Reply to Is AP Physics 1 -- such low pass rates?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Follow Trevor Packer on Twitter. He’s the head of AP at the College Board. Here’s his explanation: https://twitter.com/ap_trevor/status/1669441031140528154?s=46&t=obB0UALEWQ7SUwdSFTspEA (Copied here for you: (People sometimes ask why scores for Physics 1 are significantly lower than those of other AP STEM subjects; AP Physics 1 is typically students’ first physics course, whereas AP Biology and AP Chemistry are typically students’ second bio and chem courses.)[/quote]

Yes, I think this is part of the answer. Physics 1 is designed to be taken without calculus.  Physics C is, according to my kid who took both, a repeat of the class just using calculus instead of algebra.  He found it a waste of time.  His take is the the calculus that is needed for Physics C is fairly straightforward and there is not need for the two separate classes.  Students who do not know calculus could learn the calculus needed for the course as part of the course.

No idea if that has merit.  My kid is a strong math student so I am not sure his perspective is the right way to look at it.[/quote]
After taking both, my kid's opinion is that knowing and using calculus makes Physics C much easier than Physics 1. Physics 1's use of algebra makes physics concepts much more complicated.[/quote]

True. The formulas are magical spells in algebra physics. Calculus is the machinery that shows you why the formulas are natural consequences of simple constants.

"Discrete calculus" or numerical approximation can bridge the gap, especially for the modern digitally informed student, but continuous calculus is more elegant, and the "magic" is all in one essential core, and the rest follows more clearly. [/quote]

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