AP credit for Mechanical Engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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<p>I'm going to attend Lone Star College - CyFair this Fall and plan on transferring to Texas A&M.</p>

<p>I took AP tests and got a 4 on Calc AB, 3 on physics B, and 3 on physics C:mechanics. I already took English 1301 and English 1302 in dual-credit in high school.</p>

<p>I don't know what math and science class to pick. The advisor told me to go in Calc II and physics electricity and optics, due to my AP scores. </p>

<p>I contacted a Texas A&M advisor and he told me that it is recommended to retake the math and science AP classes when applying to engineering. My AP scores seem to be accepted by Texas A&M, but my Physics C: Mechanics score was not accepted at Lone Star, but since it is accepted at Texas A&M, I am fine. The advisor said accepting the Physics C: Mechanics credit depends on the engineering department at A&M, so I still don't know if the Physics C will be accepted.</p>

<p>Since I might be taking these math and physics courses at a community college, is it really necessary to take them again? </p>

<p>For Calc I, I feel I really know the material well because I had a really great teacher. She was the head of the math department and she also taught other AB and BC Calculus teachers. She strongly urged us to not take Calc I in college because the professors might penalize us in the tests, since we might do things that have not been taught in class yet, (ex: u du substitution in integrals). I had an A in the class in both semesters.</p>

<p>For Physics mechanics, I had a really great teacher too. I did not take the physics mechanics course. I just took the test without taking the class. I was in the AP Physics B class and I really feel I did well in there and I knew the material. My teacher is one of the best physics teachers out there who graduated from UT at Austin. For the Physics C mechanics AP test, my teacher told me I will be fine, since I was already taking Calculus at the time. We had a week of review and practice and learn new material that was not introduced in Physics B and we ALSO had a study session every friday for about 2 months to learn new material in Physics C and to practice. The knowledge I learned from the sessions was enough to get a couple of our students to a 5 and I got a 3 on the test. I am familiar with the topics in physics mechanics, but I have never took a course on it, but I took physics B. I got an A in both semesters in AP Physics B.</p>

<p>Since my my major is mechanical engineering, I understand physics mechanics is critical to this major. I honestly don't want to take these classes again. I feel that I will be bored because it's familiar topics I already know.</p>

<p>I feel that I should just accept my AP credit because I am taking the calculus and physics classes at Lone Star, a community college. Will A&M make me take some of these classes anyway? If they do, no point in taking it at a community college.</p>

<p>~Thanks so much</p>

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<p>If you went strictly by the book, then you are correct that your 3 on the AP Physics C exam will give you credit for PHYS 218. However, there are two asterisk next to that on the sheet. The footnote says that “credit in physics is based on the curriculum of the student’s intended major”. So like you mentioned, it is up to the A&M engineering school to decide whether a 3 is acceptable. I personally don’t think that should be a good enough score for credit at all for any college course, but according to Collegeboard a 3 is “passing” (albeit a 3 is scoring like a 50% or 60% on the exam which has never made any sense to me). But this is also not to say that these high school courses are easy. They can indeed be very challenging, but as much as they claim to be on the same level as a college course, they really just are not. That is why my physics adviser would not let any credit be taken unless you absolutely scored a 5 which would reflect mastery.</p>

<p>If you talked to an adviser here, I think they would tell you to retake both calculus 1 and mechanics. Since it is part of the common body of knowledge in the engineering curriculum, they are very interested in seeing your performance at a true college level. If they did say to take the credit for one of these courses, I think they may give you the calculus 1 credit since you at least scored a 4 on that exam. I know some people in engineering who skipped through calculus 1 and 2 here, but they did score a 5 and it was indeed on AP Calculus BC. </p>

<p>As far as retaking calculus 1 again, I can see where you could get yourself in some trouble by knowing certain methods before they are taught (the classic one is using Le Hopital’s Rule before it has been taught). However, there is a method to a professors madness when they take major points off for such things. By using a later method like this, you essentially bypass some of the previous material which was probably very important in understanding why you can use something like Le Hopital’s Rule in the first place. You will most likely be fairly bored if you retake calculus 1 (I know I was for a little bit), but I did find that I understood the information that much better after two rounds of seeing it. </p>

