<p>I'm a senior in high school, and for the past four years I've always "known" that I would go into engineering. It just seemed like the logical thing to do. By the end of my senior year, I will have exhausted the AP sciences at my school, and have taken Computer Science as well. Chemistry AP and Biology AP (so far) have been two of my favorite classes in high school, which has led me to focus on ChemE, BME or BioE (and maybe, maybe Computer Science) as potential majors.</p>
<p>However, Physics is looking to be my downfall. I took Accelerated Physics over the summer before junior year and did well, not the best, but I was never confused about what we were learning. This year I'm taking Physics AP, and I just don't get it. Granted, every other kid in my class took Physics Accel last year, while I took it the summer before last, so I'm rusty. But I'm averaging C's on all of our chapter quests so far, and can't finish any of the homework assignments because I get confused, which has never happened in a class before.</p>
<p>All of this is starting to scare me. Hopefully Physics doesn't continue like this, and I've gotten a tutor (we'll see if he can help me...). But I just feel stupid right now, and I'm doubting my future in engineering.</p>
<p>Sorry this was a long post, but I'm just looking for any advice, guidance, suggestions...anything that people have to offer me. Thank you!!</p>
<p>Draw picturse (ie Free body force diagrams) whenever forces are involved, or light refraction etc. Try to create summary sheets of important formulas from your lecture notes, and text. I'm assuming your are dealing with Newtonian mechanics to beging the year. Wait untill you get to Thermodynamics. This will resemble Chem very closely. Physics takes a lot of thought, but once you understand it is also very simple. If you need another explation of something try googling "Hyper Physics" it is a great site. Also, you said this was AP Physics, is it calculus based or just algebra? As for your choice of majors, I woudn't worry about it too much at this point. It's still early in the year, and things might just one day click and you will have "a lightbulb moment." A tutor is a very good idea, so would be seeing the teacher outside of class, and forming a study group with some other people. I had a bad Chem teacher, and we formed a study group and that is the only thing that got us through the class (and that's how I met my GF...) Work, and remeber how inflated grades are now days. B has become the new "average" in some cases it is even below average.</p>
<p>I'm in Physics-C, so it's calculus based....and regarding the average, due to the curves on all of our tests, the average in our class is a 92%, so my 84% overall is definitely below average :(</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips! I'll check out that webiste sometime as well. We are doing Newton's Laws and everything right now...we just took a unit test, which hopefully I did well on.</p>
<p>Any other opinions?</p>
<p>In my AP Physics C class, an >85% was an A, >70% a B, and so on. The average on our tests was always around 50%. A third of our class got F's. You'd think that would reflect badly on the teacher. He didn't even know how to do most of the problems.</p>
<p>But anyway, you might want to consider not taking the AP test and retaking the class in college. It'll be much easier and make much more sense when you're going over the material the second time. It'll also build a really strong base, which will make your other physics and engineering classes much easier.</p>
<p>I wouldn't sweat the grade itself, if you perform well on the AP exam that would be a more telling indication. It could just be that your reference frame is really smart.</p>
<p>Also, depending on which area of engineering you enter, you will only have to take 2 Physics courses in college.</p>