<p>HS son is taking AP Calc/Physics. He's ok with the Calc part but at the rate things are going he could end of failing the Physics part. We're trying to find a tutor for him because he's not connecting with the teacher. He's a 4.0 who's never really struggled with a class before.</p>
<p>Were any of you ever in this position? How did you get it turned around?</p>
<p>This thread doesn’t belong in this forum, but I’ll help anyways.</p>
<p>I was. Is he in physics B or C? I myself took C, and it was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken. To be honest, physics is hard. There’s a very different way of thinking that you have to get used to in order to solve the problems, and it takes a long time to get used to. And I’m going to be very blunt here–there’s no real way to “turn it around” other than just gritting your teeth and pushing through. The teacher can explain all he wants and it still won’t really help. I was in AP Physics on independent study with 8 other students, and we met formally with the teacher once every two weeks for lecture. Our teacher liked his AP students, and was very patient and explained things as many times as we needed, but it wasn’t really enough. One of my classmates and I would stay after class many times, trying to get help, and it would make sense while he talked us through a problem, but when we went to go do it on our own, we always drew a blank. It only started clicking after we did problem after problem after practice problem. We’d try one, get stuck, get our teacher to talk us through, and repeat the process until we started to know what to look out for. There’s a whole new mindset you need to get yourself into for the class, and only repeated practice can help.</p>
<p>Your son can do it! Just try to get him to practice a LOT and get his teacher to walk him through some problems.</p>
<p>^ So where does this thread belong?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. We are doing mandatory 1 hour study sessions everyday from now on. I don’t think he’s been putting enough time in. Just got done with a fall sport so that hopefully will help.</p>