Physics-Topic Wise

Physics is categorised into four main topics:-

1. Mechanics
2. Waves and Thermodynamics
3. Electricity and Magnetism
4. Optics and Modern Physics

In this post we shall discuss the different strategies to conquer each of these topics.

MECHANICS

This is undisputedly the most brain-storming topic in physics. The level of difficult problems in this topic within the syllabus has no limits. There are a limited number of concepts in this topic and most of the students are thorough with the concepts, but they feel difficulty while solving problems. Hence in this topic more focus should be given on problem solving strategies once the concepts are clear. You should keep in mind the tricks used in solving the previous problems while solving a new problem and be thorough with the concepts. The most important chapter in mechanics is 'Rotation' from which you can expect 3-4 questions every year. The unique thing about mechanics problems is that they are multi-concept based most often involving at least one of 'Rotation' or 'Centre of Mass'.

BEWARE:- Most of the intelligent students tend to make the mistake that they give excessive weightage to this topic and try to solve very difficult level problems in this topic(needless to say if there are 10 most difficult problems on Physics then atleast 6 of them would be of mechanics). You should avoid this. If you are focusing on JEE Advanced then you should only solve problems upto a certain difficulty level since the problems of mechanics asked in JEE Advanced are not that difficult. So you should synchronize your preparation with JEE syllabus. However, If you are preparing for Olympiads also then there is good news for you. You should solve even the most difficult problems of this topic since it is a HOT topic in Olympiads.

CONCEPT AND PROBLEMS BOOKS
Besides the books mentioned in the earlier page 'Physics at a glance' which tells about books in Physics in general, there are also some specific books for this topic only which I am going to enlist over here.

• For those who have sufficient time for their preparation and want to study the topic deeply can go for D C Pandey. This book is specially designed for beginners and have a lot of illustrations and solved examples to ensure that you have understood the concepts. If you have difficulty in understanding the concepts taught in the class then this is the book you should resort to. This book is ideal for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced aspirants and you are sure to understand the concepts by reading this book.
(Highly Recommended)

    
(Mechanics-Vol.1)    (Mechanics-Vol.2)

• A very good supplementary theory book for mechanics is 'Fundamental Laws of Mechanics' by Irodov. This book would open up various new perspectives of visualising and solving problems. Also this is a very short book which you can go through completely in 6-7 hours but you would learn a lot while reading it. You should read it only when you are already comfortable with the topic and just wish to revise the concepts or polish your concepts.
(Highly Recommended)  

  

WAVES AND THERMODYNAMICS

This topic is quite easy to conquer. For this, you should be through with the concepts. Also, for the chapter 'Waves', there are a lot of formulae and you must learn all the formulae because the questions asked in JEE from this chapter are direct formula-based. Also, for the chapter Thermodynamics, most of the questions are about processes(adiabatic, isothermal, isobaric, isochoric and polytropic) and hence you should prepare such questions properly and also remember the formulae for each of the processes.

CONCEPT AND PROBLEMS BOOKS

Besides the books mentioned in the earlier page 'Physics at a glance' which tells about books in Physics in general, there are also some specific books for this topic only which I am going to enlist over here. 

• For those who have sufficient time for their preparation and want to study the topic deeply can go for D C Pandey. This book is specially designed for beginners and have a lot of illustrations and solved examples to ensure that you have understood the concepts. If you have difficulty in understanding the concepts taught in the class then this is the book you should resort to. This book is ideal for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced aspirants and you are sure to understand the concepts by reading this book. Also, it teaches you about all the formulae that you should learn for this topic.
(Highly Recommended)

    

ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

After mechanics, this is the second-biggest topic of JEE Advanced and is also quite important for Olympiads too. Just like mechanics, difficult questions can be made easily on this topic. But the questions on this topic asked in JEE are not that difficult and for olympiads you can also try the difficult ones.

In this topic and in the whole Physics, the most difficult chapter is 'Electrostatics and Capacitors'. Even I had faced a lot of diffculty in this chapter specially on the subtopic 'Conductors'. So you should study this topic in detail and get your concepts cleared by reading such books.

Also in this topic, there are a lot of formulae such as electric field and potential due to ring, disc, plane, sheet etc. My advice would be to not learn them. This is because there are a lot of formulae in this topic and one can easily get confused and mix-up formulae. So it is better that you derive them as and when required(most of the formulae are easily derivable from gauss law, ampere's law etc.

CONCEPT AND PROBLEMS BOOKS

Besides the books mentioned in the earlier page 'Physics at a glance' which tells about books in Physics in general, there are also some specific books for this topic only which I am going to enlist over here. 

• For those who have sufficient time for their preparation and want to study the topic deeply can go for D C Pandey. This book is specially designed for beginners and have a lot of illustrations and solved examples to ensure that you have understood the concepts. If you have difficulty in understanding the concepts taught in the class then this is the book you should resort to. This book is ideal for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced aspirants and you are sure to understand the concepts by reading this book. Also, it teaches you about all the formulae that you should learn for this topic.
(Highly Recommended)

    

• A very good supplementary theory book for electromagnetism is 'Basic Laws of Electromagnetism' by Irodov. This book would open up various new perspectives of visualising and solving problems. Also this is a very short book which you can go through completely in 6-7 hours but you would learn a lot while reading it. You should read it only when you are already comfortable with the topic and just wish to revise the concepts or polish your concepts.
(Highly Recommended)    

    

OPTICS AND MODERN PHYSICS

In Optics, Geometrical Optics is the most important topic and it is quite vast also hence it is very important to master it. In Geometrical and Wave Optics both you should remember the important formulae. Wave Optics is mostly a formula-based chapter but still should not be ignored since every year one question of Wave Optics comes in JEE Advanced. Geometrical Optics is very important and you can expect 2-3 questions from it every year. 

BEWARE:- What mistake most of the intelligent students do is that they ignore the chapter 'Modern Physics' mainly because they think that this chapter is theory-based and less conceptual and they tend to spend more time on concept-based topics like mechanics. But this is what you should avoid. You should pay due respect to this chapter also because the importance of this chapter has increased a lot in the recent years and you can expect 3-4 questions from this chapter every year. 

Also, for modern physics, reading NCERT book is a must and most of the people do it while studying for boards itlsef. This is because this chapter has a lot of things to remember and JEE sometimes asks questions directly from NCERT which may not be given anywhere else.

CONCEPT AND PROBLEMS BOOKS

Besides the books mentioned in the earlier page 'Physics at a glance' which tells about books in Physics in general, there are also some specific books for this topic only which I am going to enlist over here.

• For those who have sufficient time for their preparation and want to study the topic deeply can go for D C Pandey. This book is specially designed for beginners and have a lot of illustrations and solved examples to ensure that you have understood the concepts. If you have difficulty in understanding the concepts taught in the class then this is the book you should resort to. This book is ideal for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced aspirants and you are sure to understand the concepts by reading this book. Also, it teaches you about all the formulae that you should learn for this topic.
(Highly Recommended)

• NCERT book- Must read for Modern Physics. I would recommend you to read whole NCERT of class XII and especially of Modern Physics. Most of the students, in their overconfidence do the mistake of not reading NCERT book seriously. But trust me class XII NCERT book is a gem and you would not regret reading it.
(Highly Recommended)

                     

(Part 1 having electrodynamics)(Part2 having Optics and Modern Physics)