<p>Exactly how hard is the physics honor series? Wad's their curve like? Ppl are telling me not to take it for the sake of my GPA and sanity...Is everyone in the class like Physics olympiad prize winners or at least regional prize winners? </p>
<p>I was never in physics competition b4, i went to their training, but din turn up on the selection day, doubt i will be selected if i went anyway since i did not have time to prepare. i did win something in math olympiad though.</p>
<p>“Hard” is subjective. My brother went through physics taking all the honors courses and told me it wasn’t too bad. He never did the USAPhO, and he managed to get an A/A+ in all the honors courses. You can’t really judge how hard something is based on what other people tell you. You might find physics really easy, or you might find it hard. </p>
<p>To put this in perspective, he found upper division math the hardest thing in the world. He couldn’t do proofs if his life depended on it. In my point of view, proofs are extremely easy and upper division math is trivial. But, I believe that physics is pretty darn hard.</p>
<p>If you’re really worried, then go check out “courserank.com” and look at the appropriate courses. The average reported grade on that site for physics H7A is a “B+” so it isn’t that much of a grade-killer.</p>
<p>@mitigated, do ur brother have a history of participating in physics competition or math competition? </p>
<p>I enjoy doing proofs by the way:)</p>
<p>As with all courses, it depends on how much effort you put in it. The honors series will certainly require a lot more effort, but the curves are pretty generous (in my H7A class at least). You won’t be expected to know how to solve all the problems on the tests, but you should at least know the general process and get as close to it as possible. I think in my class, it was like 35% As, or something, which is pretty big considering it’s lower division.</p>
<p>Your competition would be pretty typical. I’d say they’re above average, but certainly not USPhO material. Those guys would’ve passed out of the 7A-7C material and went straight to quantum. You’re thus left with all the ambitious or smart kids who either didn’t take AP Physics C, or are taking it slow. The highest scorers tend to be sophomores or people who have taken the other parts of the 7 series. For example, in my H7A class, the top scorer was usually the same person, who had already taken H7B and H7C.</p>
<p>@bafaa221</p>
<p>He never competed in any physics competition. For math, he qualified for the AIME and competed in a few random contests such as the Mandelbrot, but didn’t do anything noteworthy.</p>
<p>haha i know who you are! u posted on the fb group for the same thing right =P</p>
<p>Anyway, u can sign up for an account at ninjacourses and download one of the midterm exams for Physics H7A to take a look. (<a href=“http://media.ninjacourses.com/var/exams/1/PHYSICS/PHYSICS%20H7A%20-%20Fall%202010%20-%20Mueller%20-%20Midterm%201.pdf[/url]”>http://media.ninjacourses.com/var/exams/1/PHYSICS/PHYSICS%20H7A%20-%20Fall%202010%20-%20Mueller%20-%20Midterm%201.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>I’ve looked at it and to be honest that midterm paper doesn’t seem anywhere near Physics Olympiad standard. But I wouldn’t know about the final year exams.</p>
<p>i really wana take it, the possibility of jeopardizing my GPA is my only concern. i actually like physics, so putting in effort shldn’t b much of a problem, i m just worried dat if the gap between me n the rest of the class is too wide, then effort alone won’t close the gap, n i m left with a bad GPA n experience. </p>
<p>Will my sequence of taking the courses like 7B b4 7A n 7C boost my ability, hence GPA? How big will the physics honor class be?</p>
<p>@mitigated i qualified for AIME as well, got an un-noteworthy score though.</p>
<p>“so putting in effort shldn’t b much of a problem,”</p>
<p>Oh trust me, it will be a problem when you’re taking at least 3 other courses. I myself took H7B and I thought I was gonna die from the time management. I bombed the final exam in the end since i couldn’t efficiently divide my time between other engineering classes and H7B. Having 35% A is bit deceiving since almost every one in the honors classes is the top of the top Berkeley students who voluntarily decided to take the challenge and spend all day/all night on it if necessary.</p>
<p>So what is my point? Certainly take it if you are doing fine in high school physics, but make sure the other classes you’re taking are not that time-consuming also.</p>
<p>@UpMagic thanks for your advice. I will take the least time-consuming humans course with my honor physics. Do u have any suggestions for gd courses to complement honor phy?</p>