<p>Heres my brief story-
I'm going to be taking an AP physics this year (I still have time to sign up for classes), and I was wondering if I should take B or C (mech + e&m). I am a Junior, so I'm not done taking the SAT II's. I took the Chem (660..ew) and Math II (800), so I think as my 2nd SATII I'll be doing physics. THe thing is, I'm pretty sure I can handle C (I already took AB Calc, and I'm in BC now), but I heard it isn't very parallel to SATII. Basically my question is this:</p>
<p>Do colleges really care much about the difference in rigor between B and C, and if you were in my situation, what would you take?</p>
<p>C is a huge jump from B. I would take it. If you want to take the SATII too, I would spend a little bit of time learning the extra topics that aren’t covered in C. It’s really not that hard to learn those topics.</p>
<p>The SAT II Physics test is most comparable to the Physics B MC, just so you know. The Subject Test just has more “weird” questions than the AP MC.</p>
<p>I think that C and B are actually very similar in Mech and E&M. If you know calculus (e.g. derivative of velocity is acceleration), I’m quite sure you can pass the C: Mech test with B-level Mech knowledge only (I’m not too sure about E&M). I actually think that some of the B topics not covered in C (Fluids, Thermo, Nuclear, Waves, Optics) are harder than Mechanics (I’m not an E&M person at all). </p>
<p>I’d actually recommend you take Physics B (and self-study for C if you want to). The class alone got me a 5 and a 780 (I wanted an 800 so badly -________-), but I’m sure that without knowledge of any of the B-only topics, I couldn’t have scored over 550.</p>