@rdeng2614 Princeton Review has always been good to me, and I like it because it has sample free responses after every chapter, and thoroughly explains each. It does leave out a few things, but that’s where the internet comes in. What are your thoughts on the exam? (assuming that you will be taking it in May)
Would it be wise to start self-studying for the ap physics 1 exam now? I am currently taking 5 other AP exams but my strong point is math/physics. I plan on getting the princeton review guide and my school mates have compiled a complete 65 page review guide for all of the course. If i devoted the next month to my aps would i be able to take it?
@fairagoura I’m taking AP Physics 1 right now and the class is super easy. We’ve been doing review and the stuff isn’t hard. I think the AP test gives you all the equations and constants, so it should not be that bad,
If I’m taking Physics C right now, should I study for Physics 1?
@Participant101 you cannot take the exam unless you have bought it already, usually around 3 months before the exam. In my opinion, 5 exams seems plenty for one year, and adding another one might hurt all of your scores in the end.
I’m self-studying AP physics 1 right now. I bought the 5 steps to a 5 review book, but I don’t think it’s that great. It gives you all the information but doesn’t explain the formulas and stuff very well. I also had an opportunity to look at the Barron’s review book and I felt that the Barron’s book had better explanations. As far as the practice tests go: I have taken one practice test from each the books. The Barron’s practice test was harder than I expected, and 5 steps practice test was relatively easy. I also looked on the college board website, and I did the sample problems that were given there. Those problems were pretty close to the ones in the 5 steps book. Btw, what do u guys think will be the cutoff score for a 5 on the exam?
@bobthebuilder13
Hey I’m using 5 Steps to a 5 too. As you’ve already compared them to the college board practice problems, I was wondering whether they are easier or at the same level when it comes to difficulty.
Cutoff? No clue, I can’t tell if it would be a better or worse curve than B b/c it’s less content, but deeper understanding of the content. If the revisions of AP Bio show anything, the percentage of 5s is going to be much worse as CB wants to make the exams look like they mean something to colleges.
To the Forum in General:
Has CB released a full length practice Exam for one yet? I know they have a crap ton of stuff out for the new APUSH Exam but haven’t heard much about Physics 1.
@Zeppelin7
I felt that the difficulty of the College Board questions was in between that of the 5 steps book and the Barron’s book.
And regarding the scoring: previous AP physics B exams had a cutoff percentage of around 65% for a 5, and that’s how the 5 steps book scores it. But the Barron’s book on the other hand, has 81% as the cutoff for a 5 which is significantly different.
I’m pretty sure that they college board hasn’t released a full length practice exam for AP Physics 1 yet. All they have on their website are a couple of multiple choice problems, and some FRQ problems as well.
Hey guys, I also had a question about waves for those of you who have studied them:
You guys probably know of the equation (wavelength = speed/frequency). So if we had a tube that is open at one end and closed at another, then we know that there is a node at the closed end and an anti-node at the open end. If we ran a certain frequency through the tube, there would be 1/4 of a wavelength contained inside of the tube. Since we know the frequency of the wave, and the wavelength(measure the length of the tube and multiply by 4), we can solve for the speed of sound. My question is: If we ran the same frequency through a tube of a different length, then the wavelength would be different, but the frequency would be the same, which would make the speed of the sound wave different. Is this actually what happens, or am I confusing something?
Sorry, this might be a stupid question, but I appreciate any help.
@bobthebuilder13 I don’t think the wavelength would be different. Yeah sure, more of the wave might be able to fit in the tube but remember: wavelength is always measured as the length of a full wave, not how much wave is fit into the tube. Therefore, you would still have the same wavelength in both tubes, just that the tubes actually fit so much of that wave. Like you said, you multiply 4 with the1/4 of a wavelength to find the wavelength of the first tube. As the second tube is a different length, it can hold more/less of a wavelength and you can multiply accordingly to find the wavelength, but it would be the same wavelength. As the wavelength is the same, the speed of sound is therefore the same.
I could be extremely wrong about what I just said (I don’t think I am though). Physics this year isn’t my strongest class.
@bobthebuilder13 - You’re mostly right - wavelength is related to the length of the tube. In a tube that’s open at one end and closed at the other, you have a node and an antinode, so if you increase the length of the tube, the wavelength obviously changes as well. However, the fundamental frequency/first harmonic of the tube also changes; the speed of sound is ~340 m/s (can differ, so the problem will usually tell you) and is assumed to be independent of frequency. Unless you’re changing the medium that the wave is traveling through (gas -> liquid/solid), the speed of sound doesn’t change.
Hopefully that makes sense! You should probably Google some of the stuff I said, too, because I’m not sure how solid that explanation was.
@glasshours @Zeppelin7 Thanks for your help. I think I understand it now.
Does anyone have the official AP Physics 1 practice exam by college board?
@ZucchiniSoup I don’t think they released a full practice exam yet. All they have released so far is this:
Has there still been no release of any sample test materials besides those 6 MC questions and 2 FRQs?? This is ridiculous, there’s 3 weeks until the exam, how have they not released any more samples?
So what are you guys doing to review? I thought about buying Princeton Review but apparently it’s just a rehash of the Physics B book with the Physics 2 stuff taken out. I’m sure the practice is great, but they changed the format of the exam between Physics B and Physics 1/2, didn’t they? Like how Physics 1/2 has an experimental design FRQ. And also other units in Physics 1 that weren’t in Physics B are also not covered by the Princeton Review book, so I guess there’s no point in getting it.
Sigh, I wish CollegeBoard wouldn’t leave us so in the dark. Kinda worried about just winging this exam.
@DarachHD - I’m using Barron’s…it’s pretty good compared to PR, but I haven’t looked at any other review books.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-physics-1-2-course-and-exam-description.pdf
25 more MC questions and 3 more FRQs (starting on page 162).
Anyone have any tips for the free response? I’m not feeling confident about that one. By the way, how is the free response graded/scored and how much does it affect your overall score? Thanks!
^Free response is 50% of the exam score:
Section I: Multiple Choice: 50 Questions | 90 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score
• Discrete items
• Items in sets
• Multi-select items (two options are correct)
Section II: Free Response: 5 Questions | 90 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score
• Experimental Design (1 question)
• Quantitative /QualitativeTranslation (1 question)
• Short Answer (3 questions, one requiring a paragraph-length response)
I’m not sure if this is true but at my school the physics teachers gave us a released AP Physics 1 exam that only teachers have access to. It consisted of 50 multiple choice questions of which the last 5 were choose 2 answers. We were given 70 minutes to complete the exam, so most had to guess on the last 10 questions. Anyway, for me personally, I thought the exam was the hardest test I’ve taken in my life. There were no conceptual questions but almost every question was a concept that we learned but had never thought to apply in that way. For example, there was one question with a bunch of boxes stacked up on top of each other on an elevator with the elevator accelerating upwards, and the questions were asking about the force the box on top exerted on the box beneath it.
All in all, I think I go <45% lol!