Resources for Physics!

[mathpimp]

Okay so at the last meet, I had a good chemistry score, a decent biology score, and we can at least say a positive physics score, like 12 or something.

I really want to improve my physics score because if I could do more of those problems I could be scoring in the low to mid 200s, but right now I'm mid to high 100s because I only really do two sections of the test.

Those of you with high physics scores, what resources do you recommend? I won't be able to take AP Physics in high school, so I need some material to study on my own and I was hoping I could get a recommendation on what brand of review book to purchase, or what websites I should visit.

Thanks a lot.

[gil]

I think what you should do is probably go to a local bookstore that sells textbooks or an internet store and get a textbook meant for an introductory college course or something like that and then start reading. It is what I did and my physics score is kind of decent now.

[mathpimp]

Thanks. Can you define "kind of decent"? I'm at least hoping to be in the 50s or 60s.

[Kurt]

If you can't take an AP physics class, get one of those AP guides to the physics AP tests. They cover the majority of concepts in either AP Physics (B or C) class, and the guides are much shorter than textbooks. They are also pretty cheap ($25? I think). We covered Mechanics in my AP Physics class last year, so I bought the Princeton Review one for the E&M test...and it did a really good job in my opinion.

Some stuff in physics for UIL can't be learned from those books though, such as the 1-2 history questions that pop up on most tests now.

There are also some really simple but important principles like dimensional analysis that can get you easy points without knowing very much physics.

[mathpimp]

So would you say the physics section covers more from AP Physics B or C?

[Kurt]

Probably Physics B. Physics C is calculus-based, and I don't think I can remember any questions that actually *require* you to use calculus (although there are some problems where it can come in handy).

Physics B covers many more topics I think, it just doesn't go very in-depth. I took Physics C last year, but my physics teacher is also the UIL Science Coach from our school, so we learned a bit of extra stuff that pertains to the physics section.