Not when you've got a fantastic teacher! Ha, I kid. No, seriously though, I've been asked that a lot. The answer to that question is yes - plain and simple. Now, that's an obvious answer because the AP program provides a college-level experience in high school; earlier than you'd otherwise experience these courses. College Board agrees, “Since the complete exams are intended to provide the maximum information about differences in student achievement in physics, students may find them more difficult than many classroom exams.” [p. 16, College Board’s AP Physics Course Description.] That's a fancy way of admitting their exam is tough! In fact, just to give a quick statistic, in last year's AP Physics C Mechanics exam, 75 % of students had a raw score lower than 50%. DO NOT let that scare you! I have good news! College Board boasts another statistic, most students who take the exam will score high enough to test out of Physics I in college, 70% of students last year! Admittedly, those are some weird numbers, but trust me, the most important one is that most people pass the test!
That brings me back to the title of the post. All of you are honors students and you either have been or are enrolled in other AP courses, so you know what to expect, but I'm just reminding you of why we work so hard (Spoiler alert: it's because AP Physics is difficult). So in the same breath that I tell you this class is difficult, I will also tell you that it's manageable. The only thing you have to provide is effort. Everything else is provided for you!
-W
