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Physics
AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2, plus honors and on-level courses. Physics C is covered and hasn’t come up with a student yet. This is the class where strong math students hit a wall for the first time, and the math is usually not what’s wrong.
Why physics catches good students out
In math, a problem tells you what it wants. The chapter is on integration, so you integrate. Students who are quick can carry that habit a long way, right up until physics, where two problems with the same picture can need entirely different principles and nothing on the page says which.
So the failure looks strange from outside. A student with an A in Precalculus gets a 68 on a mechanics test, insists they understood every lecture, and is probably telling the truth. They reached for an equation before they understood the situation. Once the wrong equation is on the paper, the algebra after it is flawless and worthless.
The fix is a setup ritual that happens before any algebra: draw it, name the system, mark what’s given and what’s asked, decide which principle applies and say out loud why, and only then start solving. It feels slow for about two weeks. The setup habit is the part that moves the score.
Once the wrong equation is on the paper, the algebra after it is flawless and worthless.
The material
You can read the lesson before you talk to me.
Unit 3, Lesson 1: work and the work-energy theorem. Sixty minutes on one question, which piece of the force lies along the motion and which way it points. The plan I teach from, the problem set the student works, and the answer key with the traps marked are all published as PDFs.
Free, and there is no form in front of them. Material like this exists for the units my students are currently in, and the rest gets built the same way ahead of the sessions that need it.
Courses
AP Physics 1
Algebra-based
Kinematics, Newton’s laws, circular motion and gravitation, work and energy, momentum and collisions, rotational motion, simple harmonic motion.
Historically one of the lowest-scoring AP exams. Almost none of that is the algebra — it’s free-response questions that ask students to justify a claim in words, which nobody has taught them to do.
AP Physics 2
Algebra-based
Fluids, thermodynamics, electrostatics, circuits, magnetism, electromagnetic induction, geometric and physical optics, and an introduction to quantum and atomic physics.
Broader and shallower than Physics 1. The difficulty shifts from reasoning to keeping seven separate topics from blurring together.
AP Physics C: Mechanics
Calculus-based · not yet taught to a student
Kinematics with calculus, Newton’s laws, work and energy, systems of particles and linear momentum, rotation, oscillations, gravitation.
Usually taken alongside AP Calculus, which means students meet derivatives in a physics problem before they’re fluent with them in math class. Where that goes wrong is predictable, and it’s worth handling directly.
AP Physics C: E&M
Calculus-based · not yet taught to a student
Electrostatics, conductors and capacitors, electric circuits, magnetic fields, and electromagnetism.
The hardest of the four, and the one closest to what I do at university — E&M is the foundation of an electrical engineering degree, so this is material I use rather than remember.
Honors and on-level
High school physics
First-year high school physics, honors or standard. Same approach, slower pace, more time spent on the setup habit before the course makes it expensive to be without one.
Who this is for
The student whose math grade doesn’t predict their physics grade
The most common case, and the most fixable. The problem is nearly always situation-reading rather than computation.
The student sitting an AP exam this year
Free-response is where the points are lost and where practice is least comfortable, so that’s where we spend the time. Scoring your own work against the published rubric is unpleasant and works better than anything else.
The student taking Physics C alongside Calculus
Two hard courses that are supposed to reinforce each other and often just collide. Handling them together is easier than handling either alone. No student has brought me Physics C yet, and you should know that going in.
How a session runs
An hour, mostly spent before the algebra.
Last week’s problems, first third only
Ten minutes, and we read only as far as the diagram and the chosen principle. If those were right, the algebra after them usually was too.
Whatever the current unit just broke
Often a gap two units back that rotation or momentum has only now exposed. We follow the block rather than a fixed syllabus.
The setup, narrated, before a single equation
System, givens, principle, and why that principle — out loud, while I say as little as possible. Where the narration stalls is where the problem is. Then a short assignment, under thirty minutes.
Common questions
My kid is good at math but is failing physics. How is that possible?
It’s the standard pattern rather than a strange one. Math problems announce what they want; physics problems don’t. A student who has always been able to pattern-match to a formula has nothing to fall back on the first time two identical-looking problems need different principles. The skill that’s missing is reading the situation, and it can be taught directly.
Do you teach the calculus-based courses?
Yes, both Physics C exams, though neither has come up with a student yet. Electricity and magnetism is the core of an electrical engineering degree, so it’s material I work with at university rather than material I revised once.
How long before the AP exam should we start?
Twelve weeks is comfortable and eight is workable. Under four weeks I’d usually tell you the money is better spent on next year’s course, and I’ll say that on the call rather than after you’ve booked.
Can you help with lab reports?
With the analysis, error discussion, and how to argue from data, yes. I won’t write the report — partly because it’s your student’s work and partly because the writing is where most of the learning happens.