F=ma Exam and U.S. Physics OlympiadUSAPhO

The cutoff moves every year because AAPT sets it to invite roughly 400 students. Official 2026 numbers: 6,682 scored exams, median 8 and mean 8.90 out of 25, cutoff 16, and 440 students at or above it. Recent years have landed in the mid-to-high teens, and the bar stays high enough that classroom coursework alone rarely closes the gap — it takes dedicated timed practice on past exams.

It covers the syllabus but not the difficulty. F=ma is mechanics only, so AP Physics C: Mechanics maps onto the topics — yet the official 2026 median was 8 out of 25, meaning plenty of AP students get about a third right. The gap is in unfamiliar setups, constrained motion, non-inertial frames, and pacing: 25 questions in 75 minutes is about three minutes each. Timed work through AAPT's past-exam archive is what actually moves the score.

Registration goes through the school on the AAPT site, normally done once by a physics teacher or administrator. For the 2026 cycle it was a $75 school fee ($37.50 for AAPT members) plus $15.50 per student, closing January 21. AAPT does not arrange test centers or publish a list of them. The club box above this page shows which Irvine high schools currently have a matching physics club; where there is no club or no history of registering, the next step is asking the school's physics teacher directly, then a community college, university or library if the school will not host.

No, parents cannot. AAPT requires an in-person proctor who is not a relative or close acquaintance of any student, holds at least a two-year degree, and uses an official school or non-profit email address — personal addresses are rejected. For-profit test-prep centers and educational services are explicitly barred from proctoring. A parent of a homeschooled student may complete the registration paperwork but must supply an outside proctor, so line this up early rather than near the deadline.

F=ma, yes: the student needs to attend a U.S. school and be physically inside the United States on exam day, with no citizenship requirement. USAPhO and the national training camp that follows are open only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and require the student to be under 20 as of June 30 of the competition year. For a non-citizen the path normally ends with the F=ma score itself, which is still a legitimate result to report.

Most USAPhO qualifiers finish calculus-based mechanics in grade 9 or 10, sit F=ma once in grade 10 as a calibration run, and push for the cutoff in grade 11. AP Physics C is scheduled in grade 11 or 12 at most high schools, so a student who wants to start earlier needs to work through calculus-based mechanics independently rather than waiting on the classroom pace. Starting in grade 12 usually leaves no room for the result to appear in applications, since F=ma is in mid-February and USAPhO in April.

USAPhO awards follow International Physics Olympiad conventions: roughly the top 10–12% take gold, then silver, bronze and honorable mention. About 20 of the highest scorers are invited to a ten-day training camp at the University of Maryland, and five of those students are chosen to represent the United States at the IPhO; recent teams have also competed at the European Physics Olympiad. AAPT added a USAPhO Plus exam in the 2026 cycle as well.

The scarcity is the point: about 6,700 students sat F=ma in 2026 and 440 qualified for USAPhO. For engineering, physics and EECS applicants, 'USAPhO qualifier' is a credential an admissions reader recognizes instantly, and it stands out for a student applying to engineering or physics programs across the UC system. List it in the Common App Honors section, with the year and level reached; a student who sat F=ma without qualifying can still record it under Activities.