# AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based exam guide > Cover the seven units of the revised AP Physics 2 framework, thermodynamics through modern physics, with published weightings. - Canonical page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2 - Markdown source: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/llms.txt - Exam family: AP exams - Governing body: College Board - Official exam information: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-physics-2-algebra-based - Who takes it: High school students who have completed AP Physics 1 or an equivalent course and want college credit or placement in a second algebra-based physics course. - Follows the fall 2024 course and exam description, from 13 May 2025 - Guide structure last checked against official sources: August 30, 2026 ## Overview AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based is the second-year algebra-based physics course, covering thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and modern physics. The framework was revised effective fall 2024. Fluids moved to AP Physics 1, the former combined optics unit was split into geometric optics and physical optics, and the units are numbered 9 through 15 to continue from AP Physics 1. The published weightings put thermodynamics, electrostatics, and circuits at the top, with the remaining four units carrying similar mid-range shares. Free-response questions use the same four task types as AP Physics 1, so experimental design and qualitative-quantitative translation deserve dedicated practice rather than incidental exposure. Arcade Academy is an independent study workspace. Use the official Course and Exam Description for the authoritative content list and the official exam page for current format details, and use the unit pages below to structure problem practice. ## Exam format - **Total time:** 3 hours - **Section I:** 42 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 25 minutes, 50% of the exam score - **Section II:** 4 free-response questions, 50% of the exam score - **Free-response types:** Mathematical routines, translation between representations, experimental design and analysis, and qualitative or quantitative translation - **Format update:** The multiple-choice count and per-section timing changed beginning with the May 2027 exam; confirm the current numbers on the official exam page - **Delivery:** Hybrid digital: multiple-choice questions are answered and free-response prompts are read in College Board's Bluebook app, and free-response answers are handwritten in a paper booklet - **Calculator:** Permitted on both sections; an equations and reference information sheet is provided - **Score scale:** 1 to 5 ## Scoring The two sections contribute equally to a composite score that College Board converts to the reported 1 to 5 scale, with cut points set for each year's exam. Colleges publish their own credit and placement policies, so outcomes vary by institution. ## Units AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based is organized into 7 units. Each one below lists its published weighting where the governing body publishes one, the topics it covers, and study tips specific to it. ### 1. Unit 9: Thermodynamics - Position: 1 of 7 - Published weighting: 15–18% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-9-thermodynamics Unit 9 opens the course by treating a gas as a mechanical system. Pressure, temperature, and the ideal gas law connect to forces and free-body diagrams, and the laws of thermodynamics connect to conservation of energy. Entropy is introduced through probability and the tendency toward the most likely arrangement. #### Topics - **Thermodynamic systems** — Defining a system and its surroundings, internal energy, and the ways energy crosses the boundary. - **Pressure, thermal equilibrium, and the ideal gas law** — Relating pressure, volume, temperature, and moles, and describing thermal equilibrium at the particle level. - **Thermodynamics and forces** — Pressure as force per area applied to pistons and containers, analyzed with free-body diagrams. - **Heat, work, and the first law** — Conservation of energy applied to gases, including work as the area under a pressure-volume curve. - **Thermal processes on PV diagrams** — Isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, and adiabatic processes and what each looks like graphically. - **Probability and entropy** — Microstates, the statistical basis of the second law, and the direction of spontaneous change. #### Study tips - Practice reading work directly off pressure-volume diagrams, including the sign for compression versus expansion. - Fix the first-law sign convention once and test it on a case where the gas does work on the surroundings. - Explain temperature in terms of average molecular kinetic energy rather than as a primitive quantity. ### 2. Unit 10: Electric Force, Field, and Potential - Position: 2 of 7 - Published weighting: 15–18% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-10-electric-force-field-and-potential Unit 10 builds electrostatics from charge and Coulomb's law up through field and potential. The recurring difficulty is keeping the vector quantity (field) distinct from the scalar quantity (potential), and force distinct from energy. Field-line and equipotential diagrams are common representation tasks. #### Topics - **Electric charge and conservation** — Charging by friction, conduction, and induction, and conservation of charge in every process. - **Coulomb's law** — The inverse-square dependence on separation, superposition of forces, and comparison with gravitation. - **Electric fields** — Field as force per unit charge, field-line diagrams, and the field of point charges and parallel plates. - **Electric charge distributions** — How charge arranges itself on conductors and insulators, and the effect of a nearby charged object. - **Electric potential energy** — Work done moving a charge in a field, and the sign that follows from the charges involved. - **Electric potential** — Potential as energy per unit charge, equipotential