5 Steps to a 5 AP Physics: so many choices... here's a rundown.

Okay, obviously this post is a bit of advertising, but I've been asked enough questions that it's worth posting.  In early August, the 2018 versions of the 5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 1 book will be published.

And I do mean "versions," plural.  It's hard enough that the College Board offers four different current AP Physics exams.  To add to the confusion, there are five different physics books under McGraw-Hill's 5 Steps imprint.  I wrote three of them.  I'd recommend four of them to you and your students.  Here's a rundown.

5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 1, 2018 edition - by Greg Jacobs

This is the updated version of the top-selling AP Physics prep book that's been in print since the 2015 edition.  It includes two practice tests, both written by me, with complete explanations for all questions.  In the 2018 edition I've updated the text and fixed some errors.  Most importantly, I've rewritten one of the "about the exam" chapters to include the fact sheet that I use in my own class, and that my students carry around like a bible.  

5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 1, "For the Elite Student" 2018 edition - by Greg Jacobs

I didn't come up with this title - McGraw-Hill marketing did.  I highly recommend it for your classes, though, because it contains some special and new material.  Jeff Steele - an AP Physics reader, head of the Virginia Instructors of Physics - has written a third practice test.

Most importantly, Jeff and I collaborated on a new section called "5 Minutes to a 5."  This includes 180 questions in the vein of TIPERS, but aligned to the AP Physics 1 exam, and all doable in five minutes each.  Each question could easily be the basis for an AP Physics 1 free response item, identical in style and physics content to the authentic exam.  These items would make excellent parts of homework assignments, or quizzes, or in-class worksheets to be followed up with experiments.  

5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics C, 2018 edition - by Greg Jacobs

This has been revised and updated.  The most important revision is that I rewrote some of the free response items in the practice exam to reflect the more intense use of calculus that we've seen over the past years.  In general, this is substantially similar to previous editions.

5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 2 - by Chris Bruhn - not by me, but I recommend

I reviewed several of Chris's chapters.  He knows his business.  Some of the material is adapted from the out of print 5 Steps Physics B book that I wrote.  But it's Chris's book, and it is excellent.

Do NOT buy 500 Questions to Know by Test Day.

This monstrosity is under the 5 Steps imprint, so people think I wrote it.  I did not.  It is terrible.  It includes an enormous number of computational questions not even good enough for the old physics B exam.  I'm disappointed that this book exists.  I never had anything to do with it, I didn't even know it was coming out.  To me it is shameful that people have bought it expecting the same quality that the other books provide.  

But do buy the other four books, and even 5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics B.  

The out-of-print Physics B book is fantastic as preparation for a typical undergraduate course.  I'm trying to get McGraw-Hill to rebrand this book as a college physics prep book, because I still have alumni asking for it.  

Other questions?  Ask in the comment section, or by email.