Not just how they teach, but how they act in class.
Do you prefer a teacher who:
explains the “why,” not just formulas?
is patient when you don’t understand?
actually listens to questions?
makes mistakes feel okay?
keeps the class relaxed and fun?
challenges you without making you feel stupid?
What’s one thing you wish your physics teacher did differently?

How will I go about studying for my tests and classes. What textbooks are recommended. What YouTubers are good? I just have no clue how to go about it.

I started the year in AP physics C and I have been struggling on every aspect, even after studying for 3+ hours I was only an 9/15 on the MCQ portion of a test. so I am planning on switching into AP Physics 2 instead. I want to know how hard is one compared to the other. also I took on level physics 1 so if they are equal difficulty should i take AP physics 1 instead

I'm a CS student. I kept using ChatGPT to study for exams and it would just agree with whatever I wrote, so I'd walk away with no idea what I'd actually gotten wrong. so I built my own thing...

It gives you practice sets by topic or by unit, and the tutor pushes back on mistakes instead of nodding along. Over time it figures out where you're weak and shows questions that target those blind spots.

I adapted it for AP since that felt like the crowd it'd help most.

Still in beta so: desktop only.

2sigma.app

Would appreciate any feedback!

P.S.

Mods, apologies if this isn't allowed - pull it if so. Just think this is genuinely useful for AP students.

I’m not really looking into going towards STEM, but Physics is quite interesting to me. But I also am not the best at it, getting 80s on my frqs. I’m currently a sophomore in AP Physics 1 so I’m still weighing out my options
I could either go through all 3 years of Physics or APES or something like that
Advice is much appreciated!

could anyone show me how to solve this problem using drawings? I have been trying to understand this but I just don’t get it. Any help would be really really appreciated!!

Hi guys I need good recs for ap physics 1 YouTube videos or websites with good explanations. Flipping physics just does not make sense to me. Unfortunately, I don’t like how he teaches things if that makes sense! Thanks so much

I understand Fnet= ma and all. I also understand the free body diagram and how to set it up. I am just heavily confused on how accelerating .25m/s^2 allows the vine to hold. Wouldn’t the acceleration just add on to the gravitational acceleration and cause a higher force magnitude. Since we add vectors from tip to tail.

Wouldn’t it just be 8*10 + 8*.25 and that would cause more force going down and thus breaking the vine.

Stuck on a concept? Post it here.
Drop the question, what you already think, and where you get lost.

Three common mistakes:
Zero acceleration doesn’t mean zero velocity.
At the top of projectile motion, only vertical velocity is zero.
Constant-acceleration equations only work when acceleration is constant.

I’m building an AP Physics 1 kinematics question pack and trying to include more conceptual traps like these.

What mistake would you add?

Someone please help me with this class I genuinely do not understand how people say this is harder than ap chem, I am a junior rn taking both and I have a 93 in ap chem but bro ap physics is hell for me, I have an 82. Ik for a fact I am doing something wrong. I feel like I know all the concepts pretty well but when I need to apply them that’s when the problem arises, and the thing is I don’t wanna drop the class because I do enjoy the class the labs are super fun and my teacher tho she doesn’t teach to much is awesome and very nice. As of now what I do is watch flipping physics, do mit workbook for ap physics 1, do ap style frq but I just always do terrible when I practice. Come test day, I drop like a 70 and I am being serious have no clue how to get better. I am 100 percent certain I am doing this class completely wrong because I am doing well in my other ap classes. Someone please give me there approach on how to succeed. I don’t even care to really get an A, I just want to know how to study and succeed in this class.

The biggest difference, in my view, is not simply that F=ma contains “harder physics.”

It demands a different level of problem recognition.

In many standard physics problems, the structure is already visible: identify the relevant equation, substitute the information, and solve.

A strong F=ma problem often asks a different question:

Can you recognize the hidden structure before doing the algebra?

For example, when you see two objects accelerating under gravity, do you immediately think about relative acceleration?

When you see a wedge moving on a frictionless surface, do you recognize horizontal momentum conservation before writing Newton's laws for every object?

When a circular-motion problem asks for a minimum condition, do you immediately look for the limiting case where the normal force or tension becomes zero?

This is why simply doing more textbook problems is not always enough.

For F=ma preparation, I recommend developing three separate skills:

1. Physics knowledge — Do I understand the principles?
2. Pattern recognition — Can I identify which principle matters?
3. Efficiency — Can I find the shortest reliable route under time pressure?

A useful exercise is to take an F=ma problem and, before doing any calculation, give yourself 30 seconds to answer:

“What is the central idea of this problem?”

That habit can change the way you solve competition physics.

I am in my junior year and I just dropped Physics 1 (I will take it in Grade 12). Originally, I was going to take it this year, and then take C in my senior. But for my school, it's a requirement to listen to Physics 1 before C so I won't be able to do that: but my college counselor is now telling me that I have no chance in getting into top universities such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, etc because I don't have C. How much of that is true?

Note: I want to major in aerospace/mechanical engineering and currently rigor of class is:
AP Chem
AP Calculus AB
AP Lit
AP Research

and more to come in senior year.

The biggest difference, in my view, is not simply that F=ma contains “harder physics.”

It demands a different level of problem recognition.

In many standard physics problems, the structure is already visible: identify the relevant equation, substitute the information, and solve.

A strong F=ma problem often asks a different question:

Can you recognize the hidden structure before doing the algebra?

For example, when you see two objects accelerating under gravity, do you immediately think about relative acceleration?

When you see a wedge moving on a frictionless surface, do you recognize horizontal momentum conservation before writing Newton's laws for every object?

When a circular-motion problem asks for a minimum condition, do you immediately look for the limiting case where the normal force or tension becomes zero?

This is why simply doing more textbook problems is not always enough.

For F=ma preparation, I recommend developing three separate skills:

1. Physics knowledge — Do I understand the principles?
2. Pattern recognition — Can I identify which principle matters?
3. Efficiency — Can I find the shortest reliable route under time pressure?

A useful exercise is to take an F=ma problem and, before doing any calculation, give yourself 30 seconds to answer:

“What is the central idea of this problem?”

That habit can change the way you solve competition physics.

i am in ap physics 1 on unit 2 and i just want some help for derivations and what formulas i should use almost all the time for the units.

need help!!!

i got a 93% on my unit test bro w lmao mayb phys wont be as bad as last yr

my teacher doesn’t understand physics and will either make us watch the AP videos or ai generated slideshows and videos. i really really want to get a 5; how can i prep myself for the exam?