When solving a physics problem there are numerous steps that one goes through. However, the steps are not fixed in stone, and there are many different ways to arrive at the answer. All ways that produce the correct answer are acceptable. No one path is the "correct way". Some paths are easier to understand, some are faster, some are more convoluted, and some are more elegant.

Be careful when following another person's method. It may work, but it may not be the best method for you, given your current level of understanding. Because each of you is unique, with different backgrounds and different ways of looking at things, the set of steps that will work best for you will not necessarily be same as another student, or even the steps that the teacher uses to find the answer.

Being engaged in constructing your own personal model of the underlying physics is the best way to learn physics and not in trying to memorize a set of steps that will give the correct answer. The steps in the solution to any particular problem may look quite different from one student to another, even though they both employ the same physics principles to solve the same problem.