Category: College Board Resources

Congratulations! You finished the AP Physics 1 Test.

For those of you who took the test, here is some information about test results, etc.

Dates

• May 26: FRQ posted for teachers to see (I think; there’s some confusion on the AP Physics Facebook group about what is actually being released on the 26th).
• August 18: Scores released.

The way FRQs are traditionally scored is that the College Board hires teachers for a week session during the summer where the teachers discuss and agree on a scoring rubric, then score all the tests. During the session, teacher scores are routinely audited by lead teachers to ensure that all tests are being scored consistently. This year, the scoring will be done remotely, but will probably utilize Zoom and other sharing platforms to create the scoring rubrics.

Once the FRQ scoring is complete, the College Board looks at the score distribution for both the multiple choice (although there were none of these this year) and the FRQs and normalizes them to produce a consistent curve of 1-5 scores across the years. Their assumption is that each year there should be the same bell curve shape; e.g. if one year more students earn higher scores, then the assumption is that test was easier the year before. This is why it takes until August to get your results…real humans score the FRQs, not machines.

Feedback on the test

Please click here to complete a form to let me know how the test went for you (both physics-wise and technology-wise), and so I can provide you with some thoughts on how well you did with your answers.

You can also upload your solutions if you’d like me to look at them.

Zoom office hours

AP only hours

• Monday 2:00-3:00
• Tuesday 9:00-10:00 AM
• Wednesday 2:00-3:00
• Thursday 9:00-10:00 AM (this is the morning of the test, so I advice you try not to need to come in at this time.

Please come to office hours with specific questions, or specific FRQs you want help with. I’m really here to help you with questions you have from work you have already gone over, not to provide review lectures. Try the problem, and have the paper you started on available so you can share with me and others what you did. Be ready to use your phone/web cam.

Office hours open to all students

• Mon-Fri 11:00 am – 1:00 PM. I’m usually not too busy during these times, but I may also have students from Physics in the Universe who will also have questions about their work.

Flipping Physic Video AP Physics 1 Review Page

At this point, it is best for you to practice FRQ problems. Flipping Physics has a page with solutions to many past FRQ problems here.

Please practice these problems by watching the question, trying it yourself, then watching how it is solved on the video. Remember:

• Carefully read the question all the way through before you start answering it.
• If the problem asks you for a sketch of any kind, include one!
  • Sketch carefully; use arrows to point out anything you think may not be clear (use the arrows so the words don’t clutter up your sketch).
  • Remember that Free Body Diagrams (aka force diagrams) only include actual forces, not components.
    • If you want to add components or anything else to your Free Body Diagram later in the problem, quickly re-sketch it and feel free to mark the new one up any way you need.
• Don’t use too many words, but also try to answer using complete sentences.
  • Correct English grammar and punctuation was designed to make wording clearly understandable. Your reader needs to easily and quickly understand what you are trying to get across.
• If a question asks for an equation, write it neatly, with subscripts/superscripts clear.
  • You don’t want your reader to have to decipher if you mean F=m•a or F=m_a.

Remember that you can earn points for what appears to be relatively small details, for example of of the practice tests asks for a force diagram, and the solution was only a dot with one horizontal arrow (correctly labeled, of course).

Don’t skimp on the details; you will more likely gain more points by moving carefully through only part of a question than trying to rush through and leave out important details.

You have learned a lot of physics, but there may be some problems that you just say “I don’t get it…” If you run across such a problem, re-read it carefully, and check to see if there are any bits of information you can provide them to help you collect points.