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Optional refresher material for new undergraduates 

Short refresher courses on physics and mathematics to get you ready to start 

To help you warm up your brain and identify any subject areas that might need a polish, we have put together some optional resources to help you prepare for your undergraduate physics course. 

These exercises are completely optional; we will not check that you have completed them or look at your answers (unless you ask us to). If you struggle with any of them, don’t worry that you are not prepared; it may just be that the questions are posed in a different way than what you are used to. 

Remember, the last few years have been extremely challenging for all of us. We realise that your previous studies will have been disrupted during this time and different people will have been affected in different ways. In the first year, we aim to give all students the foundation they need for the rest of their degree, regardless of their educational background, and this year will be no different. 

Isaac Physics

Isaac Physics, an online, active-learning platform, is a Department for Education project supported by the Ogden Trust and run by the University of Cambridge.

Signing-up

1. Sign up for a free account
2. Then go the Teacher Connections tab on your My account page and enter the code  TCH9U4
3. To join, you will need to allow Deborah Varley at Nottingham to access your results for the course; please click confirm when asked to agree to this

Assignments

In my assignments (under My Isaac), you will find three assignments which you can take part in. The first two, Revision sets 1 and 2, are designed to get your brain in gear and remind you of some of the central concepts you will have seen at A level (or equivalent). If you get stuck, try using the hints, which range from quick pointers towards the solution to full videos about the underlying concepts. (A full list of videos for each topic can be found under A-level Physics resources.)  

If there are subject areas that you don’t think you’ve seen before or where you think you need a bit of extra help, you could speak to your personal tutor about it once you arrive in Nottingham. Remember, do not panic – we are here to help and support you.  

If you’re looking for something more difficult, you could also try the third assignment, “Fancy a challenge?” These questions use material on the A-level syllabus but are more difficult, in some cases going well beyond A-level Physics. Don’t worry if you can’t answer many (or any) of these questions – they are meant to be challenging!  

Introduction to Mathematical Methods

To remind you of some of the important mathematics behind the physics you will learn at university, the University of Nottingham has developed an online course in mathematics for incoming undergraduate students. The course covers most of the topics you will have encountered at A-level but serves as a useful resource for preparing for the kind of mathematics you will encounter in the early stages of your physics degree programme.  

The course is hosted by Future Learn, where you can sign up for free. The suggested course duration is two weeks at four hours per week. (Accessing the course beyond this point requires a paid subscription to Future Learn.)