Would the students get credits in average public college for new AP Physics 1 taken in high school with a score of 5 like for other AP Exams? There is a rumor that there will not be any credits transferred for this new AP Physics 1 exam.
Like any other AP course, it depends on the university. While I am sure they may be some that will not grant credit, every public uni that I looked at will.
It will also depend on the major, a school might accept 1&2 for a non engineering non science course credit , but only take physics c for the eng physics.
The answer is maybe. At best you would get 1 semester credit for a non-engineering physics. The three schools I checked at Carnegie Mellon never granted credit for Physics B, and I doubt they’ll offer credit for Physics 1 or 2 either (which covers pretty much the same material). Tufts granted 1 semester credit for Physics B, and I’m guessing they’ll offers some kind of credit for the new sequence as well, but you might have to take Physics 2 as well.
@mathmom OP asked specifically for public colleges; private colleges will definitely be less likely to give credit than a public university.
Sure but the same holds true for public colleges - you can’t tell what’s going to be accepted except by going to every single college website. And BTW, most don’t seem to have updated their websites to reflect the fact that there’s a new Physics course.
For what it’s worth the UCs are granting some credit for both Physics 1 and 2. U of Michigan enginering no credit, Arts and Science only for 5’s.
UMich CoE only grant AP credits to Physics C but LSA would give credits on other AP Physics too.
Subject credit may only be for biology major physics, if the college’s course is not calculus based. Premeds likely have to retake, since many medical schools do not accept AP credit, and there usually are not any more advanced physics courses after taking physics for biology majors.
I think the question is for kids like mine, do they even bother with AP physics 1&2 or just do honors followed by C (or IB HL) assuming they are fast tracked for math. The dilemma for the sophs picking physics is probably less about the credit and more about rigour, but is there real rigour in 1&2?
An additional issue to consider when choosing physics is that a student intending to take the SAT subject test in physics would need to take either a regular/honors one year high school physics course, or AP physics 1 and 2 to have exposure to all of the topics on the subject test.
Regular/honors followed by AP physics C mechanics is likely a better choice for a student who is likely to go into the physical sciences or engineering, since it fits better with the SAT subject test in physics and calculus-based physics in college. AP physics 1 and 2 mismatches with the SAT subject test in physics and is probably too long to spend on non-calculus-based physics anyway.
“is there real rigour in 1&2?” No. Even physics C is significantly harder than Physics B (according to my daughter who self-studied C while taking B), and a good calculus based college physics class is likely harder than C. I don’t see any point in spending years studying physics without calculus.
Even when the college grants credits to these AP Physics courses, they are all entry level 100 courses. It is not useful if you are going to take Physics C anyway. You may want to consider other alternatives to best use you schedule.
My kids, both engineering majors, both took AP Physics B. One received a lab credit and the other a general education credit. Both had to take engineering physics 1 in college.
I had a good AP Physics B class. Didn’t get credit useful for engineering, but my college physics courses were cake since I had already seen most of the concepts. I don’t think calc-based physics is necessarily harder if you have a good calculus background and math aptitude. Freshman physics is a weed-out b/c many students aren’t solid on the calculus side and aren’t able to gain intuition from the math.
BTW: I was a little weak in E&M and might have failed AP Physics 2 with this new format. Ended up an EE major 
The universities I have looked at are giving credit. They seem to be giving credit under the general ed science requirements. Prospective non-science majors should still see the benefit.