AP Physics 1 cheat sheet: the AP Physics 1 cram chart, unit by unit.
This AP Physics 1 cheat sheet goes beyond the formula list. For each of the eight units it pairs the key idea with the equation to reach for, the mistake that costs students points, and College Board’s own exam weighting, so you can see which units are worth your last week. Format, scoring and a full study plan sit in our AP Physics 1 exam review.
What an AP Physics 1 cheat sheet is (and what you can’t bring)
A cheat sheet here means a condensed, high-yield study tool, not something you sneak into the exam. You cannot bring your own notes into an AP exam: the only reference you get is the official equation sheet, which is provided for you. Think of this page as the thing you review the night before.
It is worth knowing exactly what that provision looks like, because most pages do not say. AP Physics 1 is a hybrid digital exam. You answer the multiple choice and read the free-response questions in the Bluebook app, then handwrite your free-response answers in a paper booklet. The reference information reaches you both ways: printed and mailed to your school, and inside Bluebook. Its cover carries a name line and tells you that you may use any blank space in it for scratch work, and that proctors collect it at the end. You can also open it in Bluebook’s test preview before exam day, which is the only sheet you are ever allowed to study from in advance.
What makes a cheat sheet more useful than the raw equation list is context: the one idea each unit is really testing, and the mistake that turns a correct setup into a wrong answer.
Cheat sheet vs equation sheet
The equation sheet is College Board’s own two-page table of information, and you get it whether you have studied it or not. The current edition is the 2026 Exam Reference Information booklet; the 2027 edition has not been posted yet, and until it is, College Board says the appendix of the current course description carries the same information. This cheat sheet is shorter and concept-first: it tells you when each relationship applies and where students go wrong, which is what a table of relationships cannot do.
It is also more than formulas. The same booklet gives you g = 9.8 m/s2, the gravitational constant, atmospheric pressure, the metric prefixes from tera to pico, areas and volumes for the standard shapes, and a table of sine, cosine and tangent at 0°, 30°, 37°, 45°, 53°, 60° and 90°. The 3-4-5 triangle values are printed for you, so memorising them is wasted effort.
What the equation sheet does not give you
The booklet lists relationships, not principles, and the three conservation statements you lean on hardest are not printed anywhere on it. There is no momentum-before-equals-momentum-after, no angular momentum equivalent, and no statement of energy conservation. You are given the pieces, p = mv, J = FΔt = Δp, L = Iω, ΔL = τΔt, the kinetic and potential energy expressions and ΔK = ΣW, and you assemble the conservation step yourself.
Weight as F = mg is not on it either. The sheet gives the gravitational force between two masses and the change in gravitational potential energy near Earth, and expects you to know what those become at the surface.
College Board is explicit about this split. The course framework marks some relationships relevant equations, meaning they appear on the sheet, and others derived equations, meaning they are yours to produce. Escape speed and the volume flow rate of a fluid are marked derived, while the continuity equation sitting right beside the second one is not. If you have been revising by reading the sheet, these are the gaps that will not announce themselves.
The unit-by-unit cram chart
Eight units, one row each: what the unit is really testing, what to reach for, and where the points go. The percentages are College Board’s weighting for the multiple-choice section. Units 2 and 3 are tied for the heaviest at 18–23% each, close to two-fifths of that section between them, while Units 6 and 7 are 5–8%. If you only have a few evenings left, that is the order to spend them in. College Board publishes no unit weighting for the free-response section.
Where the points go
College Board weights this exam away from recall, and it publishes the numbers. On the free-response section, making a claim and justifying it with evidence accounts for 35–45% of the score, and creating diagrams, graphs and sketches for another 20–35%. Neither is something you can look up. Designing an experiment and drawing a representation are not assessed on the multiple choice at all.
The four free-response questions are not worth the same. Mathematical Routines is 10 points, Translation Between Representations 12, Experimental Design and Analysis 10, and Qualitative/Quantitative Translation 8, for 40 points across 95 minutes. The multiple-choice section is 42 questions in 85 minutes, and the two halves are weighted evenly. Those counts and timings take effect with the May 2027 exam, and a four-function, scientific or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections, with a Desmos calculator built into Bluebook alongside it.
Two habits are worth more than any formula here. Write the units as you go, and say in a sentence why the relationship applies before you use it. Our AP Physics 1 FRQ guide breaks down how each free-response question is scored.
How to use this in your last week
Work through one unit at a time, heaviest first. Read the row, do two or three free-response questions from that unit, then grade the justification rather than the number. Used this way the chart works as AP Physics 1 review notes you actually revisit, not a wall of formulas you reread.
When a row exposes a gap, the AP Physics 1 Progress Check answers walk through the questions that test it. Keep the equation sheet open while you work so the symbols stop being unfamiliar, and turn a practice raw score into a 1–5 with the Physics 1 AP score calculator to see whether the gap matters.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers, checked against College Board.
Can I bring a cheat sheet into the AP Physics 1 exam?
No. The only reference allowed is the equation sheet College Board provides. A proctor hands out a printed reference booklet on exam day and collects it afterwards, and the same information sits in the Bluebook app, including in test preview before the exam. You may write in the booklet during the exam, but nothing you write there is scored.
Is there a formula sheet for AP Physics 1, and what is on it?
Yes, a two-page table of information. One page holds the mechanics and fluids relationships with their variable keys. The other holds the constants, the metric prefixes, unit symbols, the exam conventions, geometry and volume formulas, and a table of sine, cosine and tangent for the common angles.
Which formulas are not on the AP Physics 1 equation sheet?
The conservation statements. Momentum before equals momentum after, the angular momentum equivalent, and energy conservation are all absent, and so is weight as F = mg. You get the components and assemble the conservation step yourself, which is why knowing when a relationship applies matters more than remembering it.
Which AP Physics 1 units should I cram first?
Force and Translational Dynamics and Work, Energy, and Power. College Board weights each at 18 to 23 percent of the multiple-choice section, tied for the heaviest, against 5 to 8 percent for Energy and Momentum of Rotating Systems and for Oscillations.
Is AP Physics 1 hard?
It is one of the more demanding AP exams because it tests reasoning over recall, not because the mathematics is hard. Our guide to whether is AP Physics 1 hard goes through the pass rate and what actually makes it difficult.