The USA Physics Olympiad is a sequence
of tests designed to test high school students in all aspects
of physics, from kinematics to electromagnetism to fluid dynamics
to nuclear physics. The ultimate goal is to select the 24
members of the U.S. Physics Team for the training camp and
then the final five students to represent the United States
at the International Physics Olympiad.
Students participate through their high schools and are
nominated by teachers (who must submit their nominations
to the American Association of Physics Teachers). Nominated
students take the initial examination, which has 20 - 30
multiple choice questions in a time span of 40 minutes (previously
it was 30 questions worth 1 point each but recently there
have been 20 questions worth 2 points each) in addition
to 4 longer free response questions in a time span of 60
minutes (worth 25 points each for a total of 100 points).
The multiple choice questions cover all the whole breadth
of physics, so be prepared for anything in that portion
of the exam. The free response section is limited only to
kinematics, which is more familiar to most students, although
the questions themselves are also more in-depth.
From the initial examination, around 200 students are selected
into the semifinal rounds. Cutoffs on the first examination
vary greatly and are (generally) not reported to the public.
Your teacher will give you feedback on your scores, but
the official graders from the USA Physics Olympiad will
not (hence, it is possible that your teacher's grading was
too lenient or too harsh, the former being much more devastating
than the latter). Out of the 140 total points in the first
round, a score of 70 to 80 will usually be enough to get
into the semifinal rounds.
The semifinal exam is considerably more difficult and is
broken down into two sections: the A portion (90 minutes
for 4 questions) and the B portion (90 minutes for 2 questions).
From the results of the semifinal exam, 24 students are
chosen to attend the training camp.
Preparation for the exam requires intensive studies of
all areas of physics. Possible reference books include the
Fundamentals of Physics, by Halliday, Resnick,
and Walker and The Feynman Lectures on Physics
by Richard Feynman.