AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based Tutoring for the May Exam
AP Physics 1 needs little more than algebra and basic trigonometry, but the exam rewards explaining why a result follows, not just arriving at a number. Students must derive relationships in symbols, move between graphs, diagrams and equations, design experiments with limited equipment and justify claims in prose, across a course that runs from kinematics through rotation to fluids.
Short answer
AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based is offered online, one-to-one or in a group class.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 65 per lesson; the group course runs 50 lessons of 90 minutes for USD 1,755, and a class never takes more than 6 students.
Group classes next begin on 18 September 2027.
From USD 65 per lesson
Your lessons are taught by Ali Ertan, who teaches AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based.
- 2 scored components, from AP Central
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 65 per lesson
How AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based is assessed
Set and scored by College Board and reported on the 1–5 AP scale. Each university sets its own rule on which scores earn credit or placement. Component names are as College Board prints them.
College Board
AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based · AP Central exam page
| Component | Share of score | Length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple Choice | 50% | 1 hour 25 min | 42 questions in 85 minutes (from May 2027; previously 40 in 80), either standalone or in sets built on a shared stimulus or data set. A four-function, scientific or graphing calculator is allowed, as is the Desmos calculator in Bluebook, and College Board’s equation tables are provided. |
| Section II: Free Response | 50% | 1 hour 35 min | 4 questions in 95 minutes (previously 100), one of each type: mathematical routines, translation between representations, experimental design and analysis, and qualitative/quantitative translation. Questions are shown in Bluebook and answered by hand in a paper booklet, under the same calculator rules. |
- Hybrid exam: answers are entered in Bluebook for multiple choice and handwritten in a paper booklet for free response.
- 2027 exam date: 5 May 2027.
Checked on 8 October 2026
College Board revises individual exams between years. The exam page linked above is the authority for your sitting.
The AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Unit 1: Kinematics (10–15%)
Scalars and vectors in one dimension · Displacement, velocity, and acceleration · Representing motion · Reference frames and relative motion · Vectors and motion in two dimensions
Unit 2: Force and Translational Dynamics (18–23%)
Systems and center of mass · Forces and free-body diagrams · Newton’s Second Law · Kinetic and static friction · Spring forces · Circular motion
Unit 3: Work, Energy, and Power (18–23%)
Translational kinetic energy · Work · Potential energy · Conservation of energy · Power
Unit 4: Linear Momentum (10–15%)
Linear momentum · Change in momentum and impulse · Conservation of linear momentum · Elastic and inelastic collisions
Unit 5: Torque and Rotational Dynamics (10–15%)
Rotational kinematics · Connecting linear and rotational motion · Torque · Rotational inertia · Rotational equilibrium and Newton’s First Law in rotational form · Newton’s Second Law in rotational form
Unit 6: Energy and Momentum of Rotating Systems (5–8%)
Rotational kinetic energy · Torque and work · Angular momentum and angular impulse · Conservation of angular momentum · Rolling · Motion of orbiting satellites
Unit 7: Oscillations (5–8%)
Defining simple harmonic motion (SHM) · Frequency and period of SHM · Representing and analyzing SHM · Energy of simple harmonic oscillators
Unit 8: Fluids (10–15%)
Internal structure and density · Pressure · Fluids and Newton’s laws · Fluids and conservation laws
Where AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based marks are usually lost
Derivations with no starting principle
Many free-response parts ask for an expression in terms of the given variables, built from a fundamental relationship such as Newton’s second law or conservation of momentum. In 2025 readers saw derivations that began with no stated principle, mixed up conservation of energy and conservation of momentum, or stalled in fraction algebra. Readers advise practising derivations that start from a fundamental principle and end in the given variables.
Kinetic energy where nothing moves
In energy and momentum questions, the points reward careful bookkeeping. College Board’s report on the 2025 responses noted answers that counted kinetic energy at positions where the system was at rest, and momentum graphs drawn with a slope where momentum stayed constant. Students who state the system they chose, and which energies it holds at each moment, avoid most of these errors.
Procedures that cannot be carried out
The experimental design question lists the equipment available, asks for a procedure and then for an analysis of data. In 2025 readers saw procedures that used a spring scale to measure torque, which it cannot do, and that confused two distances with similar names; they also advise cutting filler steps such as “gather equipment”. A good procedure names each measured quantity, its instrument, and how repeated trials reduce uncertainty.
How we teach AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based
A tutor builds the course on the few principles everything else rests on — Newton’s laws, conservation of energy and momentum, and their rotational forms — and returns to them in every unit, so that rotation and fluids feel like new applications rather than new subjects. Each topic is worked in several representations: a free-body diagram or energy bar chart, a graph, an equation, and a sentence of reasoning linking them. Derivations are written in two columns, words on one side and algebra on the other, until the habit is automatic. Released free-response questions are marked against College Board’s scoring guidelines so the student sees which lines earn points, and justification answers are rewritten until they are short and exact. Experimental design is practised with simple equipment the student has at home.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
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