<p>My physics teacher is horrendous, and the only topics I'm confident in are Newtonian Mechanics (35%) and Electricity & Magnetism (25%). We learned Fluids & Thermodynamics (15%) very briefly and I don't remember anything from it, and I have to teach myself Waves & Optics (15%) and Atomic & Nuclear Physics (10%) in a week. How realistic is this? Should I just memorize equations and basic ideas or try to cram everything?</p>
<p>In my review book, it says around 75% for a 5, and I think it's really high for an AP test, is it true? I've got the Princeton Review AP Phys B (very easy to understand), and the Barrons AP Phys B (difficult to understand). Should I also read my textbook / view online lectures like MIT's for the topics I don't know? I'm gonna take a practice exam this week, and hope for at least a 4 (i took a multi-choice part over the weekend and got about about 20/50 raw points, already limiting my score to a 4, but I'd imagine my response Q's would bring me to a 2 or 3)</p>
<p>I'm kinda pressed for time too, I've got prom on the weekend, and some BC Calc & English AP Q's to go over. I'm mostly worried about this exam though, what percents are needed for a 5, 4, or 3? Don't worry, I'm not like 'this is the end of the world if I don't get a 5', but I've been slacking and need to know where my limits are around.</p>
<p>I'm self-studying half of Physics B this week (still need to teach myself fluid mechanics/nuclear physics along with all electricity FRQ stuff). I think you can benefit from just studying for FRQ section, since MCQs are plain damn hard to get marks in.
And No, according to past assessed AP exams, a solid 5 would be around 67%.</p>
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I have to teach myself Waves & Optics (15%) and Atomic & Nuclear Physics (10%) in a week. How realistic is this? Should I just memorize equations and basic ideas or try to cram everything?
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In order to do optics, you'll have to do waves since some of it is sort of based on that. You can still do lenses, but diffraction and interference and stuff will be a little weird. I think waves are sort of easy, but it takes a few days. Definitely start now, and you should be able to understand them pretty well by thursday. I think you can learn about lenses in a day. It's just a few simple equations, and there's nothing really complicated about that. I'm still working on nuclear physics so I can't really tell you anything about that.
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In my review book, it says around 75% for a 5, and I think it's really high for an AP test, is it true?
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No. That's the Princeton Review that says that, right? If it is, just subtract 10% from each of those and that'll give you a better idea of what you need to score.
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I've got the Princeton Review AP Phys B (very easy to understand), and the Barrons AP Phys B (difficult to understand). Should I also read my textbook / view online lectures like MIT's for the topics I don't know?
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Definitely just stick with the Princeton Review at this point. Barron's is probably too hard/in depth, and you need something that focuses specifically on what the AP will test you on. Princeton Review does that better than any textbook or the MIT lectures, though those are good if you're unclear on how to do something.</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://courses.ncssm.edu/apb78/ap/ap_exams/2004_AP_Scoring.pdf%5DThis%5B/url">http://courses.ncssm.edu/apb78/ap/ap_exams/2004_AP_Scoring.pdf]This[/url</a>] should give you a very precise idea of what score you should aim for.</p>