<p>I plan on taking ap physics my senior year, but i don't know how well I will do. By senior year, it will be 3 years since i've taken physics (8th grade). Because of scheduling issues, I can't seem to fit in a physics class before the ap class. I will ,however, be taking calculus concurrently. How much prior physics knowledge do you need to do well? Will I be okay with just calculus?</p>
<p>This is a question I’m also wanting the answer too. I’m assuming Calc based physics (I think it’s C)</p>
<p>I’m a junior taking Physics C concurrently with Calc AB with no prior physics courses.
I just got a solid A first semester. It’s definitely doable, and helps if you have a head for math/science, but most people do fine even if it’s their first physics course.</p>
<p>MichiganMan7: “You are taking Physics C with no prior physics courses”. Is it because your school does not offer any other physics classes(regular physics, honor physics, AP physics B etc), or you just skipped some physics classes by taking AP Physics C directly?</p>
<p>Are there a lot students at your current Physics C class also like you without any previous physics knowledge?</p>
<p>No you don’t need prior physics. I finished all of AP C in class without any prior physics. Before the class, I had no idea what anything was, even uniform accelerated motion. The only physics I knew at the time was f= ma.</p>
<p>720CCs:
I think regular physics helps people understand the concept, then AP Physics apply calculus. For people taking AP Physics C directly, they need to grasp concept and apply math at the same time. In your experience, which part do you think is more diffcult? physical concept? or math part?
Also do you think “electricity magnetism” part is harder than “mechanics” part?</p>
<p>E&M > Mechanics in difficulty, simply because picturing fields and the like is so much harder than imagining a cylinder rolling down a ramp. Honestly just keep up with the class, make sure you can justify every concept you learn using both intuition and physics/math – that way you hardly ever get confused. But it’s still no cakewalk.</p>
<p>By the way, I got 2 5’s.</p>
<p>720CCs:
Thanks for answering my question. Before I heard that every one says AP physics is extremely hard and it is insane to take it directly without any previous physics knowledge. Now I feel that you can manage it if you are very good at math/science. If you are not super good in math/science, you probably need to work your butt off.</p>
<p>I’m a very science-oriented but not so with math (it’s a little bit strange). I’m taking AP Physics B this year along with AP Calc BC. Calculus A actually goes more hand-in-hand with Physics B, but any calculus is definitely helpful.
As with prior knowledge, it’s always helpful, but I don’t believe it’s necessary in this case. Learning the concepts in Physics was difficult for me because of the math, but I still ended up getting solid A’s both quarters of first semester. I’m not saying it will be easy- as long as you are willing to work, you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>Hi!! First off, middle school physics is very different from high school physics. In middle school it’s more of theory but high scool physics is a LOT of math. I’m taking honors physics concurrently with algebra 2 honors and its going pretty well so far. It’s really challenging but fun at the same time 
AP physics B covers a few more topics than honors physics, so I think you can manage it! =] just try it out and if its too hard, u can take a regular physics class instead. So basically, Physics B uses alg an trig, and Physics C AP uses more calculus. Hope that helped!! :D</p>
<p>Yeah you should be okay, but you might end up working your butt off. I took Physics B freshman year with minimal physics background and it was the hardest class I had.</p>