Hello.
I am a high school freshman and I’m interested in taking AP Physic C Electricity because I believed that course has important information when I’m trying to make science projects. I might want to be an engineer in the future and I know I have to be good at both Physics and Mathematics. I want to take physics in sophomore year because I can have an entire two years to study the subject and understand it completely preparing me for college physics classes I am bound to take. However, the only way I can take AP Physics C is I might be enrolled in a calculus class and currently I am in algebra 2 and I’m doing pretty good with a strong A and I have to skip Precalculus to get into calculus next year . I’ve heard precalculus is algebra 2 but with extra materials but I can catch on Math quickly and I don’t think it will be a struggle for me. I took the Khan academy course revolving around precalculus and I got a 93 percent on the final quiz. I think I can do it. I want to hear you opinions. Thank you for your time.
E&M was the most challenging class my D took in HS. You will need H Physics or AP physics I first and my advice would be to not rush through math to get to calc. Math builds on itself and you need a solid foundation.
As long as you get to Physics C by senior year, you’ll be fine.
Eh. I wanna study physics more tbh. and it’s not like im skipping multi variable calc lol
My advice is to take honors college prep Physics and honors precalc next year, if honors classes are available at your school. Physics C EM is the most Calculus heavy high school physics class and you might find yourself struggling with no prior Physics and Calculus under your belt. Studying Physics whether in high school or in college requires a strong foundation in math. Precalculus is a foundational course. This is advice because advice is what you asked for.
yea I gyuess
To best understand E&M, it is best to learn it with multivariable calculus.
ya @ucbalumnus I’m going to take Precalculus over summer I think. I want to spend a lot of time on physics because its a really fun subject and I think I can use it for projects and be able to expand my knowledge. I don’t wanna just spend one year on physics in high school.
I don’t worry about learning math too much since school math comes to me easily at least before calculus
But, most high schools don’t go up to MVC. Ours does, and our S took it simultaneously with Phys C last year, but the requirement is to take it simultaneously with Calc BC.
Are you saying that the class should be taught using multivariable calculus for the problems? I’m not a math/science person and I’m just wondering if the kids taking Phys C aren’t really learning enough that they should skip the first physics in college.
My S said it was the hardest class he’s taken, but then wondered if his teacher wasn’t that good, because when he studied for the Physics subject test he said he understood it so much better. Before that, he thought he was “bad” at E&M and should steer away from EE (the Mech portion was easy he said).
Also, our school doesn’t have honors classes, and kids don’t have a physics class before they choose either AP phys 1, 2, or C. The stem kids take C, the humanities kids take 1, and I don’t know who takes 2!
In college, physics with E&M (for physics and engineering majors) typically has a corequisite of multivariable calculus (see note below). That is likely the reason why AP physics C E&M is less likely to get subject credit and advanced placement in college than other AP exams, including AP physics C mechanics.
That the AP course does not use multivariable calculus seems to be an attempt to force-fit physics for physics and engineering majors into high school where math typically goes up only to single variable calculus.
Note: typical college math and physics sequence for physics and engineering majors:
Semester 1: single variable calculus 1
Semester 2: single variable calculus 2, physics 1 (including mechanics)
Semester 3: multivariable calculus, physics 2 (including E&M)
Students with AP credit for calculus AB or BC may start in a more advanced math course than single variable calculus 1; if they do, they may start physics 1 in the semester 1.
Yes, you need to take Physics.
No, you don’t need to take AP Physics C as a sophomore.
AP Physics C is NOT an intro Physics course. It’s a second-level course (like AP Chemistry). It has a pre-req. That pre-req course is either Honors Physics or AP Physics 1. You could even take AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, and AP Physics C if you wanted 3 years of Physics, or, depending how your HS does it, AP Physics 1, AP Physics C: E and AP physics C: E&M.
