If you used Giancoli physics:

[Barb B]

Is one chapter per week to much? I'm trying to loosely plan how we will pace through this book. I also plan on giving ds tests so . . .

Thanks for your help,
Barb

[CynthiaOK]

bumping this up because I'm interested in the answer, too.

[Kathy in Richmond]

What worked for my son:

We started in early Sept and aimed to finish mechanics by Christmas break (first 8 chapters in the third edition book). It's important to really have a good grasp of kinematics, the laws of motion, energy methods, momentum, and rotational motion. So we devoted approximately two weeks per chaper, including lab work and quizzes from the textbook website on every chapter.

After Christmas break, we picked up the pace, as it was going well and he was getting the hang of it. So with the material on fluids through the wave nature of light (chapters 10 through 24 in the 3rd edition), he spent about one week per chapter. The exception was the chapter on vibrations and waves which took two weeks.

At the end of the year, he skimmed (read with minimal problem sets) the chapters on optical instruments, nuclear physics (which he remembered from chemistry), quantum theory, & special relativity.

Now, my ds was not preparing to take the AP physics B exam. Instead, his goal was to write the SAT Subject test in physics in June. If you want to be ready for the AP in early May, you'd have to either start earlier or go faster through the earlier chapters.

hth,
~Kathy