5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics B and C

by Greg Jacobs and Joshua Schulman

For the more than one million students taking the AP exams each year Features include: Boxed quotes offering advice from students who have aced the exams and from AP teachers and college professors... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071437134
• ISBN13: 9780071437134
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 367 Pages
• Weight: 12.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.1" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

This book is well named

I teach chemistry and physics at a medium sized rural high school in Kansas and have one or two AP Physics students every couple of years. Our program spreads the course out over two years and we spend the last two months in review using a prep book. I used this book for the first time with a student, admittedly a very bright student, last year and he scored 5's on the Physics B and both Physics C tests. He rated it as excellent and so do I.

An Awesome AP Physics review book

I took the AP Physics B and AP Physics C Mechanics exams in 2006, and, to say the least, this book was a great help. I'm the kind of student who doesn't take notes in class and usually waits 'till the last minute to study for an exam. Because of this, this review book came in handy when I wanted to review everything for the AP exam. However, this book is probably best for just AP Physics B, since I got a little help from Fundamentals of Physics and Schaum's Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics or more clarification on more intense topics such as moment of inertia, centroids, moments of forces and moment of momentum/angular momentum, which weren't treated in detail in this book. That aside, this book helped me get 5s on both exams.

Everything you need to know about physics B but were afraid to ask

This book is awesome -I'll admit like the authors I prefer a more conceptual way of doing physics. Since in my opinion if your students don't really understand the ideas behind the math, they aren't physicists but mathematicians. So if you love Paul Hewitt and want to make physics more 'phun' than this book is for you. And if you ever get the chance to take AP physics training from Greg do so. His AP workshop was the best PD I have ever attended.

Concepts, not number crunching

Okay, full disclosure: I'm the author. I'm also an AP Physics teacher, reader, and consultant, so I know what it takes to do well on the AP physics exam. The biggest misconception folks have about Physics is that it's all about math, about numbers and equations. Sure, there's a bit of that; but you'll find that the surest route to success in AP Physics is to work toward a strong CONCEPTUAL understanding of the natural world. I don't mean that AP Physics is easy. No. But I virtually guarantee that it's not as hard as your textbook, teacher, and friends make it out to be. This book, unlike your textbook, is intended to be READ. The style is clear and straightforward, inserting mathematics where necessary (rather than everywhere, just to look fancy). Try it. My own students swear by _5 Steps to a 5_ as the best exam preparation they could ask for. Check out my school (Woodberry Forest School) and me (via "Nachoman's Baseball") on the web. Send me your feedback. greg

Fantastic review book -- best one I've seen

This book is clear, easy to understand, comprehensive, and actually entertaining. Because it was written by a former AP Physics student and an AP Physics teacher, the material is perfectly geared towards students' needs, and the authors know how to keep the reader's attention. The practice problems are challenging but not too hard, and the diagrams and side notes are often laugh-out-loud funny. Above all, after using this book I feel much more prepared and confident.