Should I drop AP Physics?

If I get a C in AP Physics this semester, should I drop it for an easy online class?

If you are a senior who has applied to colleges, you need to inform the colleges of the schedule change.

@ucbalumnus I’m a junior

If you think the colleges you are applying to won’t care whether you take AP Physics or an easy online class, then drop. If you will be a less competitive applicant then you need to decide whether you want to take that chance.

You might also think about trying to find out why you are getting a C and how to fix it. And you can ask your teacher for counsel on what he/she thinks could be going on. Are you lacking motivation? Missing the math background you spend? Not spending enough time doing homework and practicing on your own? Making careless mistakes on tests? Never been taught effective study habits? (for this last item, I recommend the book “Make it Stick”)

Do you need this class for college? Are you going into a math or science field where physics will be required? If you will have to retake the class at some point in the future, whether in high school or in college. I don’t recommend dropping it. At the very least, ask to continue to sit in after dropping it. Because your chances of passing or doing well the second time will greatly increase if it isn’t the the first time you are seeing the material.

I also recommend finding a good tutor over dropping the class. This is part of what preparing for college is about. You’ve got to learn how to succeed with bad teachers or difficult curriculum. Figuring out what you need to do to be successful in a class is half the work and can be vastly different from class to class.

I’m saying this partly as someone who tutored college students for years and partly as someone whose own daughter had a meltdown over her own AP Physics C. I didn’t let her quit. We got her a tutor, figured out the issue, and now she’s got an A. It was a good lesson for her.

Depends if you are going for engineering or not. I would not drop it if you are trying for mech e, comp e, double e, chem e, or bio e.

physics is the class that it really is advantageous to have in high school if you take it again in college. Even talented math majors can get killed when they take physics the first time in college. You can however, re-take next year which might be a great compromise if you plan to take it in college