For those who took the AP Physics C

[fawhfe]

Im going to go take this next Tuesday and from what I heard last years was really easy in comparison and all my opinions come from people who took that one. I guess I'm wondering how much calculus you guys had to know. Ive been learning the E&M from a college text so Im doing a lot of vector products. I was wondering how you guys did this stuff, if theres something else theyre looking for other than vector calculus because I heard from someone who took it last year that there wasnt any vector calculus at all. Does this just imply that they wanted you to memorize five billion specific instances and their equations instead of deriving each situation with calculus? Also, if anyone can tell how easy/hard they thought the test was or if they found a particular portion of the test really hard and what kind of physics background they had, thatd be great for getting an idea of just how hard this test will be . And also, if and only if you really want, the score you got (1-5) and how well you thought you did percentage-wise (to see how curved the raw score->1-5 scale is). Thanks.

 

[cchen]

I got a 5 on both sections. The most calc I had to use was for derivatives. The mechanics section was a breeze, e&m a lot harder but still doable.

 

[helpme]

Got a four on the mechanics. Didn't take the E&M because the class didn't teach it. Didn't have a calc class before it either.

 

[Mday]

i dont remember, it ook it 4 years ago.

got a 4 on both parts cuz i did jack sh!t during the class.

 

[Kelvrick]

Got a 4 on E&M, 5 on mechanics. mechanics is some easy shiezz... Just need to know what to do.

E&M, you need to know derivitives, perhaps integration.

 

[fawhfe]

I might be doing all this vector calc for nothing then. O well, I can wow the free response readers with my fundamental knowledge of E&M (OK so I dont understand dells and curls at all). Yay. Im not actually taking a class in this because my schools physics program is really worthless so Im a bit confused. Take for example in the course description they write that we need to know Maxwells Laws. Now these would be guass' laws :

Surface Integral of E dot dA = Q/permitivity of free space
Surface Integral of B dot dA = 0

Then Farradays and Ampere/Maxwell Law:

Line Integral of E dot ds = - d(magnetic flux)/dt
Line Integral of B dot ds = permeability of free space * current + permeability of free space * permittivity of free space * d(electric flux)/dt

How would this be represented on the test then if there is no vector calculus and really no integrals?