This year, as many of you probably know, was the first year of the AP Physics 1 class/exam. At my school, there was only one class period taking this course, and we received our AP Scores today, and not a single person got above a 3, with about half the class receiving a 2 or worse. Many people who received a 2 got an A in the class and a 5 on the practice exams we took, and most of us were told and felt that we were prepared for the exam, so we’re all shocked by these scores. Many students at my school are able to pull straight 5’s on difficult exams that are related to math and science, it was just this one class we all seemed so ill prepared for. Do any other students feel the same way? Many of us are upset at our teacher for not preparing us adequately; there were many things on the exam that he had never mentioned or taught us. What course of action can we take based on this? Will the administration of our school figure this out and do something? We’re all just upset and wondering what we can do. Thanks for any suggestions or advice!
I don’t think any of us would know as we don’t work in administration.
I never took any practice tests as my teacher knew that they would be extremely inaccurate.
The Physics 1 exam was very different this year as it was mostly conceptual where as AP Physics B I think it was a lot of calculations.
I’m sure many were unprepared as 60% of the nation failed. We can’t really do much as of now than to just forget about the Physics 1 test. It really wasn’t our fault as we had no previous material to study off of. Many schools are probably like yours in which a majority failed.
If I were in administration, I would give it one more year, let the teacher fully understand what is expected of him (by giving some ACTUAL FRQ’s to base off of). I don’t know how much info was given to the AP Physics 1 teachers, but judging from the results, the info given by the CB was probably very vague.
If I were the teacher, I would do wayyyy more labs as a lot of the FRQ’s were based on labs I did in class.
Also, I would spend much more time explaining the concepts and using variables instead of actual numbers so students actually understand the material instead of plugging in numbers.
@rdeng2614 Yeah, I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in administration, just wondering if anyone had maybe had a similar experience. I’m sure if 60% of people failed, it isn’t entirely my teacher’s fault we were unprepared (I didn’t feel that way to begin with). Thank you! Do you feel colleges might take into account that it was a new course that many failed because they didn’t know what to expect when looking at a 2 or 3 AP score? Thanks for your help!
Seems like the course was taught poorly, especially if it was a year long course that covered what a college course covers in a semester.
In the long run, it probably makes little difference, since physics 1 is probably not that useful an AP for college subject credit anyway.
@ucbalumnus Thanks for your input. Hopefully the course improves as the instructor gains more experience teaching it over the next couple of years 
I have the exact same experience. I maintained a 97 average in my AP Physics 1 class the entire year, so I felt that I would do fairly well on the exam. And I got a big, fat, stinkin’ 1. I’ve yet to find anyone in my school who has gotten above a 2.
I feel that I wasn’t ill prepared, as I learned a whole heck of a lot of physics, but that I just wasn’t prepared for this test. It was almost wholly conceptual - I barely touched my calculator. The test didn’t just test basic knowledge of concepts, we had to be able to apply those and merge them into understanding completely ridiculous problems. If you didn’t understand the ins and outs of every concept, you were toast.
Honestly, I’ve noticed that I’ve done better when I’m taught to the test, which sucks, but gets me those higher scores. I really enjoyed my physics teacher’s approach to the class (barely mentioning the AP test, nearly all lecture) as I still learned a lot. Yeah, it sucks that this test was so hard for everyone and that most of us failed, but hey, at least it’s over. Hopefully this test will be redesigned/CB will help teachers know what to teach so that future students don’t have to go through this.
@bwulv24 In other words: You could do the calculations, but didn’t actually understand what you were doing. This is an issue in AP Chemistry as well.
Unfortunately, teachers are usually responsible for emphasizing too much math and the memorization (rather than understanding) of conceptual topics. As a result, their students can only solve rote problems.
@1golfer1 Yeah, pretty much. I think my teacher was so used to teaching Physics B (which I heard included a lot more calculations) that no one really considered that such a drastic change would be made. I guess now that we know the torture that is the AP Physics 1 exam, teachers will focus a lot more on true understanding rather than knowing how to manipulate a formula.
At some schools, if an AP teacher has “bad results” in consecutive years, and the students are scoring better in their other AP exams, then that AP teacher will be replaced with another AP teacher.
At my kids’ school, there was an AP US History teacher that lost her “AP class” when she had consecutive years of trouble.
Only 4.1% got a 5. 12.8% got a 4. Only 20% a 3. As another poster noted, over 60% failed. It was the test. Not your teacher or you. Colleges will recognize this. I wouldn’t worry.
Putting the AP credit for Physics into perspective - if you are going into a degree that requires two college physics with calculus classes, perhaps having those two courses at the college level can have you with strong grades (versus perhaps being exempt from one with AP credit). I know my HS physics book was one of the two used by my H’s engineering program. DD had HS physics (no AP). Physics with calc (two classes) at the college level are challenging courses. My DD’s school also didn’t offer the second AP Calc course, so senior year she took statistics (also didn’t offer that in AP). Started at college with Calc I to have the full sequence at her university.
Do what is best for you as a student, both in HS and in college. In college, don’t want to jump into a sequenced course and be struggling.
There’s unfortunately nothing to do other than keep in mind, as you move forward, that collegeboard is moving towards synthesis and genuine deep understanding of topics rather than the ability to solve problems and memorize facts. While this shift is definitely good in the long run, and more closely aligned with what colleges want, the nation as a whole was definitely underprepared- it’s a tough boat to be in! I wouldn’t worry much about it for college, though, AP scores don’t play a large role in most admissions, and Physics I on its own is probably not enough to earn college credit for introductory physics anyway (you’d need to take 2 as well).
I looked at the FRQ’s when they were released. IMO, it was not the test. It may have been the teacher, but those of us not in that school will not know for certain.
94K students took the Physics B exam LY; twice as many took the AP Physics 1 exam TY. In my mind, that’s probably 100K kids that really should not have been in an AP class, but were pushed by their parents/teachers/themselves.
At the end of the day, though, AP scores really do not paly a large role in the admissions process; they are mostly used for credit and/or placement, so I would not focus too much on the past at this point.
This raises serious concerns for grade inflation. Although colleges do understand the 4.1% 5s, it’s unlikely that an ENTIRE class does not get a score above a 2. Statistically, 1 in 25 kids (slightly smaller than the average class) should have gotten a 5.
The thing is, there are some incredibly bright, science-minded kids in my class. One of them has a physicist as a parent and basically talks about nothing else and understands how everything works and why like no one I’ve ever met. The issue was that there were topics on the AP Exam that we had never seen before, and terms and words that our teacher never used or presented to us. Many people in my class felt they understood most everything on the exam that we’d been taught, but there were things that we had never seen before, which is where the problem lies. It wasn’t hard because we didn’t deeply understand the concepts, it was hard because there were words and concepts we had literally never seen ever before.
You’re assuming all classes are equal. I would wager a good % of kids from a school like stuyvesant or bronx science or a top private school may have gotten a 5 or 4…whereas for some other schools a 3 very well may have been top score earned on this test. The school my kids went to didn’t even offer AP physics. Look at the % of kids who “pass” (3 or better) APs at different schools and you will find a wide range.
Our computer science teacher is a sweet, kind old man, but very confused, and has a poor grasp on the CS A curriculum. I am the first student from my school to get a passing score on the exam (I got a 3, and I would assume mainly because I got one of those princeton review study books). He sent me a card to congratulate me. For a 3. Seriously. It happens. Physics 1 is a new course (I think), so maybe your teacher just doesn’t know exactly how to ‘teach to the test’ yet- or maybe, he doesn’t care about the exam. I don’t think you would want to schedule out of physics 1 in college, anyway, because the AP course is so new.