<p>My situation is kind of complicated because of an out of state move. At my old school, everyone took either Honors or Regulars Physics junior year. The students who successfully completed Honors Physics could choose to take either AP Physics B or C the next year if they wanted to, based on their confidence in math, career goals, etc. Honestly, the Honors Physics class was a joke. I was able to get a 96+ all year but I quite frankly don’t feel like I truly learned (much less retained) a lot of the info because I had a teacher who really couldn’t teach (and frankly didn’t seem to be very good at physics), and we never really delved into too advanced of subject matter. </p>
<p>At this new school that I’m going to, the advanced students take AP Physics B their junior year, and then can continue on to Physics C senior year. On the website, they advise that students who have not taken Physics B not sign up for the course. It’s not a unbendable prerequisite, but they seem to highly recommend it. Because of this, I want to make sure I’m completely prepared for the course by doing some independent learning over the summer. </p>
<p>I’m about halfway done with MIT OCW’s Single Variable Calculus course and am finding it very enjoyable and helpful, and I’m curious if anyone has had a similarly good experience with their “scholar” Physics course ([Physics</a> I: Classical Mechanics | Physics | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01sc-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-2010/]Physics”>http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01sc-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-2010/)). Does this (and the E&M focused one that is next in the sequence) correspond more to Physics B or C? Did you find it to be a good course, or are there other online ones that you recommend over it? Do you have any other resources that you would recommend? </p>
<p>I’ve found these videos to be the most helpful by far:
[Viren’s</a> Videos Free AP Physics Review Help](<a href=“http://apphysicslectures.com/]Viren’s”>http://apphysicslectures.com/)
In my opinion, the MIT videos are a little too fast for those learning the concepts the first time. They’re good for review though.</p>
<p>Walter Lewin (who does MIT OCW physics) is outstanding. 8.01 (Classical Mechanics) is equal to and beyond Physics C: Mechanics, and 8.02 (E&M) is beyond that of Physics C: E&M. For both courses, only the first 2/3 to 3/4 roughly parallels Physics C, with some topics therein that are covered in more depth.</p>
<p>Either way, OCW will over-prepare you for both exams. Just make sure you don’t waste time with things that aren’t applicable for the courses (like watching videos on fluid dynamics for Physics C: Mech, or on waves and slits for Physics C E&M). If you use OCW to study, you should definitely watch those topics at some point (because they are relevant/interesting), but not get worked up about them for the AP exam since they aren’t covered.</p>
<p>Viren’s videos that the previous poster linked to are also very good, but they are only for Physics C I believe, and they include more worked examples that you’d find on an AP exam.</p>
<p>If you are interested in taking Physics C this year, you don’t need a background with all topics in B. B covers a slew of topics that don’t come up again in C (like waves, optics, fluids, thermo, etc.). It does provide a nice background in mechanics and E&M that is helpful when they re-appear with more depth in C.</p>
<p>You may just want to go through the OCW videos for 8.01 (and 8.02, if your Physics C course also covers E&M). Even if you don’t understand everything the first time through, but just follow along, you’ll already have seen all of it when you learn it in class, making it much easier the second time around when you put the pieces together.</p>