AP Physics 2 covers 7 units, from Thermodynamics to Modern Physics. Use this hub for unit study guides, topic review, FRQs, cheatsheets, score calculators, practice exams, and exam prep.
AP Physics 2 covers 7 units, from Thermodynamics to Modern Physics. Use this hub for unit study guides, topic review, FRQs, cheatsheets, score calculators, practice exams, and exam prep.
Get the big picture: what AP Physics 2 covers, how it is scored, and how the units connect.
read the overviewStart with the scoring requirements, then choose the guides that match your current project.
browse guidesOpen the unit you are studying now and review its guides, practice, and key terms.
browse all 7 unitsAP Physics 2 covers 7 units, from Thermodynamics to Modern Physics. Use this hub for unit study guides, topic review, FRQs, cheatsheets, score calculators, practice exams, and exam prep.
Apply the first and second laws of thermodynamics to gases, heat transfer, and entropy
Analyze electric fields, potential, and capacitors using diagrams and equations
Solve DC and RC circuits with Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's rules
Describe magnetic forces, fields from currents, and electromagnetic induction
Trace light through mirrors and lenses and model interference, diffraction, and the Doppler effect
Explain quantum phenomena like the photoelectric effect, atomic spectra, and nuclear decay
The AP Physics 2 exam runs 3 hours and splits evenly between multiple-choice and free-response. Here is how the sections, timing, and weighting break down.
| Section | Questions | Time | % of Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I – Multiple Choice | 40 | 80 min | 50% |
| Section II – Free Response | 4 | 100 min | 50% |
Total timed testing time: 180 minutes.
The course is organized into 7 units. The percentages below are the College Board exam weights, so you can see which units carry the most multiple-choice points. Open each unit for its study guide, topic pages, key terms, and practice questions.
AP Physics 2 Unit 9 is the study of thermodynamics, the physics of how heat, work, and internal energy move through systems of gas particles.
AP Physics 2 Unit 10, Electric Force, Field, and Potential, is where you learn how charges push and pull on each other, and how to describe those interactions three different ways: as forces (Coulomb's law), as fields (vectors filling space), and as energy (potential and potential energy).
How charge moves through wires, resistors, bulbs, and capacitors, and how energy is transferred along the way.
AP Physics 2 Unit 12 covers magnetism and electromagnetism, the physics of how moving charges create magnetic fields and how those fields push back on other moving charges, currents, and loops of wire.
Treating light as rays that travel in straight lines, then using those rays to predict where mirrors and lenses form images.
AP Physics 2 Unit 14, Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics, is the unit where light stops being a ray and starts being a wave.
AP Physics 2 Unit 15, Modern Physics, is the story of why classical physics failed at the atomic scale and what replaced it.
These trends come from real Fiveable practice data, so you can see what students are reviewing, which topics need extra attention, and how written practice can improve over time.
Miss rate is based on high-volume AP Physics 2 multiple-choice practice.
Average MCQ accuracy by student practice volume across 309 AP Physics 2 students.
Among AP Physics 2 FRQ responses that students retried on Fiveable, average scores rose from 45% on the first attempt to 56% on the latest attempt.
practice AP Physics 2 FRQs →These guides collect important exam skills, big ideas, essay tasks, and other subject-specific resources.
Treat studying as active problem solving, not rereading. After each unit, review the key ideas, then work practice problems and write out your reasoning the way the free-response section expects. Pay extra attention to high-weight units like Thermodynamics, Electric Force and Field, and Electric Circuits, and give abstract units like Magnetism and Modern Physics extra time to click. Mix in older topics so nothing fades. Build the habit of drawing diagrams, deriving symbolic relationships, and justifying claims with evidence. In the final weeks, cycle through all 7 units and rehearse each FRQ type so the format feels familiar.
Review one unit's key terms and work targeted multiple-choice practice on it
Practice deriving symbolic relationships for Mathematical Routines questions
Drill Translation Between Representations by drawing graphs and diagrams for a scenario
Write one Experimental Design and Analysis response, including procedure and data graph
Complete a Qualitative/Quantitative Translation question and justify your claim
Take a mixed problem set across earlier units to keep retention strong
Use the question types below to plan written-response practice and connect exam guides to timed FRQs. Open an example prompt to practice that question type right away.
| Question | Focus | Points | % of Score | Example prompt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRQ 1 | Mathematical Routines | 10 | 13% | Doppler effect frequency shift from moving sound source |
| FRQ 2 | Translation Between Representations | 12 | 15% | Piston equilibrium and gas pressure relationships |
| FRQ 3 | Experimental Design | 10 | 13% | Magnetic permeability measurement using inductor data |
| FRQ 4 | Qualitative/Quantitative Translation | 8 | 10% | Capacitor charging behavior in RC circuits |
Find every unit and topic guide in one place.
AP Physics 2 is challenging but manageable. The math stays algebra-based, so the harder part is explaining why things happen, not just calculating. Across 7 units you reason through thermodynamics, circuits, magnetism, optics, and modern physics. If you keep up with each unit and practice writing your reasoning, you can do well. Confusion piles up fast, so steady review matters more than last-minute cramming.
Start by reviewing one unit at a time instead of trying to cover everything at once. Read the key ideas, then immediately work practice problems and write out your reasoning. Begin with high-weight units like Thermodynamics, Electric Force and Field, and Electric Circuits. After each unit, mix in older topics so they stay fresh. Use unit study guides and practice questions to find weak spots early.
On the multiple-choice section, Unit 9 Thermodynamics, Unit 10 Electric Force, Field, and Potential, and Unit 11 Electric Circuits each carry 15 to 18 percent, making them the highest-weight units. Unit 12 Magnetism and Electromagnetism, Unit 13 Geometric Optics, Unit 14 Waves and Physical Optics, and Unit 15 Modern Physics each carry 12 to 15 percent. Prioritize the first three units, but practice every unit since all appear.
The free-response section has 4 questions and lasts 100 minutes, worth 50 percent of your score. Each is a set type: Mathematical Routines, Translation Between Representations, Experimental Design and Analysis, and Qualitative/Quantitative Translation. They ask you to derive equations, draw and read representations, design experiments, analyze data, and justify claims. The multiple-choice section has 40 questions over 80 minutes for the other 50 percent.
AP Physics 2 uses algebra and trigonometry, not calculus. You should be comfortable rearranging equations, solving systems, working with ratios and proportions, and reading graphs. Pre-calculus background helps, especially for exponential decay in modern physics and wave relationships. A four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections. The real demand is symbolic reasoning: deriving relationships and predicting how quantities change when variables change.