<p>My friend and I both go to a year-round public high school. We're both pretty decent students, have past 4.0 GPAs, etc.. When we started senior year, we both got assigned Honors Physics since we were on this year-round schedule called "Track C", which didn't offer AP Physics, AP Physics was only offered on "Track A", which was a year-round schedule that sorta went like this.</p>
<p>Track A = Goes to school September-December and March-June
Track C= Goes to school July-October and January-April</p>
<p>Now that I've gotten that out of the way, my friend kept Honors Physics and decided to take AP Physics along with it while I just dropped Honors Physics altogether and rearranged my schedule just to get AP Physics and keep all my other APs (Calc BC, Government, Psych, Env. Science). So basically, we still come to school an hour a day just for AP physics during our vacation.</p>
<p>We really want to learn this subject since both of us want to be engineers. However, things have not been going so well. We've been doing very poorly in physics due to the fact that, simply, WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE MATERIAL. Our teacher is a pretty veteran teacher, he's been teaching for nearly 30+ years, but only works for 2 hrs. a day, just to teach AP Physics and Honors Physics on Track A, so it makes it pretty hard for us to ask him for help since he immediately leaves after he's done teaching. We're both afraid of failing or getting significantly low grades since we've been getting rather fluctuating grades on our tests and half the time we stare at him with blank faces since we watch him do the work, but we're so lost we really have no idea what to ask him. He only grades us on the tests, never on homework. So basically, we get the same grades. We've had 4 tests handed back so far and we each have: A, B-, B-, and D-. Give or take a + or -, we have about the same grades on the tests (we don't cheat lol). In closing, we're very worried about failing and don't know whether we should drop the class since we might hurt our college admission chances if we do drop it. Can someone offer an insight or a solution to the problem?</p>
<p>Well, what's your average? How was honors physics? Did you think that was hard too? At my school, you have to complete honors physics before moving on to AP, so that may be the reason you don't know the material; you just needed more time in honors before making the move.</p>
<p>There are some good study guides for AP Physics available, with lots of practice problems WORKED OUT. If you want to survive, you'll probably have to find a book like this, or a tutor, or (completely free of cost) some time with your teacher. This came up in a calculus thread, and that student was also encouraged to dig into the book, or find another strategy, since this is a skill that you will be needing in the very near future.</p>
<p>Whether or not it "hurts" you depends on the schools to which you are applying. Some colleges really make a big deal about the fact that an AP drop is a sin. Other colleges don't care so much. Realize that there may be consequences, such as a school or two that say no simply because of the drop. If you think the drop is worth the possible consequences, then it is. </p>
<p>Again, different colleges have different policies. It's possible none of your schools will care. If you have your heart set on a really selective school, though, it could be an issue.</p>
<p>And I dropped down in the first week, so it's a bit different. If you're trying to make yourself stand out with science, it could hurt you. However, if you are very strong in and/or passionate about another academic area, even selective schools will most likely be willing to acknowledge that even very promising students don't need excel in every single subject. </p>
<p>Do what will make you happiest. I ditched the ACT even though I probably would have done fine, and it made me happier :-)</p>
<p>seriously, to me it seems that AP classes are in general a brainless exercise in self-torture. I have not seen anyone really get the benefit in terms of admission in taking massive AP loads.</p>
<p>@dvm258- If you actually read the whole thread, I clearly mentioned that I never had Honors Physics in the first place prior to AP physics, therefore having no prior exposure to the material.</p>
<p>I don't know what's a good study guide for physics since I bought the barrons one and it seems like a piece of s**t. Schools I'm aiming for are USC, UCLA, Berkeley, Irvine and two big reaches: Stanford and Caltech.</p>
<p>Yeah. Those schools care a bit about AP classes.
Do you think you can get a B in the class, of will your grade likely be a C or below? If the former you should try and stick it out, especially if you are math/science focused. Oh, and what math class are you in? Physics is harder if you aren't at least in Precalculus and at best in Calculus. That's actually why I skipped a math level last summer, this year I'm freshman and taking Precalc, because that way Physics will be easier for me next year... but anyhow that's less important for me because I'm a humanities girl ^.^</p>