculus is a huge part of the curriculum. If you were to take AP Calc as well, depending on how your teacher goes about the material, you learn more calculus in the first month of AP Physics than you do in AP Calculus.

Bro.. All I learned in my high school physics class is F=ma lol

Wait... NO CALCULUS?!?!?!!!! BUT CALCULUS IS SOOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!

Hey Brady, how do you get yourself going on a swing without pushing off the ground? how do you generate the force while still being part of the system?

As an engineer teaching physics, I have a different perspective. Most engineering involves Newtonian mechanics and other old ideas. We don't discuss Higgs bosons or relativity and you don't need these to go to the moon or design a car. These interviewees are physicists and they are excited about the newer stuff. Significantly more students become engineers rather than physicists. So I don't have a problem with covering the old stuff because they are laws and they don't change.

I would love to be able to just sit and talk with someone about this stuff. People I know quickly flee from the room when I attempt to speak with them about these things.

Do you want to be controlled by technology or to control it? Study maths, feel the power.

High School physics in Australia is a joke as well.

My high school physics teacher showed us that minutephysics video the other day and started talking about second year physics concepts (I'm in my first year) and you could tell how much more excited he was to talk about those things than he normally is when he talks about basic physics (pre-1865). It was also probably one of the most interesting physics classes we've had (although I may be a bit biased because I'm probably the only one there who knew, and loves, minutephysics and already understand some of these concepts). The basics are necessary, but I think it's important to bring up these concepts such as quantum mechanics, the higgs boson, and relativity to show that physics is a combination of math and concepts, and that the difference between physics and a normal math class, such as calculus, is that it is applicable to things happening around us (well, some of them) and that it has another factor that makes it more interesting and astonishing. Also, I think this was a great video, and it definitely made me question how physics is taught and it made me even more excited to learn the higher level physics concepts and math. :)

I learnt physics decades ago, my stepson encountered it at GCSE. I was horrified by the change. Perhaps some of the change is a good thing - maybe a wider understanding at MUCH lower levels - but for those with interest the lack of maths is an issue To learn form you that Calculus is missing from the 'A' level is shocking. I really do blame the media who greatly enhance the anti-maths culture. It is never cool to praise or endorse ignorance.

I'm struggling with the bias from the scientists, that math is the best way to understand physics for EVERYONE. The GCSE is exactly that, a General certificate of education - it has to give the same standard of eduction to everyone on a general, or broad-reaching level; by nature, it can't focus on the detailed specifics. It has to encompass every child, from the gifted to the lower abilities. The general population are either not interested or are unable to understand the minutia of degree level maths / physics. However, it is important that they have a basic understanding of the day to day results of that maths, just they don't need to be able to prove any of it. Eg. It is important to understand the effects of gravity, but when does the average person need to calculate out the effects of it in any more than a generalised way? Even in specialised positions, a general understanding will do. For (awful) example, it isn't necessary for a pilot to be able to explain to the quantum level the forces at work on the blade tips in their engine, but it is for the person who designed it. However, the chances that the person who designed it can also fly a commercial airliner are small, even though they may understand the principle of it. Both these professionals would be educated to at least degree level and may even share A-Levels choices, such as maths or physics. Neither requires to be able to work in the other's specialised field in order for the plane to keep flying. This is why we specialise at university. Some people do Maths and Physics, others do English or Music. It shouldn't be expected that the Physicist have a deep understanding of 16th century literature or compositions, but that doesn't exclude them from appreciating them, and so forth. I don't think that it is a failing of the education system, that their secondary school students are taught this way. It is more a constraint of the broad spectrum of student ability that they are required to cater for, given the need for the generalised standard imposed through the curriculum.

