Curriculum
The curriculum is roughly equivalent to the second semester of “University Physics” or “Physics for Scientists and Engineers,” the calculus-based course that many students in engineering college and physical science majors (as well as many B.S. in Biology majors) are required to take. It consists of 6 units of calculus-based electricity and magnetism. AP Physics 2 is a survey course with a little bit of everything, so the unit titles don’t match like they do in APCM and AP1. AP Physics 2 actually only has 3 units for all of electricity and magnetism. I do think most professors do complete a unit more than just mechanics in the first semester, but that there is not a lot of agreement on what that unit is.
Level
Students who have already completed AP Calculus AB successfully are prepared for this class, but in my experience most students concurrently enrolled in Cal AB will struggle with the calculus, even if you postpone it to near the end of the year as part of your exam preparation unit. It’s probably best if your students are enrolled in or have completed AP Calculus BC. The College Board’s brief description of AP Calculus AB and BC is here.
Calculus makes its way into the course in various places. I dug through the CED and produced this document which summarizes all the places where calculus is specifically mentioned.
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