<p>@davelee1054 That’s probably because Mechanics has a large amount of concepts to learn before you can understand anything. If you don’t understand vectors for example then a lot of other stuff becomes much harder. And sometimes you might have to use one concept over the other.
In EM, each topic is separate to a certain extent. So you don’t need to think as much to solve any one question and if you understand the few concepts there are then you should be good. Unfortunately for a lot of people, the concepts tend to be tougher to understand and so we usually make do with whatever we got which tends to not be much.</p>
<p>@TheSlimyDog how did you study for the Mechanics. I’m not really trying to do well on the E&M since I know I’m going to fail it, just trying to get a 4 for Mech though.</p>
<p>With only two and a half days left till the exam, are you guys cramming, studying new stuff, or chilling?</p>
<p>I have to learn new things as well do some intense cramming, but I don’t know if I have enough time to. I’m taking the AP Bio exam the morning of the E&M exam.</p>
<p>I need some tips. Should I go through Princeton and Barron’s for learning and do MCQs from there?
Or should I just go straight to practice tests and learn by going over answers?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I would just chill, maybe do a practice test over the weekend.
@davelee1054 I self studied E&M and I also think it’s easier, maybe because the AP questions are more predictable. But that’s why it has the slightly harder curve.</p>
<p>@TheSlimyDog You’re lucky you started on E and M back in March. I started self studying three weeks ago and it’s been a lot of work although very rewarding since I have learned to be efficient with my learning.</p>
<p>Tips to anyone who doesn’t know how to approach Mechanics free response questions (or at least what I do when I’m answering them):
There are three things that you need to understand how to use:
-Free-body diagrams, understanding how to equate torques and take components of forces (to be used when you need to form an equation at a specific point of time given some information like a = 0, etc)
-Conservation of energy (to be used when you need to form an equation that relates two different points of time)
-Conservation of momentum (to be used whenever there’s a question to involves a collision between two objects. Use this over conservation of energy especially when the collision is inelastic. Also remember that angular and linear momentum should be conserved separately if needed)</p>
<p>If I missed anything that you feel is important then feel free to correct me because I probably didn’t know about that as well and it would help all of us.</p>
<p>Do guys think I should bother with Barron’s at this point? I have other practice tests from my teacher but when I got the Barron’s book I assumed I’d work all the problems… but alas I did not. AND I have to study for ap French. And I feel bad for wasting that money on the prep book…Perhaps I should just do the practice tests? </p>
<p>@JanAnna I would use past released exams as they are from the CB so the questions are obviously more realistic as to what the test will actually be like on Monday. I’m not sure how the Barron’s book is structured, but if it has practice problems for each chapter/topic, I would do the practice problems for the topics that you realize you need to work on after taking some practice tests. </p>
<p>Can someone here make a google drive for Monday??? For the E and M and Mechanics exams. I don’t know how many people we will get, but more than 10 should be fine</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sciences/1646228-physics-c-all-released-mc-exams.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sciences/1646228-physics-c-all-released-mc-exams.html</a></p>
<p>@tomisawesome </p>
<p>Does anyone know if we get points for algebraic expressions that are not fully simplified. Like expressions that are reasonably simplified but not simplified to the point that is on the scoring guidelines. That is assuming of course correct work and reasoning.</p>
<p>@hiker13910 Usually the answer is only worth 1 mark but if the question has a second part which requires the first answer then you might need to solve for the value or you’ll be losing the answer points for both questions.</p>
<p>Well I mean you get the same result because the work is correct just not simplified.</p>
<p>Like for one answer I put k(1/a - 1/b) which is right but on the scoring guidelines they combined the fractions. k a and b are constants</p>
<p>Can anyone here think of anything extremely odd on the test? I’ve learned biot-savart and current density and delta wye transformation but if anyone can find anything odd from the past years that would be great! </p>
<p>@hiker13910 wow thank you. I dominated that MC 2009. 34/35 in 35 minutes. One I missed because of stupid right hand rule where i forgot it was negatively charged :///</p>
<p>@hiker13910 I meant a google doc where we put our input on it after the test. I don’t have a google doc</p>
<p>*google account </p>
<p>Any predictions for the FR?
I think on Mechanics there will be a torque and maybe a Simple Harmonic Motion.
On E&M I think maybe a Gauss’ law, a circuits, and something about Ampere’s law or inductance.</p>
<p>@superstarlala it’s usually always that from what i hear. But you might to also know RC transient and resistivityof wires because i saw a problem based on those two things, but there is always an electrostatics problem involving electric potential and gauss’s law and always one related to magnetism in some way. (Hopefully, since it is called electromagnetism) </p>
<p>Any idea what the typical cutoff for a 5 is? I’ve heard scores anywhere from 65% all the way to 80%. Which one is the most accurate from your experience?</p>