AP Physics B: Best Notes for High School Students

[mmg0789]

Hi, I'm taking ap physics b this year in high school and i found a site (http://apphysicsb.homestead.com/plo.html" ) w/ a lot of notes from various sites, would anyone know which of these notes provides the best information

Thanks

 

[Pseudo Statistic]

I read the Boston University ones back when I was in AP Physics...
But I don't think online lecture notes are very useful if you want to do well on the exam..
I read through 5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics B & C for both Physics B and C: Mechanics exams and did most past papers for each topic and ended up with 5s. Also, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't pay attention in class ever. (I failed nearly every Physics B test in class, actually)
So yeah, just my suggestion to you--- check that book out and find yourself all the past papers on the net or something. If you can't find them I'll link you to them.
(If you're doing AP Physics C too, you probably want Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker with this book)

 

[EbolaPox]

I got a 5 in AP Physics B and C Mechanics. The best thing to do is go buy yourself a Princeton Review book or Barron's book for the class. The princeton review is pretty good, I used that mostly. Also, the above recommendation of Halilday, Walker, and Resnick's text is a wise one indeed. It's an excellent book with good problem sets. Also, go to www.collegeboard.com, go to AP Physics B, and do the old Free Response questions as practice. Best to practice for the test with real questions from the past.

 

[Pseudo Statistic]

I got a 5 in AP Physics B and C Mechanics. The best thing to do is go buy yourself a Princeton Review book or Barron's book for the class. The princeton review is pretty good, I used that mostly. Also, the above recommendation of Halilday, Walker, and Resnick's text is a wise one indeed. It's an excellent book with good problem sets. Also, go to www.collegeboard.com, go to AP Physics B, and do the old Free Response questions as practice. Best to practice for the test with real questions from the past.

PRINCETON REVIEW!? SERIOUSLY!?
Our teacher gave us practice questions from that book and they were crazy..
Some questions even involved doing square roots-- on the multiple choice questions!
Also, the Physics B practice paper had angular momentum, which is no longer an AP topic.
Crazy review book I say.

 

[d_leet]

PRINCETON REVIEW!? SERIOUSLY!?
Our teacher gave us practice questions from that book and they were crazy..
Some questions even involved doing square roots-- on the multiple choice questions!
Also, the Physics B practice paper had angular momentum, which is no longer an AP topic.
Crazy review book I say.

Angular momentum isn't a topic on the Physics B test? I didn't know that, my AP Physics class learned about it. The thing about the multiple choice questions is about being able to estimate what teh answer should be, when I took the AP test the multiple choice questions weren't very hard, and didn't require much math at all, but it's good to have practice tests that are harder than the actual test.

 

[moose]

I highly recommend Princeton Review's guide. It covers everything perfectly. The practice test in the back is a good indicator of the real thing. I found a mistake here and there, but nothing too major. Everything gets covered very well and is explained well.

For those notes, just go to Collegeboard.com and find the topics that AP Physics B covers. Find those in the notes and remember that AP Physics B covers no calculus based problems.

 

[pinata1a]

So yeah, just my suggestion to you--- check that book out and find yourself all the past papers on the net or something. If you can't find them I'll link you to them.

Hey,
Pseudo Statistic,
Do you think you could help me find those links to the past papers (previous exams)?

I am looking for ones before 1999. Thank you!

 

[^_^physicist]

A quick word about the AP tests, particularly for physics.

AP Physics courses, normally are designed for the test and admissions. That is it. So with that in mind, do not over stress yourself about a looming AP test in the background. Yes the AP test is difficult, and yes it will throw somethings that aren't necessarly sound; however, as a gauge of knowing the material-A college course does much better.

Not to discourage your against taking the course or the test; just realize that even if you pass the test, you may want to either sit in or actually take the general physics courses when you get to college rather than trying to rely on AP credit.

As for materials: Halliday and Resnick 4th edition, Fundementals of Physics is a cheap and useful text; however, it will not cover the "modern physics" section of AP physics...so you will need another text for that.

 

[eee456]

I have my AP Physics B exam coming up and I'm in a bad situation. The class is becoming hopeless for me, I have the worst teacher I've ever had for any class before and he's not helpful at all. I feel like I'm left to learn all this material on my own just from the textbook and it just isn't possible. What I need most is old AP Physics exams to practice from, especially the multiple choice, but they aren't readily available anywhere that I know of. If anyone knows where I can find some past exams, and I don't care what year they are from, I would greatly appreciate it. My email is eee456@gmail.com.

 

[d_leet]

I have my AP Physics B exam coming up and I'm in a bad situation. The class is becoming hopeless for me, I have the worst teacher I've ever had for any class before and he's not helpful at all. I feel like I'm left to learn all this material on my own just from the textbook and it just isn't possible. What I need most is old AP Physics exams to practice from, especially the multiple choice, but they aren't readily available anywhere that I know of. If anyone knows where I can find some past exams, and I don't care what year they are from, I would greatly appreciate it. My email is eee456@gmail.com.

You could just buy one of the AP test review books, those usually have questions that are fairly representative of what is on the AP test.

 

[eee456]

I have the Princeton Review book, they offer only one sample exam and the book is very unhhelpful as a whole. Each section has short explanations and only a few questions following it and most are more conceptual than anything, they aren't of the difficulty level that I would expect to find on an actual AP level exam. I have seen other review books like the Barron's and they are no better. I just think that if I can get my hands on a few real past exams that will allow me to better prepare.