Hi everyone. So if you are looking at this thread you are probably here for a similar reason or came to help me and the like to get a 5 on the AP physics 2 exam (I appreciate it).
Last year I received a 4 on the AP physics 1 exam, and I wished I could have known sooner that it wasn’t like Physics B at all and more of a conceptually-based exam. I’m really hoping I can achieve the 5 this year, but I lack any practice material that is conceptually based. I would like to note that I have a “firm understanding” (clearly not enough) of the material on physics 2 and the math related to it. Any suggestions?
Hello! I took AP Physics 2 last school year and got a 5 (I was so so SO surprised by this. I was expecting to get a 4) so I’ll do my best to help you!
For most of the school year, I relied purely on class materials and the teacher’s help. I had a really good teacher who really knew her stuff and she was very good at teaching us how to approach the more conceptual questions.
Once it got closer to the actual AP test (about two months before May), my teacher required us all to buy the 5 Steps to a 5 prep book, and while this book is quite thin, it is very, very good at explaining all the concepts and the multiple choice and FRQs it has are quite accurate to what you’d expect on the actual AP. Besides that, I also bought AP Physics 2 Essentials by Dan Fullerton. It was a lot of great practice problems in it that are very accurate to what AP would ask on the test.
The thing with more conceptual problems is that there’s really no way to teach them to yourself, and the best way to get better at them will be by practicing as many of these conceptual problems as you can. The two books I mentioned above worked really well for me and definitely helped me in getting a 5, so I hope they’ll help you too! You can also go to the college board website for FRQs to practice with from the 2015 and 2016 exams.