AP Physics

<p>All of the college I aspire to attend are mainly "Tech" schools. Therefore, I feel the need and I wish to take AP Physics. The AP Physics teacher at my school is terrible. It is a joke class that most "non-AP takers" take. This is very unfortunate. The honors physics teacher is absolutely brilliant and i feel I will be more prepared in college if I take the honors class because that class learns more.</p>

<p>So here is the question:
Should I take AP Physics and have it bolster my GPA and resume but nor be prepared for University physics?</p>

<p>Or</p>

<p>Should I take honors physics, learn more, and then possible take the AP Exam at the end of the year anyways. ( AP Exams are free at my school)</p>

<p>I am just afraid it might hurt my app if I don't have AP Physics on my resume.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Hmm. The bottom line is that AP Physics would look better than Honors Physics on a transcript, no doubt. Especially doing well in it, if it’s an easy teacher-that could make you stick out to an admissions committee. however, life is all about learning, and if you genuinely think that you’ll enjoy and learn more in hon. physics, go for it. it would look great, in addition, if you took the ap exam after honors physics.</p>

<p>Some people will say “well, what do you value more: looking good for college or learning?” Don’t listen to them. The main goal of high school is to get into college. Take AP Physics, take the higher grade, and be prepared for a little bit of a steeper learning curve when you take freshman physics. Good luck.</p>

<p>^Agreed. </p>

<p>10char</p>

<p>I would take Honors, definitely. I highly doubt the difference of just ONE class is going to make a difference in the admissions decision. You need to take what will prepare you for college physics, and in your case that is Honors.</p>

<p>If you’ve taken Calculus, and if your AP Physics class uses calculus (which it should) then there’s no question from a pedagogical point of view that AP Physics is the much better choice. It is really very difficult to teach physics effectively without basic calculus. The simplest concepts (e.g. motion, electromagnetism, propagation of waves) are necessarily watered down, and often appear like magic when basic caluculus isn’t available. So I encourage you to check that out before you make your decision.</p>

<p>If however you have not taken calculus, then the Honors class will work better. It will serve as an introduction to physics in college, and it will introduce you to the basic principals of physics</p>

<p>That your teacher is not as strong as you’d like doesn’t necessarily change anything. To really understand complex subjects such as physics you need to work out many problems on your own, and the class time can be valuable by simply creating a focused learning path.</p>

<p>Take the honors course. You go to school to learn, not to get some credits. If you clarified that your situation in your college application in the extra info section, they would be much more impressed than if you simply took the AP class. Do take the AP test no matter what.
By the way, I hope you are going to do AP Physics C. AP Physics B is not accepted at many places.</p>

<p>I’m not worried about credits I’m just worried about getting into college and being prepared for engineering.</p>

<p>Thanks though this has helped but the differentials of all the comments still leaves me in a state of indecisiveness.</p>

<p>Uhm, who’s feeding this nonsense that taking an honors instead of an AP will get one rejected from tech schools, when the honors one is better?</p>

<p>Have the honors teacher write you recommendation letters - this maximizes the effect for private schools, who do not care what your class is called given they look pretty holistically at your essays and will take the recommendations into consideration (e.g. schools like MIT or Caltech). For state schools, GPA is all that matters, and honors courses add a GPA point just like AP’s. </p>

<p>Take the AP exam, as has been recommended. Preparation for that can be done from a text like Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday and Resnick, and if you need additional practice, use Barron’s (which gives challenging enough preparation for the AP exam’s purposes). </p>

<p>The only exception to this advice is if the honors teacher gives out mostly very bad grades. Work hard to do well in it, because if this is a reasonable but challenging teacher, if you can’t do well in it, you’re not preparing yourself well for tech schools.</p>

<p>Fog City…what you don’t understand is that in this Physics class everyone cheats, people light eachother on fire, there is no lecture time, and you can get extra credit from watching youtube videos. The only way i would learn the physics would be intensive study with the book and other resources at home.</p>

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<p>I have seen NO good argument here made for the AP Physics course. I’m quite realistic, and know that a high GPA beats a low GPA unconditionally in many cases. The ONE and ONLY argument in favor of the AP course is if your honors teacher is going to wreak havoc on your grades like crazy. </p>

<p>In essence, let’s put it this way – no matter what, you’re not learning anything for the AP exam in the AP class. Thus, the poster who wrote to attend this one need retract the advice. You’re going to have to self-study – do this. Now on the side, do you want to enroll in a class that does nothing but BS, or one that teaches you something conceptual? </p>

<p>I heavily reject the premise that “you cannot do anything without calculus” in physics. In my school, the teacher didn’t introduce much since the students were not familiar, but almost everyone got 5’s with minimal calculus exposure. Most of it is conceptual and drawing the physics diagrams, and gaining intuition. This of course breaks down in E&M, but that’s a matter of juggling setting up integrals, and you might as well teach it to yourself. The purpose of a teacher should be to give physical intuition. </p>

<p>And frankly, calculus is too unsophisticated to be of much help mathematically – you need more than basics to do much physics. Otherwise, you’re really just drawing idealized shapes and pretending you can integrate various quantities over their surfaces, and you really might as well wait until there’s more machinery.</p>

<p>Not really relevant, but why the hell is the AP class so much worse than the honors class? It seems like your school should try to prevent this.</p>