Questions cover topics emphasized in most high school courses. Because of course differences, most students will find that there are some questions on topics with which they are not familiar. You may not be able to complete all the questions in the time given, but it’s not necessary to get every question correct to get a high score or even the highest score on the test.
Skills Covered in the Context of Physics - Recalling and understanding of the major concepts of physics and the application of these physical principles to solve specific problems
- Fundamental Knowledge: remembering and understanding concepts or information (about 12%–20% of test)
- Single-Concept Problems: applying a single physical relation or concept (about 48%–64% of test)
- Multiple-Concept Problems: integrating of two or more physical relationships or concepts (about 20%–35% of test)
- Understanding simple algebraic, trigonometric, and graphical relationships and the concepts of ratio and proportion and the application of these to physics problems
- Application of laboratory skills in the context of the physics content outlined below
Important Things to Note on This Subject Test
Numerical calculations are not emphasized and are limited to simple arithmetic. Questions predominantly use the metric system; pay attention to the units stated. You should assume that the direction of any current is the direction of flow of positive charge (conventional current). Calculator use is not permitted.
Recommended Preparation
One-year introductory physics course on the college preparatory level Laboratory experience—a significant factor in developing reasoning and problem-solving skills— even though this test can only measure lab skills in a limited way, such as data analysis
Mechanics: 36%-42% - Kinematics, such as velocity, acceleration, motion in one dimension, and motion of projectiles
- Dynamics, such as force, Newton’s laws, statics, and friction
- Energy and Momentum, such as potential and kinetic energy, work, power, impulse, and conservation laws
- Circular Motion, such as uniform circular motion and centripetal force
- Simple Harmonic Motion, such as mass on a spring and the pendulum
- Gravity, such as the law of gravitation, orbits, and Kepler’s laws
| Electricity and magnetism: 18%–24% - Electric Fields, Forces, and Potentials, such as Coulomb’s law, induced charge, field and potential of groups of point charges, and charged particles in electric fields
- Capacitance, such as parallel-plate capacitors and time-varying behavior in charging/discharging
- Circuit Elements and DC Circuits, such as resistors, light bulbs, series and parallel networks, Ohm’s law, and Joule’s law
- Magnetism, such as permanent magnets, fields caused by currents, particles in magnetic fields, Faraday’s law, and Lenz’s law
| Waves and optics: 15%–19% - General Wave Properties, such as wave speed, frequency, wavelength, superposition, standing wave diffraction, and Doppler effect
- Reflection and Refraction, such as Snell’s law and changes in wavelength and speed
- Ray Optics, such as image formation using pinholes, mirrors, and lenses
- Physical Optics, such as single-slit diffraction, double-slit interference, polarization, and color
| Heat and thermodynamics: 6%–11% - Thermal Properties, such as temperature, heat transfer, specific and latent heats, and thermal expansion
- Laws of Thermodynamics, such as first and second laws, internal energy, entropy, and heat engine efficiency
| Modern physics: 6%–11% - Quantum Phenomena, such as photons and photoelectric effect
- Atomic, such as the Rutherford and Bohr models, atomic energy levels, and atomic spectra
- Nuclear and Particle Physics, such as radioactivity, nuclear reactions, and fundamental particles
- Relativity, such as time dilation, length contraction, and mass-energy equivalence
| Miscellaneous: 4%–9% - General, such as history of physics and general questions that overlap several major topics
- Analytical Skills, such as graphical analysis, measurement, and math skills
- Contemporary Physics, such as astrophysics, superconductivity, and chaos theory
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