AP Physics C: Mech and Electro

<p>My son's school takes a whole year to go through Mechanics, when it is supposed to be a semester course. Is this typical?</p>

<p>I heard that's not supposed to be happening, but then again, that could explain why E&M has a lower number of students taking the test, because they feel they just aren't ready.</p>

<p>My physics teacher wanted to have an Physics C Mechanics class that would last the whole year, but not enough of our class had taken calculus, so he decided to teach Physics B.</p>

<p>i know of other schools that do that. but really, if you have done well on physics B exam, it is really easy to self-study for physics C both parts. if one feels the class is going too slow and wants to do the other part on his/her own, i would say go for it. i mean, you need around 49% of the test right to get a 5 for physics C.</p>

<p>Wow, at my school the majority of the kids in the Physics C class haven't taken any physics, and a few have taken honors. Some of the kids, including myself haven't taken calculus yet either. But we are still flying through the material and will end up with plenty of time to spare.</p>

<p>My son's class is doing that. It is class for kids taking calculus concurrently, although about half have already taken it. They are using the current version of the text I used in college, Halliday & Resnick (which now has a third author), and are only doing half of it. If they cover the material at the same level we did but tried to do the 2nd half of the book as well, I think the pace we took in college would be too fast for the vast majority of high school students. It was too fast for a significant percentage of my classmates as well. I'd rather they learn something in depth and learn to really think well rather than rush through the material. But, there are undoubtedly going to be some kids, likely including my son, who wish they were going faster. [He's already said that they have not covered much yet].</p>

<p>Our Physics C has mostly Jrs and Srs that have taken Physics B and are either taking or have taken Calculus. As of the last week in September, we're on chapter 28 of the Haliday & Resnick 7th Edition. Our pace is 2-3 chapters a week. We should be finished by October. Yay...</p>

<p>yeah... if you have a 5 on physics B, you may very well do 1 chapter a day. i started doing all hte odd problems in halliday resnick in march, finished around late april. if you finish in october, remember to review before may!</p>

<p>If you took Physics B and they went over rotational motion and angular momentum stuff, you may as well just focus on E&M stuff, since that's pretty much the extra stuff covered in C that's not covered in B</p>

<p>we do physics C mechanics only. this is because our school does not let kids take Calculus until senior year, usually, and physics is also a senior year class. also, most kids have not taken physics before that point, because we start freshman year with "intro physics" which was like WHAT ARE NEWTON'S THREE LAWS.</p>

<p>If you know physics B well its REALLY easy to self study physics C , This include E&M, its true that you will not understand all the concepts on your own but then again you dont need to because theres a huge curve (~50%=5)
I got a five on E&M by studying the week before (After taking physics B off course)</p>

<p>At our school physics is offered during one class period but you can enroll in either honors physics, AP Phys. B or AP Phys. C all during that same class period.</p>

<p>That means three different textbooks are being used by the one teacher to instruct the students depending on which Physic's class they enrolled in.</p>

<p>My student is struggling a bit since you don't get much time from the teacher when he is working out of the three books. Trying to teach three levels of history, english, or any other science is never considered so I wonder how the school thinks this is going to be effective? Of course, the answer is they didn't think and don't care. (large public)</p>

<p>Our school is using "Modern Physics" by Giancoli third edition as the text for "C" and now finishing the 5th chapter. I've seen where this text is used at some colleges and generally for the sophmore year.</p>