<p>I went through AP Physics C in junior year but got 4's and I am looking to place out of 8.01, 8.02 and perhaps 18.02. Do any of you have recommendations for good textbooks/study material that I should use, esp for physics? Physics C was a blur last year and I'm looking for a cogent, coherent book that explains everything lucidly. Thanks!</p>
<p>For your 8.01 ASE, you may want to consider buying the 8.01 textbook, University Physics (Young and Freedman) 12th ed. This is what MIT teaches out of and from what I understand, the ASE’s are roughly based on a course’s final exam. And this way, you can turn around and sell your book to other MIT frosh.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is worthy buying your ASE’s books because:</p>
<ol>
<li>They are VERY expensive (unless you get a real cheap copy/old edition)</li>
<li>Your high school probably has an equivalent book for the AP</li>
<li>8.01/8.02/18.02/18.03 books are pretty lame… just saying.</li>
<li>You can use MIT ocw/online resources to pretty much cover anything you need.</li>
</ol>
<p>For the info, I took ASE’s for 18.02, 18.03, 8.02 and 7.012 and the only book I bought was for 18.03 (cos there was extra hmk). 18.02, I self studied using MIT ocw (never had a formal course in either 18.03/18.02). 8.01/8.02=> use Walter Lewin stuff, WAY better than the textbook (unless you plan to buy the 8.012 textbook, which I highly recommend).</p>
<p>For other ase’ers:THe campbell textbook is pretty much useless for 7.012. Most of the stuff you need to know, are pretty specific and you can wikipedia them, and the test is mainly problem solving. I praticed using past psets on ocw, and passed.</p>
<p>Hope it helped.</p>
<p>My opinion: It’s not worth investing in a textbook to take an ASE - and I mean, the main purpose of an ASE is that you’re good enough not to need to pour over a textbook for it? (Personally, I wouldn’t rush electromagnetic theory without being able to pull differential operators and contour integrals out of my head.)</p>
<p>I don’t think there are any ‘bad textbooks’ in introductory physics…</p>
<p>As for 18.02… are you majoring in Physics? If so, investing in a good textbook is worth definitely worth the cost. </p>
<p>The very basics for college physics will be advanced calculus (multivariable, vector and tensor calculus) with special functions (Bessel, Legendre, Laguerre, Hankel, Hermite etc.), analysis (real, functional), linear algebra -> group theory, ODEs and complex variables. PDEs+BVPs+modeling will come after covering most of the above as prerequisites.</p>
<p>Also fairly common, real analysis up to Lebesgue measure and integral properties, complex analysis, geometry of manifolds, abstract algebra, applications of Hilbert spaces to PDEs, differential geometry etc.</p>
<p>Apostol vol 1 and 2 is detailed and covers a little of ODEs and linear algebra, and is quite close in rigor to an introduction to real analysis. It sets you up, you see. If you’re looking something more proof-intensive and challenging (and not something computational), and not something that you’ll keep as a doorstopper after you’re done with the course, it is a good investment. Also worth considering, Courant vol 1 and 2. Abebooks is a good place to grab books cheap and/or second-hand.</p>