<p>I am currently a sophomore and I wish to take AP chem and AP bio next year. As a result, I obviously cannot take AP Physics with those 2 AP's and 4 other AP classes. However, I have intentions of taking AP Physics, yet it is highly recommend I take physics honors first. At my school, the physics honors teacher and ap physics teacher are the same person(and she's a terrible teacher). For this reason, I wish to self-study physics honors for AP physics in senior year. </p>
<p>Any recommendations for self-studying a Pre-AP type of physics? Also, would colleges see me skipping physics junior year as a terrible thing, when in reality I'm self studying because it's a useless class at our school?</p>
<p>I would in no way recommend self-studying physics. You need a solid foundation in the concepts to excel in AP physics. At my school people will take honors physics with a fantastic teacher and still struggle for the first few months of AP physics. Take AP chem or AP bio and honors physics, you will be a sophomore, you don’t need to take double science APs.</p>
<p>If you have a head for math, I would go for it. Maybe get the curriculum from a friend taking the class and the textbook and do the lessons/readings by yourself. Then, do the practice questions. There are some great online physics resources- HippoCampus is one of them. Also, check out the AP physics c self study thread 2012 on the AP tests section; there are some good links on there. </p>
<p>Normally, I would advise taking the class but if she’s an awful teacher, you might as well self study and avoid the work.</p>
<p>Physics is not only math, but it’s very theoretical. Therefore, I would never self-study physics. I feel that by not having a teacher there, all the questions you might have “but what ifs?” will go unanswered or maybe the textbook will provide a basic answer. I’m in IB Math HL and AP Calc and IB Physics is my lowest grade. VERY hard course. I assume AP Physics is equally hard. However, some people just “get it,” and you might be one of them.</p>
<p>That’s what the internet is for. My last day of college engineering physics is today (E&M), and I self-studied everything from the book. All the professor does is talk about what’s in the book anyway so it makes no difference.
And you don’t need honors physics to be ready for AP physics, the only thing you’ll need is a ton of study time and knowledge of algebra and a tiny amount of calculus.</p>
<p>He’s talking about honors physics. I totally agree with bl4ke; normally, I would tell him to take the class but if the teacher does really suck, he’ll save time on busywork and probably learn it just as well by self studying. You don’t want to get a bad grade because of a terrible teacher.</p>
<p>If you breeze through Calc BC then you are probably o.k. for self studying AP Physics. Not so much that the math is needed for the course but it probably is a good predictor of how well you can absorb the material - sort of a “physics IQ” test if you will.</p>
<p>I’d just take Honors Physics and AP Chem/Bio sophomore year, then AP Physics junior year, and the remaining AP your senior year. Or you can double up on sciences your junior/senior year, if you wish.
Since your teacher sucks, I would take the class, and study a bit on my own on the side. Self-study but with a teacher that could potentially help, essentially.</p>
<p>At my school, there are two options: regular physics or AP B. People say it’s a bad teacher, but I just think it’s the amount of material done on the block system in two quarters is tremendous and it is a difficult course to grasp-- it requires applying mathematics to simple concepts to make new concepts / understanding (that’s pure beauty to me).</p>
<p>The concepts in mechanics sure were pretty simple, but turned very hard in E&M especially with things like electric/magnetic flux and induction. But the math only gets hard if you take upper division physics courses.</p>
<p>B is offered as first year physics and is roughly equivalent to physics honors at my school. Go for it, it means less time with a bad teacher! </p>
<p>And what sort of crazy school offers Calc III, but not physics C?</p>
<p>E/M isn’t intuitive, but I wouldn’t say it’s very hard. It just requires memorization (especially since you don’t know the math to derive anything in B) in a way that mech doesn’t. </p>
<p>Also, OP is currently a sophomore. I think it’s a little late for them to choose their science class for the year now…</p>
<p>I wasn’t talking about physics B, I was talking about university level Physics E&M, which is supposed to be equivalent to physics C E&M. And it is much harder than the other courses from my experience, even much harder than multivariable calc.</p>