Students in AP physics C are preparing to take their mock exams, a test designed to give them an idea of what to expect for the AP test in May.
“For me, the biggest benefit to giving a mock exam is that it is a cumulative exam – a true summative that covers the entirety of the material that students should be familiar with,” AP Physics C teacher Christine Rittenhouse said. “Unit tests are super specific. There are a lot of “rare” problem types on my unit tests, and students can get hung up on these. The mock exam is obviously much broader, so we can really see what the common ways of asking these topic questions are.”
Mock exams are designed to help students to identify concepts they might need more practice with.
“A mock exam lets everyone, particularly the student, know where we stand on some of those old topics that we haven’t thought about in a while,” Rittenhouse said. “That’s valuable information when it comes to making a study plan – time is a finite resource, so you don’t need to study for hours on a topic that you got 18 out of 20 points or one out of three points on. You should focus your attention on topics that you need more practice on and are heavily emphasized.”
Students such as senior Saanvi Patel believe the test will help in mapping out future studying.
“I feel pretty good about the upcoming Physics C mock test,” Patel said. “ I have been learning all of the content I need to know and some of it is just a refresher from AP Physics. The results of the mock test will help me know where I currently stand and what topics I need to focus my time on when it comes to studying for the actual AP exam. I plan to review my notes I have been taking and doing a lot of practice problems on College Board.”
The opportunity to attempt various questions in an unpredictable order, similar to the structure on AP exams, is something senior Medha Pedaprolu appreciates.
“Honestly, I’m a little stressed,” Pedaprolu said. “However, I’m looking forward to seeing how much of the material I’ve retained this year and I think it’ll be a pretty good benchmark to get some AP exam studying over December Break. I also think that there is a bit of a different skill set needed to solve problems when they are all mushed together, because unlike in class tests, you don’t know which topic the question is, so you need to figure out the right approach for some of the problems based on that. These mock tests are our only way to practice that.”
