<p>I'm planning to self-study for Physics C this year. I have the Barron's study guide, but I don't think it is sufficient in order to do well on the exam. For those who have successfully self-studied for it, what other resources did you tap into, and did you access any college-related textbook to supplement your reading/practice?</p>
<p>That depends. Do you have experience with Physics before? I found MIT Open Courseware to be useful. I really only needed that and Barron’s, but I also took Physics B at my school.</p>
<p>If you took Calc AB and have taken physics before, Mechanics shouldn’t be too hard. The E&M stuff is more challenging, but I found that MIT OCW + Baron’s was fine for prepping for it.</p>
<p>Yes, I took Physics B already. But the catch is I’m taking Calc AB this year so I hope that taking calculus and studying physics C concurrently is plausible. Do you think so?</p>
<p>Well for Mechanics, you pretty much just need to know how to take integrals and derivatives. In terms of when you take the test, you will know everything you need to know, but some of it might not make sense as you go. It’s essentially what you did in Physics B, it’s just written differently. Like, instead of telling you the initial velocity, they would give you function for velocity and tell you the time the particle starts and stops.</p>
<p>You mostly USE calculus on the Mechanics test, but the CONCEPTS of calculus are more on E&M. You don’t need to do surface or line integrals, but you have to understand them conceptually, and E&M is definitely more complex than what you did in Physics B. Once again, many of the formulas are the same, but you are looking at more generalized formulas, rather than specific ones in Physics B.</p>
<p>It would definitely be helpful to have already taken AB, but I suppose if you are quick on understanding math and science, then you shouldn’t really have a problem. One topic in particular on the AB test, rectilinear motion, is literally what you do in physics. </p>
<p>The only thing that might throw you off in Mechanics is rotational motion. Have you covered that before? In my school, rotational motion was covered in pre-AP and Physics B, but I have read of other people never having seen it before.</p>
<p>Back in high school I also self-studied for Physics C. I am just going to throw out that it is a very difficult exam, at least as a high schooler. What I recommend is going through Barron’s, which is what I did, but also as someone else said take advantage of the MIT open courseware. The professor who does the physics lectures is very good and I used those instead of my AP Physics B teacher. Also, do a quick search online for “AP Physics C material” or something like that. You can find some very helpful resources. I remember that I had come across a website that basically had lecture notes on every topic, and they were also very good notes that were easy to understand. So just take advantage of the resources you have in front of you.</p>
<p>I did well on both Physics C exams and did not take Physics in college because of it, and I have to say I had learned all I needed to self-studying. I am also a chemical engineer, so obviously from doing what I did I had a well formulated grasp on physics that allowed me to be successful in my coursework beyond that.</p>
<p>Most of what they (^^^^) have said is correct. I would like to add though:</p>
<p>MIT OCW + Barrons is a little overkill (if you are just studying to get a 5 on the test)
MIT OCW + PR is ideal (if you are just studying to get a 5)</p>
<p>MIT OCW + Barrons + Physics for engineers/physicist textbook is ideal (if you are actually trying to learn the material at the same level as college students).</p>
<p>Suggestion is to go the mitocw/barrons/textbook route because then you get a feel for learning from a physics textbook, so if you want to self study anymore physics its much easier (there are very little online resources like mit ocw out there for learning things past university physics 3/waves mechanics).</p>
<p>also would like to add that taking calculus + physics c at the same time isnt difficult at all…</p>
<p>i self studied my freshman year for the physics c tests and was only in an honors precalc class… so i taught myself calculus ABCD (abridged cut out some of the not needed stuff). as long as you know the math by the end of the year you should be fine… electricity and magnetism it would help to learn some calculus D stuff (multivariable)</p>
<p>I just thought it was physics c e&m that killed me. mechanics should be pretty easy though.</p>
<p>Yeah mechanics is an easy enough test. E&M may require substantial time investment though.</p>