<p>I pick my junior courses for next year in two days, and I don't know if I shoukd take regular physics or AP Physics. I'm sure regular physics is much easier than the AP class, but I need AP classes to make my courseload demanding. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>AP Physics is one of the hardest APs (supposedly).</p>
<p>I have several (very intelligent) friends who struggled in regular physics, so I'm going that route.</p>
<p>The situation seems to be a bit different at my school, Halie. A lot of juniors and even sophomores just screw general Physics and go to AP Physics. Indeed, I've found out the hard way that general Physics is for seniors who basically need a science class, or for some people who just want to take a science class. I sometimes/frequently feel that I should be taking a (slightly) more challenging class in place of general Physics. </p>
<p>I dunno if this may be reputed once I'm in AP Physics next year, but some information I learned in general Physics and am tested on seem to require taking it for granted. Maybe it's just my class's textbook...</p>
<p>Unoriginal, I'd probably ask people. Difficulty levels can differ among different schools, after all. I didn't have the advantage of information, as I transferred schools this year.</p>
<p>It probably depends on the teacher. Physics at my school is a joke if you have one teacher, and a GPA-ruiner if you have the other. If one teacher teaches both courses, you could pop in sometime, tell him how you're doing in your other math/science courses and ask him or her which they think would be best for you.</p>
<p>Are you planning to take the SAT II Physics test? I have read in other posts that it follows the AP class pretty well.</p>
<p>I'm taking AP physics this year (as a junior), and the content is really not that tough. And I have never taken a physics class prior to AP. I have a great teacher though. He's been teaching physics for 30 years, and he make everything so easy to understand.</p>
<p>My AP physics teacher is wonderful. I had her for regular physics when I took it in 9th grade. She no longer teachers regular physics, and is the only AP physics teacher at our school.</p>
<p>The regular physics teachers right now, OTOH, aren't that good. That class has become a GPA ruiner.</p>
<p>So my suggestion: if you have a strong foundation in math, take AP.</p>
<p>regular physics doesn't prepare you at all for college physics imho.</p>