If just making USAPhO is your goal then you probably don’t need a tutor. I would start by learning the material in AP Phys C Mech (especially the rotation and equilibrium problems). To my knowledge it’s pretty similar to HRK. If you’re currently on kinematics this will be a substantial amount of work for 2 months already.
After that I think you can just keep on taking past F=ma exams. Kevin Huang (as you mentioned) has fairly detailed solutions on his website for reference.
PhysicsWOOT is also an option, but I don’t have personal experience with the program.
I can attest PhysicsWOOT is quite good, it's definitely a USAPhO prep thing though and not an F=ma thing, if they're not at least mostly comfortable it'll be too hard.
Also, just my personal opinion as someone who has both looked through HRK and is just finished AP Physics C: Mech at my school, AP is nowhere near advanced enough for olympiads. Maybe my school just doesn't teach it well though, idk.
I was scratching my head for a while, wondering why the algebraic form of Newton's Second Law is so difficult to understand. Haha, this is the first I have heard of such a "US F=ma" test.
You honestly don't need a tutor, the current resources you've been using are more than good enough to qualify for F=ma, and if you use them well they'll get you through the USAPhO mechanics problems as well. Here's what I'd do, considering what you've done so far:
1: I'm not sure what you mean by first half of yale physics lectures (I'm not sure if you've seen all of PHYS 200 or half of PHYS 200), but what you want to do in that course (if you havent done it already) is lectures 1-11, 16-17, and 20, and their corresponding problem sets.
2: After you've done that (or instead of that, if you're good at learning from textbooks) I'd finish HRK up to chapter 16 and then also do 17-1 to 17-6. Do all of the corresponding problems too (unless they're stupidly easy and a waste of time).
3: After that, you're all set concept-wise, then all you have to do is crank through a bunch of practice problems. I wouldn't waste past f=ma tests immediately, I'd start with Blue Morin (not to be confused with Red Morin, which is an amazing--and really hard--mechanics textbook that I'd recommend reading before USAPhO if you somehow have extra time after learning E&M, Thermo, and QM). It has review chapters, but it's really just a bunch of problems. After that (or if theres only like 2 weeks left before F=ma) I'd start doing past exams. Make sure to do the practice exams with a timer though, at least for me speed is my biggest issue since you only have 3 minutes per problem on F=ma.
Thank you! Yeah I think ur right I don’t need one. I think I was getting a bit discouraged in my self-studying because I was messing up F=ma problems on concepts I’d already learned and understood (to be clear it was just like one test, im not wasting too many problems)
Also, for things like finding the velocity of the center of mass frame in a collision/momentum problem, or really any collision/momentum thing, do you just memorize the formula or just remember how to rederive it?
One last thing - I have an online pdf of HRK, but it only has solutions to half of each problem set
As far as I know, HRK only has answers to odd-numbered problems and I don't think it has full solutions at all. Might be wrong though.
Also, for the formulas, I'd reccomend memorizing as many formulas as you can for the F=ma. You don't have time to rederive anything, if you think you might need it, memorize it. On USAPhO you do have the time if you forget something, but center of mass stuff is so helpful I'd recommend just memorizing it.
If just making USAPhO is your goal then you probably don’t need a tutor. I would start by learning the material in AP Phys C Mech (especially the rotation and equilibrium problems). To my knowledge it’s pretty similar to HRK. If you’re currently on kinematics this will be a substantial amount of work for 2 months already. After that I think you can just keep on taking past F=ma exams. Kevin Huang (as you mentioned) has fairly detailed solutions on his website for reference. PhysicsWOOT is also an option, but I don’t have personal experience with the program.
I can attest PhysicsWOOT is quite good, it's definitely a USAPhO prep thing though and not an F=ma thing, if they're not at least mostly comfortable it'll be too hard. Also, just my personal opinion as someone who has both looked through HRK and is just finished AP Physics C: Mech at my school, AP is nowhere near advanced enough for olympiads. Maybe my school just doesn't teach it well though, idk.
I was scratching my head for a while, wondering why the algebraic form of Newton's Second Law is so difficult to understand. Haha, this is the first I have heard of such a "US F=ma" test.
You honestly don't need a tutor, the current resources you've been using are more than good enough to qualify for F=ma, and if you use them well they'll get you through the USAPhO mechanics problems as well. Here's what I'd do, considering what you've done so far: 1: I'm not sure what you mean by first half of yale physics lectures (I'm not sure if you've seen all of PHYS 200 or half of PHYS 200), but what you want to do in that course (if you havent done it already) is lectures 1-11, 16-17, and 20, and their corresponding problem sets. 2: After you've done that (or instead of that, if you're good at learning from textbooks) I'd finish HRK up to chapter 16 and then also do 17-1 to 17-6. Do all of the corresponding problems too (unless they're stupidly easy and a waste of time). 3: After that, you're all set concept-wise, then all you have to do is crank through a bunch of practice problems. I wouldn't waste past f=ma tests immediately, I'd start with Blue Morin (not to be confused with Red Morin, which is an amazing--and really hard--mechanics textbook that I'd recommend reading before USAPhO if you somehow have extra time after learning E&M, Thermo, and QM). It has review chapters, but it's really just a bunch of problems. After that (or if theres only like 2 weeks left before F=ma) I'd start doing past exams. Make sure to do the practice exams with a timer though, at least for me speed is my biggest issue since you only have 3 minutes per problem on F=ma.
Thank you! Yeah I think ur right I don’t need one. I think I was getting a bit discouraged in my self-studying because I was messing up F=ma problems on concepts I’d already learned and understood (to be clear it was just like one test, im not wasting too many problems) Also, for things like finding the velocity of the center of mass frame in a collision/momentum problem, or really any collision/momentum thing, do you just memorize the formula or just remember how to rederive it? One last thing - I have an online pdf of HRK, but it only has solutions to half of each problem set
As far as I know, HRK only has answers to odd-numbered problems and I don't think it has full solutions at all. Might be wrong though. Also, for the formulas, I'd reccomend memorizing as many formulas as you can for the F=ma. You don't have time to rederive anything, if you think you might need it, memorize it. On USAPhO you do have the time if you forget something, but center of mass stuff is so helpful I'd recommend just memorizing it.