Find private physics tutors in Plymouth

Finding the Perfect Physics Tutor

Along with chemistry and biology, physics is part of our obligatory science education until we leave school aged 16. In terms of science, it's arguably the broadest ranging as it covers the tiniest subatomic particles to massive galaxies and almost everything in between.

With such a broad scope, it's hardly surprising that some students struggle with it, especially when you consider just how much it relies on maths, too. If you struggle with mathematics, you'll likely struggle in your physics lessons.

Let's have a look at why it's important to study physics, the challenges students face, what we learn about it in school, how private tutoring can help both struggling and gifted students, and how to find private physics and science tutors in and around Plymouth.

Why It's Important to Study Physics

The first reason you should study physics is that you have to. Put simply, if you want good results at school, you have to do well at all the core subjects like maths, English, and science. Since you won't be able to drop any of these subjects until after GCSE, it's probably for the best that you just accept that whether you like it or not, you have to study them.

That said, physics is a subject that overlaps a lot with maths, biology, and chemistry and you can learn a lot of transferrable skills by focusing on your physics lessons. You'll gain reasoning skills that you can use in other subjects, numeracy skills you can use in mathematics, and a better understanding of how things work in the real world.

There are also some great careers with physics. If you study physics at university, you can become a physics teacher or a physicist, for example. Of course, there are plenty of other careers like engineering and technology careers that benefit from a firm understanding of physics. However, as physics is so broad, you'll often have to specialise in a certain field of physics for certain careers. You'll either do this during your degree or stay at university and specialise through a master's degree.

With so many of the careers available through physics requiring degrees or advanced degrees, many of them are well-paid. In general, the average physics and astronomy graduate will earn a starting salary of £26k per year.

Challenges in Physics

All those benefits sound pretty good but if it was that easy, we'd all be high-earning physicists, wouldn't we?

There are a few reasons that not everyone gets into physics in school. For one, the broad range of topics means that you could love one topic and hate another and never really start enjoying physics. Furthermore, with so much to get through, many teachers don't get the time or resources they need to engage their students with the most fascinating aspects of the subject.

A good teacher in a subject will make all the difference and unlike chemistry and biology where students often get to enjoy flashier experiments, physics can be quite dry at points, especially when you're up to your ears in maths equations and minutia.

Then there's the maths itself. For a lot of chemistry and biology at school, you can still enjoy it without really excelling in maths. Of course, both these subjects still rely on mathematics, but for some students, it can feel like they can't do anything in physics until they're an expert in mathematics.

Areas of Physics Studied at School

Every GCSE student in Sheffield will study science in one form or another. They can either study science as a double award GCSE, where they cover physics, biology, and chemistry together and are awarded two GCSEs, or they can study physics as a single science GCSE, where they'll study it, chemistry, and biology, as independent subjects.

While there are some differences between the various exam boards offering the physics GCSE, let's take the AQA exam as an example. A lot of these topics are included in any physics GCSE and it's useful to see the kinds of subjects secondary school students will cover in their physics lessons.

AQA GCSE Physics students will cover the following:

• Energy: Stores, work, power, and efficiency, heating, etc.
• Electricity: Electric circuits, mains electricity, static electricity, etc.
• Particle Model of Matter: Density, temperature changes, gases, etc.
• Atomic Structure: The atom, isotopes, ions, radioactive decay, fission, fusion, etc.
• Forces: Gravity, elasticity, moments, levers, and gears, pressure in fluids, acceleration, etc.
• Waves: Properties of waves, sound and ultrasound, reflection and refraction, lenses, transverse and longitudinal waves, etc.
• Magnetism and Electromagnetism: Magnetic fields, electromagnets,  electromagnetic induction, etc.
• Space Physics: The solar system, life cycle of a star, the expanding universe, etc.

Private Tuition in Physics

For students who struggle with physics (or any subject, for that matter), private lessons are a great way to help them perform better at primary school, secondary school, or university.

As we mentioned, your average teacher doesn't get the time or resources to tailor every lesson to each student or provide them with the teaching that they need, no matter how hard they work at it.

When a student learns at home with a tutor, you can guarantee they have the tutor's undivided attention and that every minute of the hour will be spent focusing on them and what they need to be learning.

Finding a Physics Tutor in Plymouth

If you're looking for physics tutors in Plymouth or around Devon, just search for them on the Superprof website. You can view each tutor's profile to see what experience they have, the level they teach, how much they charge per hour, the reviews left by their other students, and whether they offer the first lesson for free.

If you can't find any suitable tutors in Plymouth or Devon, you can always opt for online tutoring. There are tutors all over the world who can teach physics to primary school, secondary school, or university students as long as you have a webcam and a decent internet connection.