<p>So i'm pretty terrified. My counselor called me up today at random and I chose my classes, only ap's are consisted of AP Physics and AP Calc. Our AP Physics is combined B and C for the full year. At first I was going to take AP Chem because I thought AP Physics was out of reach but my counselor said I would fit. Quite honestly I wanted AP english too but I knew I wouldn't do well in all those classes combined so I had to choose. One of the reasons I didnt want to take AP physics is because then my next year's going to be completely math based, and math is fine, just that who would like a whole year of math, you know? But I have to take AP Calc along with Physics.
And I really liked physics 1, not necessarily the boring math part, just the rest. Like the astronomy, engineering videos even. And I heard that colleges really like having girls take ap physics in high school year. Is that true? What do you do in the class? About how many people that were in your class doing well or as well as expected? Words of advice?</p>
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<p>For starters ,there is no Physics B next year; it’s being replaced by AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2. Secondly, are you saying that you will be in a classroom where the teacher is teaching both algebra-based physics (AP 1/2) and calculus based physics (Physics C) to a group of students that are in one class or another? If so, I would run, not walk, in another direction. I can’t see any scenario in which that can be taught effectively.</p>
<p>Are you taking 3 physics AP exams then? :P</p>
<p>Like the above poster said, I doubt it is really B and C. It’s probably C with the topics from B added in as afterthoughts.</p>
<p>Sorry, the course didn’t specify and there wasn’t a meeting on it yet and I had to get info from other people. Could you guys answer the questions? </p>
<p>Not sure about the girls thing, I’m only a sophomore. I’m taking the class this year, never took a physics class before. It’s really good you’ve taken it before, I had no experience and it was hell for me the first few weeks. It ended up getting easier as my teacher was lenient with curves and homework. A chapter usually takes around 2 or even 1 week to complete. Some of the intro chapters took longer because of concepts. It starts off with a few concepts, then maybe an equation that involves the concepts you just learned. Then there will be practice problems about how to use the equation and concept in a situation. Then there might be another concept in the chapter that has another equation possibly adding on to the first concept that was in the chapter. Usually lecture about this goes on for the first week and a day. For homework, my teacher assigns us a homework assignment for a textbook usually 10-12 problems that are free response. For each section in the chapter that involves an equation there will usually be an easy problem and a harder one. Then maybe some extra that involve parts from earlier chapters. One day is usually dedicated to going over homework. We also have a conceptual and a calculations quiz for each chapter. It is on the teacher’s website and they are due on certain dates. They are 20 question multiple choice quizzes that you need a 90% on to get credit for as a homework assignment. It’s not too much homework but it can be very stressful sometimes when you have to retake the online quizzes over and over to get a 90%. There is also a lab that we do for each chapter. One or two days are usually dedicated to this and we have to do a procedure and collect data for the lab. At home we then do the calculations and conclusions/ analysis about the lab asking whether we proved a certain law correct, what might have gone wrong, and other stuff. These can take up a good amount of time but aren’t impossible. Then our test comes at the end, usually on a Friday. It’s usually a free response test of 5-7 questions with parts in them. We get an equation sheet for these tests and for electricity chapters we might get a constant sheet. They are difficult even though we get equation sheets. It’s the problems that get tough switching around equations and stuff. I did horrible in the beginning but after the first 2 tests I started doing really good after I reviewed lots of practice problems online and in my textbook before a test. It really helps a lot. Lots of people in my class aren’t doing amazing but they expected it to be a hard class. I’m actually doing really well compared to them, even though most took Honors Physics last year. I think it’s due to them having more AP classes than I do, college applications, and plain old senioritis. Be careful taking it as a senior, if you are one. Other schools might demand more work and probably have harder tests from what I hear. It is also very stressful when you have clubs and college apps to worry about. It’s not as exciting as I thought it would be personally, sometimes my teacher does fun things with statics but other than that its just rolling blocks, making basic circuits, old time physics. It doesn’t involve any calculus, just really good algebra and a lot of times thinking “Why didn’t I think of that” when you get your test back. </p>
