<p>I took AP Physics B last year as a junior. I took the AP exam in May and got a 5 on it.
My school used to have AP Physics C. However, my school decided to not offer the course next year because there are not enough people signing up for it (only 4 I think), which is SAD! Anyway, I still want to take the exam and see how well I do. To be honest, I want to major in software engineering and physics is kinda important to me. Also, I'm going to double major in finance or economics while doing software engineering. So, I don't want to waste my money and time on some basic physics classes. Even if the school wants me to take the basic physics classes again, I'll at least have an idea of what it's like.
Anyway, I'm going to take AP Calculus BC next year as a senior. I'll have a solid understanding of basic calculus by the time I finished the course. Since AP Physics C is calculus-based, I think I'll have the enough knowledge to solve C level problems. As I said, I got a 5 on the B exam. I'm naturally good at physics. More importantly, I love physics.
I know that C exam only focus on two major units, mechanics and EM, instead of five units like the B exam (mechanics, EM, fluid and thermodynamics, wave and optics, modern and nuclear). I found mechanics to be very easy despite the fact that I don't like it. I LOVE electricity and electricity unit is the one I'm good at the most. My favorite units are circuit and electric potential energy (aka voltage). However, I HATE magnetism. Despite that, I can suck up the magnetism materials. It's just that I don't enjoy magnetism as much as the other units, especially electromagnetic induction.
I'll rent a textbook from my physics teacher. If he wouldn't let me borrow one, I would purchase a used one online. I'll also pay for educator.com to watch the physics lesson as well as the lessons on YouTube. I'll also purchase a review book in case I stuck on some bizarre magnetism concepts.
So, after all, would you guys recommend it?
If so, please tell me what else I should buy or purchase in order to better prepare for the exam. Any review book recommendation? Any tips or things I should be aware of?
If not, tell me why you think it's a bad choice to do it.
I'll appreciate for anyone who can answer my question!</p>
<p>I’d say go for it. I took all three Physics tests last year (B and both C tests) while I was in AP Physics B (when I had no prior physics experience because of AP Chemistry and scheduling conflictions, and my school never offers Physics C), and I got 5s on all of them. If you love physics and wouldn’t mind working hard for it, then by all means shoot for it.</p>
<p>I would recommend using a textbook for sure. The one I used for self-study was “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” by Serway (8th edition). I used another one for self-study with the same title but different writers, but I liked the format of the Serway one better. I don’t know about review books because I never used them. I literally just organize what I know in my head and solve a bunch of problems, understanding concepts along the way.</p>
<p>Thank you! Could you do me a favor? Please find the ISBN number of the book you mentioned for me! I love everything about physics except the tedious magnetism units. I guess magnetism is just not my type, especially when you have to solve the problem using right/left hand rules in the three dimensional world. I’ll buy a review book just for myself in case I got stuck on some concepts.
Wow, can’t believe you self-study for AP Physics C as well. And yes, I’m doing AP Bio on my own as well!</p>
<p>Sure. Here are the ISBN numbers. I’m adding different volumes for each one so you can pick whichever one works for you:</p>
<p>Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 8th edition by Serway
Volume 1 (Chapters 1-22): 978-1439048382
Volume 2 (Chapters 23-46): 978-1439048399
Full (Chapters 1-39): 978-0495827818
Extended Full (Chapters 1-46):978-1439048443</p>
<p>This textbook I feel like is pretty good too, but I perfer the above one:</p>
<p>Physics for Engineers and Scientists, 3rd edition by Ohanian/Markert
Volume 1 (Chapters 1-21): 978-0393930030
Volume 2 (Chapters 22-36): 978-0393930047
Volume 3 (Chapters 37-41): 978-0393929690
Full (Chapters 1-36): I don’t know this one nor find it. But I perfer the extended full for this one anyhow.
Extended Full (Chapters 1-41): 978-0393926316</p>
<p>As for the right/left hand rules, it’s promient in vectors really. The reason why you see it in electricty and magnetism a lot is because the vectors you deal with are all in 3-D space, and you deal with cross products a lot, so yeah. You’ll encounter it whenever you deal with cross products and vectors.</p>
<p>I have learned cross products and dot products in my pre-calc honor class. To be honest, It wasn’t my favorite thing to solve those tedious yet “easy-to-make-mistake” problems. However, I can handle it pretty well. I heard that magnetism has a lot of cross product computation with the use of right/left hand rule. So, I think I can still handle it if it’s necessary, but I absolutely hate them from the bottom of my heart.
For the textbook part, why are there volume 1 and volume 2? Do I have to purchase both? Also, what is the difference between the full version and the extended full version? Since you recommend the first one by Serway, I guess I’ll just stick with that one!</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t quite know why they are separate really. There is no difference between the separate volumes and the combined book (as far as I know). It is probably like that for college students who has college classes that use the textbooks and don’t need the whole book. Volume 1 is more Mechanics and Thermodynamics and Fluids, and Volume 2 is everything else besides modern Physics. So essentially, you need to buy both volumes (if you are doing both Physics C tests) or the combined one, whichever is cheaper for you. I personally obtained the extended edition, so I have everything as a reference later on, but the full book is typically enough.</p>
<p>The material in the book is MUCH harder than the content in the AP test (which is a good thing!). So, if you can master the material in there, the test will be a cakewalk. It’s better to be overprepared than underprepared right?</p>