Cracking the AP Physics 1 Exam THE STRUCTURE OF THE AP PHYSICS 1 EXAM ‘The AP Physics 1 Exam consists of two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response section. The multiple-choice section consists of two question types. Single-sclect questions are cach followed by four possible responses, only one of which is correct. Multi-select questions are a new addition to the AP Physics 1 Exam, and require two of the listed answer choices to be selected to answer the question correctly. There are five multi-select questions char always appear at the end of the multiple-choice section. Timing 90 minutes |50% of | Single-selece 5 | exam score | (discrete questions and questions in sets with one correct answer) Muki-select 5 (discrete questions with ewo correct answers) eae e TT Torai—so ee ee Tne | Number of “Ting [scoring | uesontvpe | Mumba a 90 minutes | 50% of Experimental 1 exam score | Design Qualitative! 1 Quantitative Translation Short Answer 3 Total—5 “The free-response section consists of five multi-part questions, which require you to write out your solutions, showing your work. The total amount of time for this section is 90 minutes. Unlike the multiple-choice section, which is scored by a computer, the free-response section is graded by high school and college teachers. ‘They have guidelines for awarding partial credit, so you may still receive partial points should you not correctly respond to every part of the question, You are allowed to use a calculator on the entire AP Physics 1 xam—including both the multiple-choice and fiee-response sections. Scientific or graphing calculators may be used, provided that they don't have any unapproved features or capabilites (a list of approved graphing calculators is available on the College Board’s website). In addition, a table of equations commonly used in physics will be provided to you at the exam site. This can be found online and we've included it with both practice tests.Grades on the AP Physics 1 Exam are reported as a number: either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, Here is a description of each of these five numerical scores plus data on how students scored on the May 2016 test: 5 (extremely qualified) | 4.6% A 4 (well qualified) 14% A-, B+, B 3 (qualified) 21.2% BoC. 2 possibly qualified) | 30.29 ie 1 (no recommendation) [30% D Colleges are generally looking for a 4 or 5, but some may grant credit for a3. How well do you have to do to earn each grade? Each testis curved so scores vary from year to year, but as we see above, in May 2016 around 60% of test takers earned scores of 1 of 2, s0 you'll want to study hard and prepare for this very difficult exam. We'll get to that soon, we promise! So, what is on the exam and how do you prepare? Take a look at the following list of the major topics covered on the AP Physics 1 Exam. AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based Course Content You may be using this book as a supplementary text as you take an AP Physics 1 course at your high school or you may be using it on your own. The College Board is very detailed in what they require your AP teacher to cover in his or her AP Physics 1 course. They explain that you should be familiar with the following topics: ies: Newcon’s laws Circular motion and universal law of gravitation Simple harmonic motion: simple pendulum and mass-spring systems Impulse, linear momentum, and conservation of linear momentum: collisions + Work, energy, and conservation of energy + Rotational motion: torque, rotational kinematics and energy, rota- tional dynamics, and conservation of angular momentum + Electrostatics: electric charge and electric force * DC circuits: resistors only + Mechanical waves and sound About the AP Physics | Exam | $1