HOW TO LEARN PHYSICS

  1. Read the assigned material before coming to class.
  2. Come to class.  Listen to lecture.  ASK QUESTIONS
  3. Review your lecture notes.  Come to office hour and ASK QUESTIONS
  4. Learn definitions of new quantities, such as surface current.
  5. Do the assigned problems.  Come to office hour and ASK QUESTIONS
  6. Review the comments on returned homework.  Redo any problems that you did not score well on.  Be sure you understand every step and can explain it clearly.  Come to office hour and ASK QUESTIONS
  7. Do as many extra problems as you can.
  8. Organize the material in your mind in conceptual blocks, such as "conservation laws", "boundary value problems", etc
  9. Mathematics has to be exact.  Every equals sign must be true!  Pay attention to distinctions such as "vector/scalar", "real/complex", "differential/non-differential".
  10. Be able to "tell a story" about every symbol in every equation. 
Remember the guidelines for all college classes: Each semester unit is one hour of class time and 2-3 hours of time out of class.  A 3 unit class requires 6-9 hours of time out of the classroom!   And that assumes you are well-prepared for the class. If you got a C in a prerequisite, you can count on spending more time than this.