At first I tried to memorize formulas and it was a disaster. The second a problem looked slightly different, I had no idea what to do.
What actually helped was focusing on the basic ideas instead: what velocity really means, what acceleration actually looks like, how forces interact. Once that made sense, the formulas started feeling way more logical.
Also drawing quick little diagrams helped a lot. Physics fundamentals became way easier once I stopped treating it like memorization and more like understanding what’s physically happening.
I had the same experience. Once I stopped trying to memorize every formula and started thinking about what’s actually happening physically, problems became way easier.
Also drawing quick sketches helps a lot - forces, motion, angles, whatever the problem has. A lot of physics students struggle because they memorize equations instead of understanding the ideas behind them, and that usually breaks down when the question changes a bit.
Honestly I had the same moment where physics suddenly “clicked.” For the longest time I was trying to memorize formulas and just plug numbers in, and it never worked. The breakthrough came when I started asking what is physically happening first, before touching any equation.
Two things helped me a lot:
• Drawing diagrams for every problem. Free-body diagrams, motion sketches, circuits — once you visualize the forces or motion, the math suddenly makes sense.
• Explaining the concept out loud like I was teaching someone else. If I couldn’t explain why a formula worked, I didn’t really understand it yet.
After that physics stopped feeling like random equations and more like a logic puzzle about how the world behaves. Still hard, but way less mysterious