<p>Would colleges, especially the Ivies be impressed to see that I skipped Physics honors and went straight into AP Physics, and managed to get and A+ in that class, as well as a 4 or a 5 on the AP Exam?</p>
<p>There are plenty of schools where students go straight into AP Physics without a previous physics class.</p>
<p>Second what Nsmom has said. A self-study and then a 5 on the exam for something like AP Physics C or AP Calculus BC might briefly catch someone’s eye.</p>
<p>I’m hoping the fact that my S will have completed linear algebra and multivariable calculus (online classes) by the time he graduates HS will catch someone’s eye. It is neither unique, nor common.</p>
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Most reasonably smart students at my high school follow this route. Physics is unlike chemistry in that the jump to AP can be made without previous physics experience. Higher-level math experience is all that should be needed.</p>
<p>Each school is different, but all kids at ds’s school take physics junior year, AP or not, with no prior physics class. Sounds pretty common.</p>
<p>In our school, we automatically skip Physics Honors…so I don’t know what that will really mean. Unless of course, they see that everyone else in your school took Physics Honors first…then its about the context of the school.</p>