<p>I have never taken a physics class before, and next year I am taking:
AP English
AP US History
AP Calc. AB
AP Stats
AP Chem
AP Physics
Just wondering how hard the load will be. Will also be playing golf in the spring, and practicing year round. Thank you!</p>
<p>And also taking Spanish 3.</p>
<p>The load really just depends on your teachers. I am currently in 3 APs at my school while taking 3 APs online (school doesn’t offer) and the work load is completely manageable.
I am in Calc AB/BC, Chem, and Physics B at school
I’m not sure about either of the english classes, probably mostly depends on your teacher.
APUSH is often a lot of reading and packets to do at home (I’m not enrolled)
Calc AB should not be much more than 30-45 minutes a night.
Stats should not be a lot of work at any school.
A lot of people say that Chemistry is really hard, I do not think so, I rarely if ever do any work at home and get As on all of the tests (curved).
I’m not sure what physics you are planning on taking but I am in B and I think that it is pretty straightforward.</p>
<p>It isn’t bad. Right now, I’m taking AP Mech without taking a physics course before. It depends on your teacher, but for my class, the work is not really time-consuming. </p>
<p>Just make sure you keep Calc AB in your schedule because you are really going to need it for the class. You’re going to need to know the basics of Calc before you can really do anything in the class. My teacher gave us a brief review of everything from Calc that we would need to know. If yours doesn’t, ask him/her or your Calc teacher about how to do some of the concepts. You don’t need to know the reasoning behind the concepts, just how to do them. So no in-depth review is required.</p>
<p>As for the actual material, it can be a bit weird at first. Physics is essentially applied math. If you’re not good at it or don’t like it, you probably shouldn’t take the class or be prepared to study A LOT. The problem isn’t actually doing the math though (if you’re adept at it), it’s figuring out which concepts to apply when and where and answering the conceptual questions. That is my (and most others) problem with the tests, but other than that, it isn’t too hard.</p>
<p>Be prepared to study for the tests. Even the people in my class who have already taken Physics struggle with the class so you won’t be alone in that. And just remember, you don’t need anything close to a 100% to get a 5 on the AP test. We took a practice test for the midterm and even though I got a C percentage wise, the grade was entered in as an A because it would be a 5 on the AP test.</p>
<p>Good luck! If you want, you can PM me if you have a lot more questions about it or want a bit more personal information about the class.</p>
<p>AP Physics C: Mechanics is difficult but manageable. </p>
<p>There are quite a few conceptual milestones that you will need to reach in order to do well in Mechanics. Conceptually understanding how objects move and how forces affect objects will help you a lot. Everything builds on your basic understanding of those concepts. The math isn’t too rough if you do a good amount of practice problems, and the calculus isn’t hard to get. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for commenting! How much do all of you study everynight?</p>
<p>I’m taking Physics C Mech this year with no prior physics knowledge and I’m managing around a 94 percent every quarter, so I’m not doing too badly. My teacher does curve tests sometimes, and will often check our tests quickly (there are 3 people in the class) as we finish them, then let us correct what we got wrong for half credit. (He doesn’t let us reference anything else though, so we can’t look things up).</p>
<p>Like others have said, the most difficult part is knowing what to apply to what types of problems and remembering that certain concepts are still valid. For example, we still use the same kinematics formulas from very early in the year now to solve for certain things that we need to actually solve the main problem. It’s just a lot of applied math.</p>
<p>I don’t do a lot of “studying” per se, but I do a lot of reviewing of the problems we’ve done in class/for homework the night before a test, but nothing more than a half hour. Most of my time is spent either doing AP Music Theory projects or AP Lit papers actually.</p>
<p>With the AP Exam approaching though, I’ll probably be devoting a good amount of time to reviewing some of the concepts and maybe doing a few practice problems. I’m not fretting over the AP Physics exam–I don’t think I’ll do too hot anyway–but I’d just like to see what happens with it.</p>
<p>And stay in Calc. My teacher won’t let you take it unless concurrently enrolled (or somehow taken it previously). He doesn’t really worry about the reasons behind the calculus, and when calc does come up, he doesn’t worry about the specifics of, say, integration, and just skips to the answer when going over problems. Now, if the error was in our integration/derivation, we may find out where it was, but he tells us to ask our calc teacher for help with it.</p>