Princeton Review - Cracking the AP Physics B Exam, 2014 Edition

This work is dedicated to the memory of my great aunt, Norma Perron Lamb Piette.

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The AP (Advanced Placement) Examinations are given in May of each year and offer students the opportunity to earn advanced placement or college credit for work theyve done in high school or independently.

There are two versions of the AP Physics Exam; theyre called Physics B and Physics C. The Physics B Exam covers a wide range of topics, but the questions are not too mathematically sophisticated. The Physics C Exam covers a smaller range of topics, but the questions are more challenging and calculus is used widely. In case youre curious, the Physics C Exam is actually composed of two separate exams: one in Mechanics and one in Electricity and Magnetism (E & M). You can take just the Mechanics, just the E & M, or both. Separate scores are reported for the Mechanics and E & M sections.

The Physics B exam consists of two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response section. Questions in the multiple-choice section are each followed by five possible responses (only one of which is correct), and your job, of course, is to choose the right answer. Each correct answer is worth one point, and there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. There are 70 multiple-choice questions and the time limit is 90 minutes. You may not use a calculator on the multiple-choice section.

The free-response section consists of six multi-part questions, which require you to actually write out your solutions, showing your work. The total amount of time for this section is 90 minutes, so you have an average of 15 minutes per question. Unlike the multiple choice section, which is scored by computer, the free-response section is graded by high school and college teachers. They have guidelines for awarding partial credit, so you dont need to correctly answer every part to get points. You are allowed to use a calculator (programmable or graphing calculators are okay, but ones with a typewriter-style keyboard are not) on the free-response section, and a table of equations is provided for your use on this section. The two sectionsmultiple choice and free responseare weighed equally, so each is worth 50 percent of your grade.

Grades on the AP Physics Exam are reported as a number: either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. The descriptions for each of these five numerical scores are as follows:

Colleges are generally looking for a 4 or 5, but some may grant credit for a 3. How well do you have to do to earn such a grade? Each test is curved, and specific cut-offs for each grade vary a little from year to year, but heres a rough idea of how many points you must earnas a percentage of the maximum possible raw scoreto achieve each of the grades 2 through 5:

So, whats on the exams and how do you prepare for them? Heres a list of the major topics covered on the AP Physics B Exam, along with an approximate percentage of the questions in each topic (what the College Board calls the percentage goal):