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<p>Since you have no idea which course it is, how do you expect us to answer the questions? Algebra-based physics is different than calculus-based physics. If the school cannot give you a straight answer to a very simple question, like I said originally, run -take something else. The answers we give you on workload will be different based upon calculus vs algebra. </p>
<p>Do colleges like girls to take physics? Yes. Do colleges like girls to underperform vs. boys in physics? No.</p>
<p>Cry. </p>
<p>This photo describes it pretty well. <a href=“http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/073/7686178464_fdc8ea66c7.jpg”>http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/073/7686178464_fdc8ea66c7.jpg</a> (shamelessly taken from Know Your Meme)</p>
<p>Most days my teacher will lecture about the topic, and there is generally some sort of quick demonstration/activity thrown in (eg last week we shined a laser through a diffraction grating, we’ve rolled marbles off tables when studying projectile motion, used tape to make water bend, etc). Then we have about 5-7 homework problems (we have the class every other day, so only 3-4 questions a day). </p>
<p>We do labs every now and again. We do the lab and collect data in class and then write the reports as homework. The reports can be rather tedious but aren’t difficult. We didn’t do a whole lot the first semester because it was all mechanics stuff that you see happen all the time. We’ve done quite a few second semester though, because we are on waves/optics and e&m which are harder to visualize, the labs are more beneficial with these topics than they would have been with mechanics. </p>
<p>The day before a test we usually work on practice FRQ’s with groups. </p>
<p>LAMuniv describes test day pretty well, lol. </p>
<p>@skieurope</p>
<p>Seriously if you’re going on here to be irritating, please don’t reply. </p>
<p>“Since you have no idea which course it is, how do you expect us to answer the questions?”</p>
<p>“Do colleges like girls to take physics? Yes. Do colleges like girls to underperform vs. boys in physics? No.”</p>
<p>Kinda contradictory when you attempted to answer it. </p>
<p>@Anni223 Not contradictory. That was an answer to a general question, The class specific ones I did not answer
I am trying to help you, but if you don’t provide the info, I can’t.</p>
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<p>@hailbo</p>
<p>Phew, taking it as a sophmore? That’s rough. I know that since AP Calc is required to take AP Physics, so calculus is involved. Thanks for the advice though, I wish I could talk to the students of the class to get more information. </p>
<p>@baileyj57
Oh, how long did the hw usually take?</p>
<p>My homework generally takes 2-3 hrs a week. The workload isn’t really bad at all, in my opinion. I’d say lab reports take me about an hour (on top of the other assignments) but we don’t do them that often.
I spend a couple extra hours studying the week of a test, though. But all in all, it’s still not too bad compared to my other classes! </p>
<p>Apparently my class is different… lately we’ve been having lectures, but for the first half of the year we did labs every day in class and had ~1.5 to 2 hours of homework questions a night with which we had to teach ourselves. It’s gotten much better, but it was just really stressful and discouraging before. I’d talk to people who have taken the class in the past and get their input. (Apologies if you’ve already done this)</p>
<p>@Annl233</p>
<p>There is actually no calculus involved, I’m taking Pre Calculus right now and I’m doing fine. I think having Calculus is a requirement but I was accidentally put into this class. I was planning to take AP Chemistry but it was canceled so I wanted to test out AP Physics just for a while to see if it was hard. It ended up being very difficult for me and I almost wanted to switch out, but my teacher wouldn’t let me. So I stayed and I ended up doing very well. The math is Algebra based, but using the physics and the math is pretty hard for some. The hard math is using the equations in context of the concepts and problems. You’ve already taken a physics class before so some of the concepts won’t be too difficult as long as they have stuck. There is some extra stuff that was hard for others because it wasn’t taught in Honors Physics such as Fluids and Buoyancy. </p>
<p>If you’re even slightly good at math, then it will be easy.</p>