In addition, if you want to study Engineering or Physics in college, this would be the best possible sequence for an accelerated student that’s 2-years ahead (let’s say you’re interested in MIT, HarveyMudd, or CalTech)
Math: Algebra 2H-> Precalculus Honors → Calc BC → Multivariable Calculus or Discrete Math/Linear Algebra
Science: Biology in 8th grade, chemistry H in 9th, Ap physics 1 or Honors Physics in 10th, then either 1° AP Chem and/or AP Physics 2 in 11th, AP Physics C in 12th OR 2° AP Physics C Mechanics in 11th, AP Physics C E&M depending on what your HS offers.
In addition, you should have 4 years of English and history/social science (if possible, 1 of those 8 courses should be an AP, 2 would be even better), Foreign language through level 4, and some extra courses of interest (in your case, that’d likely involve AP CS Principles, AP CS A, Robotics…)
“Rushing through” is NOT seen positively, in particular because students who aren’t ready miss out on a lot.
Taking precalculus over the summer doesn’t cut it: it’s rarely precalculus honors and it never goes as much in-depth as yearlong precalc courses. If you’re confident in your ability, you could try and see whether you can take a dual enrollment (also called PSEO, running start, CollegeNow…) class in precalculus or college algebra at a nearby college over the summer. Be aware that you’ll HAVE TO do very well in an accelerated format designed for adults, because colleges will look at how you handled that class that you chose to take, and judge whether you had enough self awareness, intellectual autonomy, and work ethics to do well in it (B or higher - much harder in college than in HS). If you DO pull an A, then you can take calculus as a sophomore. It doesn’t mean you should take Physics C as a sophomore though, because having Calc AB BEFORE you take Physics C helps learners “make sense” of what they’re learning in Physics and vice versa.
idk if this helps, but i took c (mech and e & m) concurrently with calc bc when i was a junior. i had no prior physics experience. i’m also pretty stupid. i got a 5 on mech and 4 on e & m, so you will be fine. idk if i would’ve been able to do this during my sophomore year, though
Had you taken Precalculus Honors before? Calc AB?^
What classes do you take as a senior (the progression is very important to colleges. Taking Physics C and Calc BC as a junior, and AP Stats + no AP science senior year is unlikely to be well-regarded by STEM colleges, for instance.)
Also “I’m pretty stupid, I got a 5 on mech” are contradictory statements and concluding “so you will be fine” is… not good reasoning skills. (You are, by definition, not representative, but much better at math and physics than most, and extrapolating is not good advice.) You did a great job (Congratulations!), it doesn’t mean anyone else will, especially as a sophomore who took Algebra 2H as a freshman and hasn’t taken Physics before.
To give you some perspective: taking AP physics C is, on its own, already pretty unusual: Out of 15.4 million HS students, only 27,000 take AP Physics C.
A sophomore who has taken neither Physics (Honors or AP 1) nor calculus (and not even Precalc honors) taking AP Physics C: E&M is a recipe for disaster, one colleges will roll their eyes at (“hubris”) - especially when the student is a strong STEM student who’d have shown what they’re truly capable of if only they’d met the challenge with the proper tools, in due time (ie., as a junior/senior).
i’m really sorry. i did not mean to downplay my achievement or make physics c seem like an easy task. i am really sorry if it came off that way! i should’ve been bolder about my stance against taking c during sophomore year, though.
i just meant dumb as in i had to work really hard in physics (again, i should’ve explicitly mentioned that) and spent a lot of time preparing for in-class tests and quizzes. my point was that with hard work (and the appropriate preparation – i got to take precalc honors during tenth grade), people can be successful in physics c, even if they are not super smart.
thank you so much for responding to my comment! after rereading it, i realized how much important information i am missing.
as for op, although you will be fine taking physics c as a first year course if you put the work in and have the right preparation (which you might not until junior year), i would strongly recommend against it sophomore year. also, like MYOS1634 said, you’d run out of stem classes, which wouldn’t be good.
Thank you for explaining this!