surfaces, and the relationship between field and potential. #### Study tips - Label every quantity as vector or scalar before starting; field-versus-potential confusion causes most errors here. - Practice sketching field lines and equipotentials for the standard configurations until it is automatic. - Draw the explicit analogy to gravitation, which makes the inverse-square structure feel familiar rather than new. ### 3. Unit 11: Electric Circuits - Position: 3 of 7 - Published weighting: 15–18% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-11-electric-circuits Unit 11 covers steady-current circuits and the conservation principles behind them. Resistivity, resistance, and Ohm's law lead into series and parallel analysis, and Kirchhoff's rules formalize conservation of charge and energy in a circuit. The revised framework gives circuits a fuller treatment, including capacitors. #### Topics - **Electric current and charge conservation** — Current as rate of charge flow, and the direction conventions used in circuit analysis. - **Resistivity and resistance** — How material, length, and cross-sectional area determine resistance, and Ohm's law as a model. - **Series and parallel circuits** — Equivalent resistance, and how current and potential difference distribute in each arrangement. - **Kirchhoff's rules** — The junction rule from conservation of charge and the loop rule from conservation of energy. - **Power in circuits** — Energy dissipation in resistors and the several equivalent expressions for electrical power. - **Capacitors in circuits** — Capacitance, stored charge and energy, and the behavior of capacitors in series and parallel. #### Study tips - Redraw every complicated circuit in a simpler equivalent form before applying any rule. - Predict qualitatively what happens when a bulb is added or removed, then verify with calculation. - Practice Kirchhoff's loop rule with careful sign tracking around the loop; sign errors dominate mistakes here. ### 4. Unit 12: Magnetism and Electromagnetism - Position: 4 of 7 - Published weighting: 12–15% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-12-magnetism-and-electromagnetism Unit 12 covers magnetic fields, the forces they exert on moving charges and current-carrying wires, and the induction that links changing magnetic flux to induced potential difference. The geometry is three-dimensional, so the right-hand rules need enough practice to become reliable under time pressure. #### Topics - **Magnetic fields** — Field sources, field-line representation, and the difference between magnetic and electric field behavior. - **Magnetism and moving charges** — The force on a charge moving through a field, its direction, and the resulting circular paths. - **Magnetism and current-carrying wires** — The field around a straight wire and a loop, and the force between parallel current-carrying wires. - **Magnetic flux** — Flux as field through an area, and the three ways flux can change over time. - **Electromagnetic induction** — Induced potential difference from changing flux, and using Lenz's reasoning to find the induced current direction. #### Study tips - Drill the right-hand rules daily in short sessions until orientation is instant rather than reasoned out. - For induction problems, identify which of the three flux factors is changing before anything else. - Practice explaining induced-current direction as an opposition to the change, in one written sentence. ### 5. Unit 13: Geometric Optics - Position: 5 of 7 - Published weighting: 12–15% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-13-geometric-optics Unit 13 treats light as rays. Reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, and image formation by mirrors and lenses are the content, and ray diagrams plus the thin-lens relationship are the tools. Sign conventions for object distance, image distance, and focal length are the usual source of lost points. #### Topics - **Reflection and mirrors** — The law of reflection and image formation by plane, concave, and convex mirrors. - **Refraction and Snell's law** — Index of refraction, bending at an interface, and how wavelength and speed change across a boundary. - **Total internal reflection** — The critical angle condition and applications such as optical fibers. - **Lenses and image formation** — Converging and diverging lenses, ray diagrams, and real versus virtual images. - **Thin lens and magnification relationships** — Relating object distance, image distance, and focal length, and computing magnification and orientation. #### Study tips - Write the sign conventions at the top of your work every time until they are memorized. - Draw the ray diagram before calculating; it predicts the answer and catches sign errors. - Practice describing an image with all four attributes: real or virtual, upright or inverted, magnified or reduced, and located where. ### 6. Unit 14: Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics - Position: 6 of 7 - Published weighting: 12–15% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-14-waves-sound-and-physical-optics Unit 14 treats light and sound as waves. Wave properties, superposition, standing waves, and the Doppler effect lead into the interference and diffraction phenomena that geometric optics cannot explain. Double-slit and single-slit patterns are the standard quantitative applications. #### Topics - **Wave properties and models** — Transverse and longitudinal waves, and the relationship among wavelength, frequency, and wave speed. - **Superposition and interference** — Constructive and destructive interference, path-length difference, and phase relationships. - **Standing waves** — Nodes and antinodes, harmonics on strings and in open and closed pipes, and resonance conditions. - **Sound and the Doppler effect** — Sound as a pressure wave, intensity, and the frequency shift produced by relative motion. - **Diffraction and interference of light** — Double-slit and single-slit patterns, diffraction gratings, and locating bright and dark fringes. - **Polarization** — What polarization reveals about the transverse