Physics 7c placement test!

[flemmyd]

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I have taken ap physics in high school and i read somewhere that i should take physics 7c in my freshman year intead of physics 2. Is this true? Should i take the placement test?

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<p>why not? what do you have to lose? If you pass the test, you know you’re competent and don’t need to worry. If you fail, they have a remedial class to help your skills.</p>

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Also, is physics 2 a year long class?

It’s a one quarter class. Last year, it was offered in the Fall and the Winter. They also offer it over the 10 week session of summer. </p>

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Physics 2, as far as I’ve heard, is a broken system. It’s a somewhat useless class, I think you have to get a B or higher or something weird to pass, and if you don’t, you have to retake the class the next year since it’s only offered once a quarter.

how is physics 2 useless? Several students coming from high school have really terrible math/physics abilities and this class is there to bridge the gap. There’s a statistic that people throw around where “50% of freshmen engineering majors drop out of engineering”. They aren’t dropping out 2 classes away from graduation, they’re dropping out when they flunk E&M or multivariable calculus. </p>

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The physics test is almost 80 percent of pure calculus, such as finding the derivative of x squared, then some physics. I have 0 percent knowledge of physics but I’ve taken a lot of calculus beforehand, and I managed to justttt pass, so I don’t think its’s that hard.

That’s the point. Math is the language of physics. How could you expect to read/analysis/etc Mark Twain if you never learned English?</p>

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What type of physics is on it?

Here’s a practice final exam.
<a href=“EEE+ Home | UCI”>EEE+ Home | UCI;

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Taking physics 2 would totally screw up my planned schedule for fall quarter so I would like skip it.

The point of the class isn’t to fill up you schedule. The point is to teach you math so when you do take phys 7c/d/e, you can focus on the physics and not the math. It does no good to get a D in 7C and retake it the next year. </p>

<p>If you know the math well enough, then skip it. You won’t learn anything (new). The only reason to take it would be GPA padding (med school?).</p>

<p>I will say that most incoming freshmen GROSSLY overestimate their academic abilities, particularly in math and writing (wr 39b/c). With regards to physics, there simply aren’t any good high school indicators of which freshmen can make it and which can’t.
Oh, you took AP Calc and physics in high school? So did most of the other students (you probably needed those classes to even get INTO the engr program at UCI). Even with these classes, a significant number of students are still unprepared and do poorly.</p>