AP Physics

Advanced Placement Physics S369

AP Physics S369 is an Advanced Placement Physics course that meets for 1.5 class periods (75 min) each day. It is a rigorously-paced course that puts much emphasis on a student's ability to quickly grasp the basic concepts of the physical world...and then extend those concepts to problem-solving activities that challenge the student to piece together multiple ideas into a coherent solution. Advanced algebra skills help students...not so much for the difficulty of the mathematics involved, but for the reason that the "language" of mathematics becomes a crucial tool in solving these physics problems. Depth of basic mathematical operations understandings is more a factor than the breadth of knowledge.

Students can expect to spend a great deal of time on homework during the first couple months of AP Physics if they want to succeed. After a while, time-management skills improve as does basic understanding of the "language" of physics...and students find that the required time drops significantly and the PHUN of physics rises dramatically! This is to be expected of any course that resembles studying a "foreign language" and, because it is a College Level Course, the expectations of the classwork must be adequate for success on the AP Test. In fact, students who work hard and find success (and this includes many hundreds since the course began in 1991) find that they are well-prepared to do well on the AP Test!

Here are the topics covered in the AP Physics Course:

Forces and Motion	Waves and Vibrations	Modern Physics
Conservation Principles	Sound	Electricity
Thermodynamics	Light	Magnetism

If you would like to see more about the AP test, understand why students should take the test, and learn about the success of students in District 211, click here.