College Board · Current focus
AP Physics 2 Tutoring for Connected, Conceptual Problem Solving
Fluids, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism, optics and modern physics. A wide course where students benefit most from clear physical models of each system.
- Levels
- Algebra-based
- Assessment
- Multiple choice, Free response
- Status
- Course in development
AP Physics 2 is a wide course rather than a deep one, and that width is what makes it demanding. A student can finish every unit and still hesitate when a question does not announce which unit it belongs to.
The skill the course really develops is switching between physical models: pressure and flow in one question, charge and potential in the next, a wave picture in the one after that.
Teaching is organised so that each new area is built as a model with a clear picture, clear variables and clear limits, rather than as another set of equations to store.
Connecting Different Areas of Physics
The units of AP Physics 2 look unrelated on a syllabus page and behave very similarly once they are understood. Fluids are a story about pressure differences and conserved flow. Thermal physics is energy accounting for large numbers of particles. Electricity is charge responding to a field, and a circuit is that idea constrained by conservation of charge and energy.
Magnetism adds direction and geometry to the same charge-and-field picture, waves and optics ask what happens when a disturbance meets a boundary, and modern physics is where the particle and wave descriptions of the same object have to sit side by side.
Lessons deliberately move between these areas so that students practise recognising a model rather than recalling a chapter.
From Concept to Equation
Choosing an equation before choosing a model is the most common way marks are lost in this course. Two questions can involve the same symbols and require completely different relationships, depending on what is being held constant.
So each problem starts with three questions: what is the system, what is being kept constant or conserved, and what is being compared. Once those are answered, the equation is usually obvious, and its conditions are already understood.
This also makes revision shorter. A student who knows when a relationship applies does not need to memorise the special cases separately.
AP Physics 2 Exam Preparation
Practice is mixed rather than grouped by topic, because the exam does not tell you which model to use. Students taking the algebra-based sequence often work through AP Physics 1 material alongside this course, since strong mechanics makes energy and field arguments here far easier.
- Conceptual items
- Deciding what increases, decreases or stays the same, and saying why.
- Graphs and data
- Reading trends, gradients and intercepts as physics rather than shapes.
- Quantitative work
- Multi-step calculation across circuits, fluids, thermal and optical systems.
- Explanations
- Written answers that a reader can follow from principle to conclusion.
AP Physics 2 Course and Exam Description
The official College Board AP Physics 2 Course and Exam Description — course framework, science practices, exam format and scoring guidelines — embedded here for reference alongside these lessons.
Where to go next
The teaching method behind these lessons is set out in full, and every curriculum taught is listed on the courses page, including AP Physics 1. The free study tools written for IB Physics are on the resources page and transfer well to other syllabuses.
If you would like lessons on this syllabus, read about how I teach and then get in touch with your level, topic and any exam date.