<p>Hey guys, im an 11th grader here (international student form india).
Ill probably be taking the Physics SAT 2 next year june. Im fairly competent at physics, and this year's course covers Kinematics, Dynamics, Properties of matter, Waves and Simple harmonic motion. Next year (starting march) ill be starting electricity , magnetism and light (however,i know the foundational basics already).</p>
<p>I gave the collegeboard physics mock test about 7 months ago, and got a score of 69 (which is an 800 according to sparknotes, like what?). I dont know how accurate this is and i just wanted some advice on tackling the subject test. More specifically, i wanted to know what books to use and how to go about it.</p>
<p>Do take into consideration that ill be giving AP Courses ( Calc BC and Mechanics, maybe even EM if i can cover the course in about 1 month). Also another thing i noticed was that the questions are very basic and conceptual. Is this reminiscent of real physics 2 SATs? Because to me they seemed too uncomplicated and straightforward (although that could just be my indian mentality talking :P, our schools sure know how to make convoluted questions) .</p>
<p>I would really appreciate if somebody could address these 2 concerns. Cheers!</p>
<p>Congratulations on preparing early! That’s the best thing you can do for this test.</p>
<p>Based on what you told me, you may need to do a little bit of self-studying. First, after you finish this course, you will have covered most of the material, but it doesn’t sound like your course covers modern physics concepts, which actual come up a good amount of this test. I would keep that in mind.</p>
<p>The score of 69 is actually fairly accurate. The SAT Physics test tends to have a very large curve on the test. In the College Board book, I seem to remember that around a 63 is still an 800. This is very useful, and keep this in mind.</p>
<p>Finally, you are also correct that the question are more conceptual. Since a calculator is not allowed on the SAT Physics test, it asks questions on conceptual questions and relationships between variables. If there are any calculations, they will be very basic in nature. Keep this in mind, since it may be in your best interest to look over the concepts in your textbook rather than doing countless numbers of problem sets with calculations.</p>
<p>Good luck in your studying, and I hope this helps!</p>
<p>Thanks!
I just have one question. What exactly do you mean by “modern physics”? If youre talking about post maxwells dual theory of EM radiation, wave and wavelength relations (plancks equation), Be Broglie wavelengths, Bohrs atom, Heisenberg UP , wavefunction (the purpose and results only, i cant solve it yet :P), line spectra, and similar concepts, im comfortable with them. I covered them in chemistry a little while ago. Calculations are something im comfortable with, my education system doesnt allow calculators AT ALL, so its cool. </p>
<p>Also, how much do light and light related concepts pop up? Most likely, ill study them after june in school. Ill have to aquaint myself with them early in such a case (note, im already comfortable with reilegh scattering and the like, convex/concave mirrors and lenses’ image formations(not the math part!!) and basic properties of refraction/reflection) from last year.</p>
<p>I know a bit of that, but ill look into the rest. The aforementioned book would contain most of these concepts right? Because these topics aren’t covered in my school.</p>
<p>I used Barron’s and i do think it has everything, modern physics also. The good thing with barron’s is that the Subject test tend to be a bit harder than the real thing from what i’ve heard. </p>
<p>Sup Panda, Im an Indian too. I’m presuming you study in CBSE?
Damn, you sure are preparing early. Props to you. I’m in 12th grade and I took the test yesterday.
I used Barron’s and it was excellent. All topics are covered. 11th grade CBSE course already covers about 70-80% of the topics already though. The things you haven’t learned yet are Magnetism, Electrostatics, Photoelectric effect, Wave Optics, Nuclei(Alpha,beta decay, strong force,etc…), and relativity.
SInce 12th grade starts in March, you should be fine with electrostatics and magnetism. Just do a bit of studying on the photoelectric effect and wave optics. You can either go throught the cbse textbook, or go straght to Barrons.</p>
<p>However I already learned most of the topics in school already so it was kind of a cakewalk. You know how Indian education is ;).</p>