AP Exam 2020 Info and Resources

Here's the scoop, juniors.

All AP exams this year are 45 minutes in length, with 5 minutes needed to upload your work. For AP Physics C, both Mechanics and E&M will have 2 free response problems (NO multiple choice). Go here to find more details on any AP exam you are taking.

The first physics problem is 25 minutes and 60% of the score. It will almost certainly have multiple topics involved; it will be a bit more conceptual than just mathematical. While derivations are still fair game, it won't be completely math based. It is more difficult to BS one's way through conceptual questions than computational. Remember, they will likely want to have some calculus on the exam, and perhaps some derivation. Air friction tends to be the trickiest for most students. Go here to see some examples/reminders of where calculus comes in. Links to relevant videos are included.

The second problem is 15 minutes and 40% of the score. It will be a lab-based problem. Perhaps you need to take a bunch of data and do an analysis. Or perhaps you will be given a list of available equipment and design an experiment to measure something specific. Keep in mind that a major piece of analysis is to have a mathematical model in mind, with a constant stuck in it, and you need to find the constant's value by using data - usually it involves linearizing a graph and using the slope to get the constant's value.

These exams are open book, open note! Go here to get advice about open book exams (these occur in college more frequently than in high school).

To find old AP problems that are similar to this year's problems, I will be putting the info here. You can find them in our AP Exam page on our school website. Any exam from the past decade will have lab based problems.

To me, it sounds like the AP Physics C problems this year will be more like AP Physics 1 problems. These tend to be more writing and explaining than hard-core calculations. The College Board gave as an example problem for the first problem, #3 from the 2017 Physics 1 exam. Go here to see past AP Physics 1 exams. Just focus on those problems that are on topics we study. The scoring solutions are available.

Mechanics Topics: 
- Kinematics and 1-D, 2-D motion
- Newton's laws and circular motion
- Energy and work
- Momentum and impulse
- Rotations and angular momentum

There is NO simple harmonic motion or Gravity/orbital motion/flux this year!!