AP Physics

>>8889353

Fail them :)

Took them last year, got 5 on both.

Honestly if you don't know the material now you're absolutely fucked (like completely). If you do, and just want some tips, all I really remember is that you had to work really fast on Mechanics MC, but make sure to work quickly and accurately. Also you get the formula sheets, which was really helpful. I got the international version for E/M, it was hard af with multiple questions I had no idea how to do, just hope you get US version.

OKAY:

1. Do a fuckload of practice problems tomorrow if you haven't been doing them already. I only got the fives I did because I no-lifed my way through high school to the point of skipping my senior prom.
2. You can assign arbitrary constants on your TI graphing calculator using the alpha key. Learn how to use that.
3. You can store specific, situational formulas in program names and possibly even the programs themselves.
4. The worst part of the entire exam is that you're pretty much fucking guaranteed to have a question about induction on the E&M exam. Everything else is relatively smooth sailing.
5. Shoot to "pass" and you'll do great; the threshold for a 5 is below a 60% for AP Physics C exams IIRC.
6. For the love of God, master the rotation section because it will help you understand related rates a lot fucking faster.
7. Right hand rule.
8. Don't plug in any variables until you're calculating your answer, and even then let alpha do as much of your job for you as physically fucking possible, including storing PARTS of answers as Alpha constants.
9. You get a formula sheet on your exam, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do whatever you can to memorize relationships and therefore formulas.
10. Most to all pendulum problems involve the use of the small angle approximation; ask your physics instructor about this if you don't remember what it is / were never told about it.
11. Be able to explain to yourself the difference between ds/dt and delta s / delta t. ds/dt is an immediate ratio of change in s over change in t, deltas are the average over a set interval.
12. I hope you're good at vector math.

Be careful when going through this exam. The only reason this exam didn't fuck me up is because I've been working from the very beginning on being good at the very basics so that I could have as few obstacles as possible learning higher-level shit. Chances are that you're not necessarily like that. I'd say good luck if luck was actually a factor.

>>8889353
How about you post some of your practice scores and tell us what you have trouble with if you actually want advice.

>>8889387
Mostly focusing on E&M here because I managed a 4 on an official Mechanics practice exam even after not doing 1.5 frqs. I don't have the exact numbers for E&M practice test but I got like sub 10 points for the frqs and our teacher never graded the mc...

Since that isn't much help I guess I'll just ask some questions related to E&M:
1) Ampere's or Biot-Savart? Looking through my review book I'm starting to get the sense that Biot isn't as helpful as Ampere's.
2) Is it sensible to memorize/put into my calc the charging and discharging functions for C,V,I for RC circuits?
3) Tips on frq parts that ask you to derive expressions using certain variables/constants? Like where to start, what formulas to immediately think about etc.
4) Do I really need to know LC circuits? All of the review resources I've looked at give small blurbs of info and nothing else.
5) Should I try to memorize the different expressions for B, E, V for the various geometries? I'm having trouble remembering the derivations so I'm thinking I should just brute force memo them.

>>8889457
1) I wouldn't be able to tell you which one is more useful. I struggled enough with learning the names and using the formulas, and I still got a 5.
2) Honestly, it doesn't require that much of memorizing; it's just the limits and relationships.
3) If acceleration is constant:
[eqn]\Delta v = 2a\Delta s[/eqn]
If the object is not moving, its v is zero to start, therefore:
[eqn]K = W = \int_{s_i}^{s_f}\vec{F}(s) ds[/eqn]
In general:
[eqn]\Sigma_{n = 1}^{numberOfForceVectors} = ma[/eqn]
[eqn]\Sigma_{n = 1}^{numberOfTorqueVectors} = I \alpha[/eqn]

For all rotation bullshit:

[eqn]s = r\theta[/eqn]
[eqn]v = r\omega[/eqn]
[eqn]a = r\alpha[/eqn]
[eqn](\pi \quad rad) = (360 \quad degrees)[/eqn]

all in all, I haven't used this shit in a while, so I'm kinda rusty as to remembering each and every possible situation. I'm sorry.

4. Know at least the basics and the relationships between each of the terms. Bullshit as much as possible through that section, as chances are that you won't deus ex machina your way into learning one of the hardest parts of AP Physics C in two days unless you try super hard.

5. Don't brute force memo them. Look over their section in the book, do AP practice questions, look at how people do it, find someone that explains what the fuck they're doing. Brute force memo will only get you so far, but tactical understanding will win you this exam.

OP here. Anybody have some tips for rotational motion, gravitation, and oscillatory motion? Like nifty formulas/shortcuts or things to look out for? What things are imperative to memo? Thanks

>>8890047
go Google science books rent sucks
download the Randall Knight PDF
read every chapter summary
also there are practice problems on planethalloway and other sites that help
t. AP Physics C Mechanics student (praying to God I self taught myself well)

>>8890074
also if you can manage time, Learn AP Physics C is helpful and Caltech has awesome videos but they're lengthy
I can't help with EM, I'm focusing on Mechanics entirely
good luck anon
do you take Calculus BC by any chance?

>>8889353
don't be a brainlet and it'll be easy

>>8890080
Yeah I'm in BC right now.

>>8889353
Do one of those AP green books. They are VERY similar to the actual exam.
Practice taking the test in testing conditions.
You may know the material but a lot of people fuck up because they never got a chance to look at how questions were asked.