Beyond Memorization—The Power of Divergent Thinking by Nicholas

Beyond Memorization—The Power of Divergent Thinking by Nicholas - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

AP Physics C: Mechanics was by far the most difficult class I had to take during high school. Not only did it include conceptually difficult content, it frequently featured in-depth problems which required an intensive series of steps, sometimes taking from multiple units at a time, to reason through them.
This course required a firm understanding of calculus, hence the “C” in the course name, but the two courses required very different approaches. In calculus, I learned how to integrate; physics demanded I understand why and when to, in addition to translating a messy real-world scenario into equations, sometimes with several unknowns. Other courses in mathematics or science typically also involve conceptual concepts that require critical thinking in order to break a problem or process it down and solve it in steps. However, these courses typically boil down to a memorization of certain formulas, like the quadratic formula, or specific procedures, like the scientific method, in order to facilitate the process. Unfortunately, AP Physics C: Mechanics did not have this luxury. While memorization was useful for basic concepts like uniform motion, it was only a starting point. Solving the more involved problems required using those basic formulas to derive new equations suited to each specific situation.
Take tension problems between connected blocks—the force of gravity, pulley systems, free body diagrams, and sometimes even friction, all in one problem. The first step was always determining what kinds of forces were at play. From there, the same problem could often be solved multiple ways—treating the connected blocks as one whole system or treating each block as its own unique system, for example. I preferred the latter option, but I remember times in which using the one whole system approach was more efficient. Both methods described would eventually lead to the use of the equation net force = mass times acceleration and the same end result. I learned that thinking of multiple solutions to a problem was much more efficient than focusing on one strategy to a type of problem that has worked in the past.
This course taught me that understanding a process, and accepting multiple processes as viable, were much more important than memorization alone. This shift changed how I approached problems in other classes, including AP Chemistry. In AP Chemistry, which offered similarly multi-step problems, like relating molarity, moles, and reaction stoichiometry across several steps, I realized that the more drawn-out problems did not intimidate me the way they might have before. Converting between pH and concentrations of H+ or OH-, for instance, could be reached through several different intermediate equations, not just one fixed path. Recognizing this reinforced the importance of considering multiple options to implement a common goal, as it saved me considerable effort on various occasions. Then, instead of searching for a memorized shortcut, I broke each problem into parts, the same way I had learned to isolate blocks in a tension problem, and worked through it methodically.