About each Resource

The 99 lessons on this website, split between 11 units, cycle through 9 different resources I used when self-studying for the exam. I am confident these resources are more than enough to teach you all of the course content and give you all the practice you need. You may even find that some are unnecessary, so feel free to not use them. Below you will find a summary of each resource and how important I believe it to be for your studying.

These resources are also listed in the order that I recommend going through them. You can tweak the order to your liking but I recommend following a general trend of Textbook --> Supplementary Book/Video --> Practice Questions for each unit.

read serway physics textbook

If you have never read a textbook before, I'm excited to be the reason you will finally get to read one. The "Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics" (10th Edition, 2018) textbook by Serway and Jewett, or simply dubbed Serway Physics on this website, explains every concept in E&M with extreme thoroughness. Reading this textbook will not only walk you through how to use each formula needed for the AP exam, but will also derive those formulas (as well as any other conceptual understanding of E&M). This is a must for self-studying E&M. Read all the sections listed for each lesson, and do not skip practice exercises embedded throughout the chapter. I recommend taking notes as well, so you don't have to always look back at the textbook when reviewing.

Level of importance: CRUCIAL

Watch Ballentine's Videos

John Ballentine is a physics teacher that has uploaded his E&M lectures free on YouTube for anyone to watch. He follows the Serway Physics textbook as well, albeit an older edition, which means his content aligns perfectly with your own reading. He focuses a lot on practice problems in his videos, so I recommend pausing them and attempting them yourself before seeing his work. I also recommend watching his videos at a faster speed if you can follow along.

Level of importance: Very helpful

Practice with serway Physics' Problems

At the end of each chapter in Serway Physics, you'll find around 50 practice problems. At the end of the textbook, you'll find the answers to the odd-numbered problems, so I recommend only doing those. Also, there are "challenge problems" that are fun to try but often too difficult in comparison to the exam; it is fine to skip those. In general, these problems are pretty helpful to do early on in your studying to make sure you know how to apply your knowledge, but overall they are going to be more difficult than the AP exam questions. Don't be discouraged if you are missing a lot of these questions.

Level of importance: Very helpful

Read Barron's

Barron's is a company that makes review books for AP exams. You'll find chapters going over most material on the exam, as well as AP-like questions and practice tests. Their content explanations are pretty good, but at this point in your studying, you'll likely know the content for that unit pretty well already. Thus, I recommend skimming through the Barron's chapters and instead focusing on doing their example problems scattered throughout the chapters.

Level of importance: Somewhat helpful

Practice with Barron's MCQs and FRQs

More helpful than their content explanations is Barron's practice questions at the end of their chapters. Their questions are pretty similar to AP exam questions, and they include answer explanations as well. At this point in your studying, you need to be doing AP-like practice, and that's exactly what Barron's offers.

Level of importance: Very helpful

Watch Fullerton's Videos

Dan Fullerton is a physics teacher that has uploaded his E&M lectures free on YouTube for anyone to watch, and he also runs the website APlusPhysics.com. His videos are shorter than John Ballentine's since he usually does less examples on-screen. However, Fullerton's videos are extremely helpful because he is very thorough in showing the derivations to the equations and formulas used in each chapter, a skill that is very commonly tested on the AP exam. I recommend watching his videos near the end of your unit studying to refresh your memory on the aforementioned derivations that are usually skipped over by review books.

Level of importance: Very helpful

Read The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review is a company that makes review books for AP exams. You'll find chapters going over most material on the exam, as well as AP-like questions and practice tests. Personally, I don't find too much of a difference between Princeton and Barron's for E&M. Similarly to Barron's, you won't get much use from reading the chapters themselves other than the example problems given.

Level of importance: Somewhat helpful

Practice with Princeton's MCQs and FRQs

Similarly to Barron's, more helpful than their chapter explanations is Princeton's practice problems at the end of their chapters. Their questions are pretty similar to AP exam questions, and they include answer explanations as well. At this point in your studying, you need to be doing AP-like practice, and that's exactly what The Princeton Review offers.

Level of importance: Very helpful

Practice with Official MCQs and FRQs

The final part of your study process for any unit should be practicing official AP questions. I archived the MCQs and FRQs of three years' worth of exams: 1993, 1998, and 2008 practice exam. I then split these questions between the 11 units and made worksheets with the questions, the answers, and a video of the worked solutions (except for 2008P questions). Keep in mind these are official AP questions, which means the actual AP exam will look very similar. The reason I'm pulling questions from decade(s) ago (even though the questions are still very similar to those of today) is because I want you to be able to practice the newer exams closer to your exam date without recognizing any of the questions.

Level of importance: CRUCIAL