in India we see SAT and laugh as it is too easy

Honestly this is exactly why I never pursued further education in the Sciences, even though I had been taught science at school with minimal maths and I absolutely adored the sciences (especially physics and chemistry) but I not only am terrible at maths, I cannot stand the subject and as disheartening as it was because like I said I really, really loved the sciences, but I knew there was absolutely no way I could ever do or understand the maths involved. As much as I do understand the annoyance that they aren't teaching these kids enough maths in physics, at the same time overall I think it helps to do it like that. I mean if my physics lessons had been full of maths when I was in school, I would have lost interest in that class so quickly and completely that I never would have cared about science for the rest of my life. I likely would have gone on to be someone who knew nothing about modern science and had less than zero interest in helping it out. Yet BECAUSE I was not chased away from the sciences by having unwanted maths thrown at me, these days I still love science, I watch and subscribe to just about every science youtuber I can, I do a few citizen science things, I discuss things within my understanding with like-minded people. If my science classes had too much maths in them when I was at school, I wouldn't do any of that stuff today.

There is a simple fact, not everyone is capable of understanding advanced mathematics. Some people are good at maths, some are not. They are better at other things, like arts and literature for example. Shoving down maths in everyone's throat isn't necessarily going to help them, it will leave them frustrated. Yes, science is important, but so are arts, history or literature.

Im only 16, doing my GCSE's in may/june. I'm in the middle of my mocks at the minute but instead of reading about convection, i'm sitting down deciding to read about quantum mechanics instead using a book i bought myself. But apparently i would fail my physics exam, therefore not getting to study physics at UNI because i understand quantum mechanics but not convection. The education in high school is a joke

Still better than how they teach chemistry. High school chemistry teaches things that are simply wrong! They teach theories that are 100 years old and are so incredibly oversimplified that students end up with horrible misconceptions. When i give lectures to high school students i tell them to simply forget what they have learned, otherwise they’ll get stuck with the first oddity i show them.

Why not give kids a choice from a younger age... To drop classes they don't like. And the ones that do want to learn, can! And won't have to waste their time with other junk.

There’s no problem with the current maths A levels. FP2, FP3, S3-4, M3-4 all teach uni level maths. Physics A level just needs a bump up to AT LEAST C3 standard

Well, some people are saying that we should learn even less of these things. They say that these 'unesesary" things should not be taught. They say that things like how to get a job, first aid and learning to do taxesis more important. I remain neutral.

there are not enough demonstrations in physics classes. The math is easier to use when understood in context of viewable phenomena. Professors must remember that it is not just the math that is the problem, its the ability to put many equations together and remember what each letter actually represents. Physics classes are missing demonstrations that make the equations make sense. Teaching physics without demonstrations is like teaching music theory without ever having heard music.

The problem is in the way math is taught and most teachers aren't willing to explain the importance of it, or they just don't understand it as well.

I read about modern science myself in high school and my teachers told me that I shouldn't do that so much because the time for that will come in university and this is exactly the problem.

The education system is not going to change a whole lot. For now I suggest learning higher level material in your own time. It should help in your exams as well.

In Ohio, it's pretty common to see people struggling to round up when leaving a tip. It makes me kinda sad. How are we not an endangered species?

Haha if you are confused by imaginary numbers you are in some deep shit if you want a degree in physics or math.

I think a lot of math teachers have a sort of elitist attitude. They have a natural aptitude for math, so they enjoy it, so they got a job teaching it, but they have no empathy for students who do not have a their natural aptitude for it. We're just not trying hard enough or we're trying to be "cool" or we have a phobia or something. The truth is, I wish I were good at math & I try my hardest, but I simply cannot grasp it as quickly or easily as they did.

The math is not the problem, it's using only math without properly explaining the theory

I personally think modern physics should be delayed until university, or only introduced briefly. Classical physics is less abstract and easier for students to wrap their heads around, so its a good place to introduce the maths involved in physics. Its sad that the west is dumbing down education to protect the feelings of students.

When I did AS, we were doing all of that at A1 and lower infact. :/ I used to get bored and read all the textbooks too, sadly "no child left behind" means no child gets ahead. How dare we want to learn more than our class mates, tut tut.