@bluehuman : don’t be sorry 
You’re a senior used to talking to juniors and seniors who understand much in terms of implicit information. A 1st semester freshman is unlikely to “get” all that, that’s why I made it explicit.
Also, Physics C, like all Engineering and Physics courses in college, IS hard work, even for really smart kids. The fact you had to work really hard perhaps for the first time is a good indication of what you’ll live while in college.
Time-intensive and difficult are two different criteria when evalutating courses.
In college, you have
- courses where you can study about 1- 1 1/2 hour for each class period, and get a good grade. Those are “gut” courses (rare and much prized to balance your schedule. You’d have one per semester, if that. They may be electives you take to raise your GPA or a Gen Ed requirement course you take to balance a tough schedule.)
- courses where you can study 1 hour 1/2 to 2 hours for each class period but good grades aren’t common (or many drop out along the way) because the material is difficult and many just don’t get it. (Accounting, 4th/5th semester foreign language, Philosophy, Econometrics would be typical examples.)
- courses where you study 2 to 3 hours for each class period, go to office hours, have study groups, and you get a good grade if you do everything right and are reasonably smart/are in a major that’s a good fit for you. However, being smart isn’t enough, you have to put in the work. (Physics C would be a good example of this).
- courses where you study 3hours+ for each class period, study group, office hours, and still good grades are difficult to earn, with many C’s or D’s. 2nd year Engineering and Physics courses tend to be in that category.
For colleges that use the common credit hour system (where 120 semester credit hours are needed to graduate and a full time course load that graduates in 8 semesters is 15 semester credit hours), the usual time workload is 3 hours per week, including in-class and out-of-class time, per credit hour.
So a typical 4-credit course would take 12 hours of work per week, and a 15-credit semester would take 45 hours of work per week, based on the above definition.
However, many courses take less work, at least partly due to technological improvements. For example, looking up a reference used to mean hours of looking through card catalogs and books in the library, versus today’s web and library search in a few minutes for the exact books needed before going to the library to read them. Writing a computer program today on a home computer that is orders of magnitude more powerful than the shared computer accessed through a one-screen terminal in the lab decades ago is much easier.
But some kinds of courses do take more time than others, and are not always given increased credit value:
- Courses with labs.
- Courses with art studio or performance.
- Courses with computer programming assignments and projects.
- Courses with large term projects in the background.
- Courses that the student finds intellectually difficult.
yea I’ll think about. But main reason for taking ap physics C sophmore cuz I can spend more time on it senior year. Looking forward to taking set theory and some other advanced courses. Really want to indulge myself into learning what I want to learn. I get the point about hubris and all that yada yada self pride etc. I took the khan academy course on calc and it went pretty well. AP physics 1 / honors physics I don’t think will be too important. At least what I’ve heard from seniors/juniors at my school. AP CS etc should just be some easy AP’s and im not too interested in. I don’t want my course load just to be a race of who has the most AP courses. I disagree with you saying that I should take an honors physics course because I’ve seen that most students at my high school at least just take AP calc bc and ap physics C junior/senior year and pass with that and no previous experience of physics. I’ll take your other advice into account however. Thanks!
Yep! I know that for a matter. So I have been self-studying from around 6-7 months ago. I’m only taking precalc over the summer for the credit. Thanks for the In-depth answer tho.
Can you explain what you mean?
Can you list the sequences you plan on doing (ie., which core courses you’d be taking in 10th, 11th, 12th grade + any electives/graduation reqs)?
No matter what, go talk with your math teacher to discuss your plan as well as with the Physics teacher(s).
What do they think of your plan, based on your current mastery of the material/ general science mastery?
How unusual would that plan be - first, taking AP Physics C without a previous Physics course and, second taking it as a sophomore after Algebra 2H+summer precalc?
If you fail in the 1st quarter would you be able to switch to another class? With a W, a WF, or no mark on transcript? What if you get a C or a D? 5would you have to stay in that class till the bitter end and carry that grade for 3 years?)