<p>Okay, so I am a junior and I am taking 4 AP classes. One of them happens to be AP Physics B.
First of all, my teacher is notorious for not being able to teach. Apparently last year was the first year he taught AP Physics and everyone either made a 1 or a 2 on the test.
Now that I've been in the class for 3 weeks, I can see what people are talking about. I truly believe he is an incompetent teacher. I'm not sure I will do well on the test. No matter what,he gives you a good grade in the class.
What should I do? I mean, isn't it bad to take an AP test, but not take the exam? Also, it doesn't look good to take the class, make a good grade on the class, and then do poorly on the exam?
I was thinking about switching into regular physics at the end of the semester. He's the only person who teaches AP Physics.</p>
<p>So if anyone could give me advice, that would be awesome.
Thank you so much.</p>
<p>^that's the worse advice anyone could give you.</p>
<p>DO NOT drop out. I'm in the same position as you (with all my classes). Just learn the stuff on your own. You seem like a competent person (since your taking 4 AP's), so you should be able to teach yourself whatever your teacher is remiss in teaching.</p>
<p>Get a review book! Do NOT drop out! Review books teach everything you need to know as if a teacher had never taught it to, so you don't really need any prior knowledge. Plenty of people don't even take the class and just use a review book and get 5's. You can do it.</p>
<p>Plus, you could always just not submit your score. No one's going to look down on you.</p>
<p>I studied on my own and got a 5 while take four other APs and an honors at the same time. Considering I came into the class thinking mass and weight was the same thing (exaggeration, but pretty darn close), I have to say from personal experience that physics is very self-studiable. I'm sure you'll be fine, and you'll do great! The AP physics test has a pretty gorgeous curve, though it does depend on everyone else taking it that year. I know for a fact that I got dozens of multiple choice wrong, and at least 2 incomplete free responses, and I still got a 5. Hang in there, and it'll pay off in the end!</p>
<p>This is my AP Physics teachers first year teaching it and he has NO CLUE what he's doing at all. He assigns homework and then doesn't explain anything...all he does is talk about how hard the class is...ROFL only because he's a moron.</p>
<p>So to make sure I get my 5 even with this horrid teacher I bought a prep book, I'm studying my textbook religiously, and I signed up for the UCCP AP Physics course to compliment my studies.</p>
<p>Unfortunately even with all this prep this class is still pretty hard because this is the first Physics class I've ever taken.</p>
<p>I used Barrons AP book (not the new white cover one, the old brown cover one), but mostly I relied on my textbook (Serway and Walker editions are apparently the best, and that's what our school had. Serway is blue with a swimming person on the front and Walker is white). My best advice would be to do tons of old tests from the previous years. You can find a lot of them on AP central (sign up as an administrator). This year, there were one or two problems that were almost identical to past problems in previous years. </p>
<p>For the free response, you should also get to know problem "types" that show up. There will always be a kinematics (force, work, oscillations, gravity etc.) question, either with inclined planes or mass/springs or variations of that. Inclined planes usually show up once every three years or so, so you probably won't seen another one on the 08 exams. Electricity and Magnetism is always on there, either a problem with currents and resistors and/or a problem dealing with magnetic fields. We had both this year, and they were my favorite types of problems, so they were mad easy. Most of my friends had trouble with electricity and magnetism though. Waves and optics dealing with lenses and light refraction/reflection are also possible. PV diagrams and fluid questions are almost always on there. This year's was particularly easy, but PV diagrams can get confusing, so watch out for those. And the last free-response question will generally be an atomic/nuclear physics one. The one on the 07 test was ridiculous, and I drew pictures instead of bothering to answer it, but definitely look at previous tests for practice on those.</p>
<p>Oh and AP Physics B test never covers rotational kinematics, thank god.</p>