Advanced Physics question

[ClassicalCatholic]

How do people like Advanced Physics and Mrs. Warnick as a teacher? Does the course prepare kids well for the AP Physics Exam? Which one(s)? Thanks!

[Jessica Gardner]

How do people like Advanced Physics and Mrs. Warnick as a teacher? Does the course prepare kids well for the AP Physics Exam? Which one(s)? Thanks!

Hello! You can read more about Mrs. Warnick here. The Advanced Physics course is calculus-based. This course doesn't teach to the AP Physics test or contain AP/College Board coursework. However, in past years, some students have gone on to take parts of the AP Physics exams and they have done well.

There are four parts to the AP Physics test -- two parts Algebra and two parts Physics (specifically, Electricity & Magnetism and Mechanics). Since Memoria Academy doesn't offer this is an AP course, we do not receive score reports directly from College Board if our students take the exam. Based on students self-reporting, it seems like most opt to take exams 1 and 2. That said, they may have done well on the other parts had they taken them, we just don't have that data.

While we believe most of our Advanced Physics students could do fairly well on the AP Physics exams, we can't guarantee it as our class doesn't contain any AP-specific coursework.

[jenniferjb]

According to the publisher, this text requires trigonometry, and the MA website says that concurrent enrollment in precalculus or calculus is recommended. Can you clarify whether this course is trig-based or calculus-based? There's a significant difference between the difficulty level of these two.

[ClassicalCatholic]

Thank you, Jessica. That is helpful.

[momgineer]

The Novare text is not a calculus based physics book. It is a trig based physics book. Students would not be prepared for the calculus based AP physics tests. They might be prepared for the trig based AP physics tests, but if you are going into engineering or similar, the trig physics AP level won’t count.
I own the text and my son will be doing it at home with me next year while concurrently in calculus. I believe it would be fine to take concurrently with pre-calculus for a strong math student who has had some basic trig in algebra 2 or geometry.

[pschaeffer]

According to the publisher, this text requires trigonometry, and the MA website says that concurrent enrollment in precalculus or calculus is recommended. Can you clarify whether this course is trig-based or calculus-based? There's a significant difference between the difficulty level of these two.

Good catch. Jessica Gardner I think meant to say the course is "vector-based", not "calculus-based". A student must have trigonometry to be able to do the math work in the book. We recommend doing pre-calculus or calculus concurrently as there are asides in the book where they further explain what they are learning using calculus--and depending on the math program being used, a student might not hit trigonometry until they are studying pre-calculus.

momgineer is right; this course could prepare you for the AP Physics exams 1 & 2, not C. Mr (now Dr.) A'Hearn developed our course using the Novare book after he had used it to tutor multiple students for the AP Physics exam. While we never tried to get the College Board to approve the course, he did take his knowledge of the exam into consideration as he built it.