<p>As far as taking mechanics again, I think the engineering department is going to be fairly adamant that you do. I truly believe that college level calculus based physics cannot really be simulated in a high school setting unless you have an amazing teacher. Even though you did have a good teacher in high school, the 3 on both physics B and physics C exams does not help you much. I think you may actually find by taking this course again that there were some things you missed or didn’t understand the first time that now make a whole lot more sense. </p>

<p>So this is my point of view (may not have been exactly what you wanted to hear), but I may be completely wrong in my assessment of the situation. The only person who can truly give you the advise you need is an adviser in the engineering school. They probably hear these kinds of questions a lot at this time of year, and they will most likely have the answer ready for you right off the top of their head. </p>

<p>Final Verdict: Talk to an adviser.</p>

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<p>Thanks for everything. An advisor at A&M is getting the word about my physics C credit. Again, I am taking these classes at Lone Star, not A&M. I think I’ll take my Calc I credit for sure and I will receive word on the physics C. I am pretty good with forces and everything, if I take the physics mechanics class again, it will be boring to me because I already have an idea about everything going on.</p>

<p>The advisor at Lone Star put me through Calc II and Physics electricity and optics.</p>

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<p>I’m a freshman mechanical engineering major this year and just went through this. I got a 4 on physics B (useless towards this major) a 5 on physics C and a 5 on Calculus BC and AB. No matter what the advisors told us to start with Calc I and Physics mechanics, however they can’t stop you from taking those credits. I decided to take my calculus credits and skip calc I and II however I’m only taking 12 hours this semester (I had a lot of AP credit) so I felt I could handle the increased difficulty of calc III. Since I am going to be a MECHANICAL engineer, I decided to retake mechanics even though I’ve done it already for 2 years and did very well both years. </p>

<p>For you I would recommend starting with Calc I and physics mechanics. Even if you feel ready to move on think of them as an “easy A” class that will give you a good foundation as well as boost your GPA. A&M, and mechanical engineering especially, is extremely competitive so its important that you do really well if you plan to transfer. Current A&M students have to make at least a 2.85 GPA just to make it into upper level mechanical engineering.</p>

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<p>I’m taking these classes at a CC (Lone Star). I am taking my Calc I credit because I feel taking Calc I again, is just completely useless because Calc I isn’t really a hard class for me. My advisor was putting me in Calc II and physics electricity. I feel skeptical about the physics mechanics because I have never took a class for it, I just took the test on it with the help of the teacher from Physics B and passed it. I feel I should take that class, since my major is mechanical engineering as well. </p>

<p>My friend who is going to attend UT at Austin told me how his friends had scores ranging from 3-5 for physics c Mechanics. He said, they did not let them take their AP credit for those classes, so what they did is dispute it online somewhere, and they received credit. I could take my credit for physics C, but since I never took the class for it, I feel skeptical. Do you think I should retake physics C? I do know the ideas, the class will be somewhat boring again because everything or almost everything will be familiar to me, but idk, some people told me that I should just take my credit.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

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<p>For Physics Mechanics, if your score is good enough for credit in your major… take it. The class itself is not super vital for engineers to precisely know for subsequent classes. </p>

<p>As for Calculus, that’s an individual call. A 4-5 on the AB test should be fine to skip to Calc. 2, but that’s your judgement call. How well do you think your HS teacher taught the material? How well did you master that material? These are questions only you know the answer to. Also, check initial material covered in Calc 2 at A&M through online queries. If I recall correctly, you can find a lot of A&M calc 2 material online (Amy austin). If you feel like the initial material is too challenging, repeat the class.</p>

<p>Sent from my LG-P925 using CC</p>

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<p>Bumzo1 makes a good point about the “easy A”. Sometimes it’s good to review and boost your gpa with material you are confident in.</p>