<p>I'm passionate about physics and I want to go as far as I can in USAPhO (will be a junior next year). </p>
<p>First, which textbooks would you suggest? I have Phyiscs by Resnick, Halliday, and Krane, and also Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker. </p>
<p>Are there any practice books you suggest? One I've heard of is Physics by Example by Rees.</p>
<p>I am preparing by myself, so do you have any advice for a self-studier? How did you prepare for USAPhO? All advice appreciated.</p>
<p>Also, was it a worthwhile experience?</p>
<p>Context: I placed in the top 150 of USAPhO semifinals this year (bronze medal).</p>
<p>I would suggest doing an AP physics C course textbook - it’s all you really need.</p>
<p>Do lots of problems - do the challenge problems in the textbook and do the past USAPhO tests. Make sure you are able in calculus and that you use it in your practice.</p>
<p>I made semifinals without really thinking about it too much, and I worked really hard for the semifinals on studying E&M (read about 550 pages out of my textbook) and I think I did pretty well.</p>
<p>I am definitely a lot better at physics now and I think it convinced me to be a physics major. </p>
<p>I studied E&M for about 3 weeks for the USAPhO and I took the AP Physics C E&M test that year solely from those 3 weeks of studying. I don’t have the results back but I think I did well (5 probably).</p>
<p>It was the most worthwhile thing I have done it recent memory.</p>
<p>Thanks, trollface. So, if I study a challenging curriculum in preparation for AP Physics C (M+EM), semifinals aren’t too difficult? </p>
<p>And also, did you study E&M after getting into semifinals or before? </p>
<p>Any advice from anybody else?</p>
<p>I’m not American but I went to IPhO and APhO. </p>
<p>First of all, make sure that you know the basics really, really well. Drill HRK and make sure that you’re getting nearly everything right. To learn the formulae before my IPhO/APhO selection exam, I made myself flashcards. Of course, these won’t help with problem solving, but you can’t solve problems unless you know the basic equations. </p>
<p>After that, do practice problems and go through the solutions. I learned so much from going through solutions - a lot of olympiad mechanics problems are similar.</p>
<p>Olympiad was probably the highlight of high school for me. I made a lot of close friends.</p>