nature of light, and the effect of successive filters. #### Study tips - Sketch the standing-wave harmonics for a string and for both pipe types and derive the wavelength each time. - Reduce interference problems to a path-difference comparison with the wavelength before using any formula. - Reason the Doppler shift direction from the physical picture rather than memorizing the sign in the equation. ### 7. Unit 15: Modern Physics - Position: 7 of 7 - Published weighting: 12–15% - Page: https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-2/unit-15-modern-physics Unit 15 introduces the quantum and nuclear physics that classical models cannot explain. Blackbody radiation and the photoelectric effect motivate the photon, atomic spectra motivate energy quantization, and nuclear decay and mass-energy equivalence close the course. Wave-particle duality is the unifying theme. #### Topics - **Blackbody radiation and photons** — The spectrum emitted by a hot object and the photon model of light with energy set by frequency. - **The photoelectric effect** — Threshold frequency, work function, and why the results cannot be explained by a wave model alone. - **Atomic energy levels and spectra** — Quantized levels, absorption and emission, and reading a spectrum as evidence of level spacing. - **Wave-particle duality** — Matter waves, the de Broglie relationship, and the experiments that reveal wave behavior in particles. - **Nuclear structure and radioactive decay** — Nucleons, isotopes, alpha, beta, and gamma decay, and half-life reasoning. - **Mass-energy equivalence** — Mass defect, binding energy, and energy release in fission and fusion. #### Study tips - Practice the photoelectric graph in both directions: read the work function from it, and predict its shape from parameters. - Keep a short list of the observations that classical physics fails to explain, with the quantum resolution for each. - Balance nuclear equations regularly; the arithmetic is easy but the conventions need repetition. ## Study strategies - Weight review toward the top-weighted units, thermodynamics, electrostatics, and circuits, while keeping a steady rotation through optics and modern physics. - Practice all four free-response task types, since experimental design and qualitative-quantitative translation are scored on reasoning rather than on arriving at a number. - Build reliable habits for the representation-heavy topics: field-line and equipotential diagrams, circuit redrawing, ray diagrams, and pressure-volume graphs. - Solve symbolically first, because many questions ask how one quantity changes when another is doubled rather than for a numeric answer. - Rehearse the right-hand rules and optics sign conventions on a schedule; both decay quickly and both are cheap to maintain. - Take at least one full timed exam so that multiple-choice pacing is settled before test day. ## Frequently asked questions ### How is the AP Physics 2 Exam structured? The exam runs 3 hours and is split evenly between a multiple-choice section worth 50% of the score and a free-response section of 4 questions worth the other 50%. The multiple-choice count and section timing changed beginning with the May 2027 exam, so confirm current numbers on the official exam page. ### Which AP Physics 2 units do students find hardest? College Board does not rank difficulty. In practice, students most often report trouble with the three-dimensional geometry of magnetism and induction and with keeping electric field and electric potential straight. Your own practice results are the better guide. ### How is the exam scored? Both sections contribute equally to a composite score that is converted to the reported 1 to 5 scale using cut points set each year. Colleges make their own credit and placement decisions, so no score guarantees a particular outcome. ### Do I need AP Physics 1 first? AP Physics 2 is designed as a second-year course and assumes the mechanics background from AP Physics 1 or an equivalent. Because fluids moved into AP Physics 1 in the revised framework, students coming from an older course sequence should check whether they covered it. ### Is a calculator allowed, and how is the exam delivered? A calculator is permitted on both sections, and an equations and reference information sheet is provided. AP Physics 2 is a hybrid digital exam: multiple-choice questions are answered in College Board's Bluebook app and free-response answers are handwritten in a paper booklet. Confirm current policy on the official exam page. ### Is Arcade Academy affiliated with College Board? No. AP® is a registered trademark of College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this site. Arcade Academy is an independent educational resource. ## Related exam guides - [AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based](https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-1): Work through all eight units of the revised AP Physics 1 framework, kinematics through fluids, with published exam weightings. - [AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism](https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-physics-c-electricity-and-magnetism): Calculus-based electricity and magnetism across the six units of the revised framework, from Gauss's law to induction. - [AP Chemistry](https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-chemistry): Work through all nine AP Chemistry units with published exam weightings, from atomic structure to electrochemistry. - [AP Calculus AB](https://www.arcadesacademy.com/exams/ap-calculus-ab): All eight AP Calculus AB units with published exam weightings, from limits through applications of integration. ## Independence and trademark notice AP® is a registered trademark of College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this site. Arcade Academy is an independent educational resource. Confirm current exam format, dates, and policies with College Board directly. AP® is a registered trademark of College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this site. Arcade Academy is an independent educational resource.