<p>I'm seriously considering self-studying for the exams next May. I'm curious as to what book you guys would recommend(I saw the list on the College Board website, but I figured some live-body input would be ideal). Also, what sort of pacing did you have in your course? Was it simply Mechanics first semester and E&M second? </p>
<p>For background information, I'm in honors physics now and I am doing very well. Also, I'm in Precalculus w/Trig., but I've been self-studying for the AP Calculus AB test since November.</p>
<p>cobalturrito: for a good physics student like you, the most critical thing for AP physics C is gonna be how adept you are with calculus. You will rely on calculus not only for calculations but also for understanding the concepts. In my school we cover E & M in one semester, and personally I think self-study can be even faster than this; either way, I don't see pacing would be a big problem. M goes before E -- that's all that matters.
Book wise, I recommend Princeton Review, as it is very well organized and tends to make things simple and clear, but not too simple so that you can use it independently.
Good luck with getting a solid calculus skill =)</p>
<p>A text book is only helpful if it is a good textbook. The textbook used for my class is horrible, so I can't recommend you a good one. I stopped reading it and turned to Princeton Review and so far have managed to maintain my performance (with much less confusion and time wasted on the stupid text book).
On the other hand, when I was self-studying AP chemistry, I used a text book borrowed from a schoolmate, which worked perfectly without any prep book.
With experience with both type of reference, here's the major difference between a very good text book and a most popular test prep book for self-study:
A text book takes more patience and time to go through, while a prep book picks out the important info you need to know; both with highlighted examples.
A text book usually have more practice, so a prep book will need some other resourse (online questions, exercese book, ect) for practice.
A text book is more spoonfeeding, as its more detailed and thorough, whereas a prep book requires some research occasionally for a fuller understanding.
Those are what I found. You can decide what is the best for you based on your own study habit and ability.</p>
<p>Mechanics is a joke, you can ace it with simple calculus and SAT-level knowledge. Or if you're cool and want to actually learn the material (as AP intended for us to do), pick up Halliday and Resnick's Fundamentals of Physics<a href="the%20Holy%20Grail%20of%20Intro%20Mechanics">/U</a></p>
<p>I self-studied E&M for two weeks and got a 5. Just do lots of practice problems and read University Physics complemented with the PR review book and you'll do fine.</p>
<p>What grade are you in? Because if you're going to be a junior, it might be hard juggling physics with other ap classes and SAT's and everything. If you're going to be a senior, then college apps might be pretty stressful and if you're going to be a sophomore, that actually might not be that bad.</p>
<p>Are you pretty good at setting aside time to work? i know that if i self-studied, i would never get anything done :P</p>