AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

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Advanced Placement (AP) Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism (also known as AP Physics C: E&M or AP E&M) is an introductory physics course administered by the College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. It is intended to serve as a proxy for a second-semester calculus-based university course in electricity and magnetism. The content of Physics C: E&M overlaps with that of AP Physics 2, but Physics 2 is algebra-based and covers additional topics outside of electromagnetism, while Physics C is calculus-based and only covers electromagnetism. Physics C: E&M may be combined with its mechanics counterpart to form a year-long course that prepares for both exams.

Contents

Course content

E&M is equivalent to an introductory college course in electricity and magnetism for physics or engineering majors. [1] The course modules are: [1]

Methods of calculus are used wherever appropriate in formulating physical principles and in applying them to physical problems. Therefore, students should have completed or be concurrently enrolled in a calculus class. [1]

Starting in the 2024-25 school year, all units in AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism are numbered sequentially after the 7 units in AP Physics C: Mechanics. This starts with Electrostatics as unit 8 and ends with Electromagnetism as unit 12.

AP test

The course culminates in an optional exam for which high-performing students may receive some credit towards their college coursework, depending on the institution. [2]

Registration

The AP examination for AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism is separate from the AP examination for AP Physics C: Mechanics. Before 2006, test-takers paid only once and were given the choice of taking either one or two parts of the Physics C test.

Format

The exam is typically administered on a Monday afternoon in May. Test takers are allowed to use an approved calculator during the entire exam. [3] The test is weighted such that each section is worth half of the final score. [1]

Before the 2024-25 school year, the multiple choice and free response section were each allotted 45 minutes, with 35 questions for the former and 3 questions for the latter. This made AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, along with Mechanics, the shortest exams offered by Collegeboard. Unlike other exams, the AP Physics C exams also had multiple-choice questions with 5 options that test-takers could choose from rather than the typical 4. This was changed in an announcement made by collegeboard in the February of 2024 regarding changes to their AP Physics courses for the 2024-25 school year onward, which explained that the multiple choice section would have 40 questions and the free response section would have 4 questions. To compensate, Collegeboard allotted 80 minutes for the multiple choice sections and 100 minutes for the free response sections, making the exam as long as both AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2.


The topics covered by the exam are as follows: [4]

TopicPercent
Electrostatics 26-34%
Conductors, insulators, capacitors, dielectrics 14-17%
Electric circuits 17-23%
Magnetic fields 17-23%
Electromagnetism 14-20%

Grade distribution

The grade distributions for the Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism scores since 2010 were:

Score2010 [5] 2011 [6] 2012 [7] 2013 [8] 2014 [9] 2015 [10] 2016 [11] 2017 [12] 2018 [13] 2019 [14] 2020 [15] 2021 [16] 2022 [17] 2023 [18]
532.0%32.0%35.1%31.7%33.5%28.5%32%28.1%35%34.6%40.4%32.6%31.5%33.6%
425.2%24.5%24.0%24.1%25.1%24.9%22.6%25.1%23.1%22.6%22.4%23.1%23.6%23.5%
313.1%14.1%13.9%13.7%12.2%13.7%13.5%15.6%13.7%13.9%11.6%13.8%14.3%13.1%
217.4%17.7%16.5%19%17.6%19.8%19.3%18.2%17.3%17.8%16.2%18.0%18.1%17.9%
112.3%11.7%10.5%11.6%11.6%13.1%12.6%13%10.9%11.1%9.5%12.5%12.5%11.9%
% of Scores 3 or Higher70.3%70.6%73.0%69.5%70.8%67.1%68.1%68.8%71.8%71.1%74.4%69.5%69.4%70.2%
Mean3.473.473.573.463.513.363.423.373.543.523.683.453.443.49
Standard Deviation1.411.391.381.401.401.411.421.391.401.401.381.421.411.41
Number of Students14,19115,18517,38019,38020,76522,78923,34724,24925,07425,34223,65520,47119,97824,179

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 AP® PHYSICS C: ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM (PDF), College Board, December 2016, retrieved January 30, 2017
  2. ↑ "Credit & Placement". AP Students. The College Board. 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  3. ↑ "AP Physics C: Mechanics – Calculator and Table Policies". AP Students. College Board. 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Topic Outline". College Board Tests. The College Board. 2013. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013.
  5. ↑ 2010 Physics C: E&M score distribution
  6. ↑ 2011 Physics C: E&M score distribution
  7. ↑ 2012 Physics C: E&M score distribution
  8. ↑ 2013 Student Score Distributions
  9. ↑ 2014 Student Score Distributions
  10. ↑ 2015 AP Exam Score Distributions
  11. ↑ Total Registration. "2016 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  12. ↑ Total Registration. "2017 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  13. ↑ Total Registration. "2018 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.TotalRegistration.net. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  14. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  15. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  16. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  17. ↑ Total Registration (2022-06-22). "2022 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
  18. ↑ Total Registration (2023-06-15). "2023 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2023-06-16.


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