<p>Next year I will be taking AP Physics B as a junior with no prior physics knowledge. I am not too great at math but am hoping for a 4 and straight A's (on top of 5+ more APs and a rigorous EC schedule, ouch). My teacher is supposed to be really good, and I actually met with him twice to cover some of the basics (he went over some of the concepts for very basic kinematics). Other than this, how else should I prepare now knowing that I'm not very strong in this area and that I will also be very busy with APs like Spanish, Calc, and Chem, and time-consuming ECs like debate? I have the Giancoli textbook and the PR book.</p>
<p>I was in the same boat as you…very busy, but I didn’t have a good teacher. All you have to do is understand what he teaches (or some of it) and go over it every night. Make sure you understand mechanics thoroughly because after that it gets ugly, but hey, I passed it without even learning Atomic/Nuclear Physics or Optics and I’m not a science guy. It’s all about mechanics</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster. If you understand mechanics at a solid level, you should be fine. A classmate of mine was adequate in everything except mechanics (in which he was expert) and got a 5. And mechanics are easy if your math background’s good. I had an okay time myself – I was taking Physics B and Algebra II in the same year… and I regret not taking it later because mechanics finally clicked after taking Trig and Calculus. I got a 4, and that’s with adequate knowledge (to near lacking) in just about every area except acoustics. And my schedule wasn’t as difficult as yours sounds – Physics was my only AP and I had a light EC schedule. If you have a good teacher though, that’s great! Just try to get a lot of studying done in the summer so the beginning of the year can be spent adjusting to everything.</p>
<p>Wow, you sound like me! My junior year I took AP Physics B, AP Calc AB, and AP US History, and then I was also in a 7th hour debate class. But do not worry, most of my ap physics class hadn’t had any experience what so ever going into it, and I hadn’t either (taking Bio and Chem my first two years of high school). Just know that ap physics is just accelerated, but the topics, including the basics and beginnings of physics will be covered. it is not to be expected that you have any background information, although, it wouldn’t hurt. </p>
<p>My advice for the class would be just stay on top of the homework. If you can do the practice problems and assignments, you should be fine. And like said before, do not get too caught up if one part of the class is really difficult (some topics are crazy), because for the B test, a lot of different areas are tested and you aren’t expected to master all of them. For the whole start studying now, not very necessary, just make sure you try to understand the “gist” of everything. I was in your same boat, and got a 4 on the ap test, it is very difficult, but the curve is rather forgiving.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I feel a little bit better now. I guess I need to start looking a bit more at mechanics.</p>
<p>I took AP physics this year without having taken physics before and it was fine, but I’m good at math. Some of my friends did struggle, but our teacher wasn’t very good.</p>
<p>My advice is to make sure you always do your homework problems. In my class, there was a lot of correlation between people copying the homework from others and doing poorly. The people who did their own homework usually did much better.</p>