DPT2 Physics: Electricity and Magnetism, catalog number PHYS 5320, is the two-competency-unit course covering electric and magnetic forces applied to circuits with resistors, along with electromagnetic induction and waves. The catalog lists it as a legacy code. It is the physics course where intuition helps least, because nothing in it is visible. Students who succeed build a working mental model of charge, field and potential early, then treat every circuit and every induction problem as an application of that model.
What PHYS 5320 is actually testing
The first thing to get straight is the difference between charge, current, potential difference and resistance, because they are routinely blurred. Charge is a property that objects carry. Current is charge moving past a point per unit time. Potential difference is the energy per unit charge available to drive that motion. Resistance is the opposition the path offers. Students who conflate current and potential difference produce circuit reasoning that cannot be repaired, because every subsequent statement inherits the confusion.
Circuits with resistors test whether you can reason about what is shared and what is divided. In a series arrangement the current is common and the potential difference divides across the components. In a parallel arrangement the potential difference is common and the current divides between the branches. Almost every resistor problem is an application of those two sentences, and a student who holds them can analyze a network without memorizing a single combination formula.
Magnetism adds a geometric complication that catches nearly everyone. Magnetic force depends on the angle between velocity and field and acts perpendicular to both, which means the direction cannot be reasoned about one-dimensionally. Being deliberate with a consistent hand rule, and stating which convention you are using, prevents most errors here.
Induction is the idea the whole course builds toward: a changing magnetic flux through a loop drives a current, and the induced effect opposes the change that produced it. That opposition is not an extra rule to memorize; it is what energy conservation requires, since an induced current that reinforced its own cause would create energy from nothing. Explaining that connection is exactly the kind of understanding a science teacher needs and these courses assess.
Planning study and written work from the rubric
Scoring detail sits in your Course of Study rather than the public catalog. Read the aspects before allocating study time, because this course splits between circuit analysis and field reasoning and the balance varies. Each aspect is scored independently against a three-point scale, and a 2 in each aspect passes the task.
Where a performance assessment is used, structure by aspect and keep circuit diagrams and calculations inside the section they evidence, with the reasoning written beside them.
The word budget, worked. Assume five scored aspects and roughly 1,400 words of written explanation alongside diagrams and calculations, which suits a two-unit course. Take 110 for framing and 90 for a close, leaving about 1,200 across five aspects, or 240 each. Then rebalance toward conceptual explanation: an aspect asking you to explain induction or to justify a circuit analysis deserves 350, funded by keeping arithmetic commentary near 160.
For an objective assessment, drill the shared-and-divided rule until it is automatic, then drill direction conventions separately. Those two things account for a large share of what goes wrong in this subject, and neither is fixed by working more problems end to end.
A structure that fits an electricity and magnetism deliverable
Follow task directions on format wherever they specify one. Where the arrangement is yours, this order keeps the model ahead of the arithmetic.
| Section | What belongs in it | How it tends to be scored |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit or field diagram | A labelled diagram with components, polarities and directions marked | Direction errors are the dominant failure and the diagram prevents them |
| Quantities | Charge, current, potential difference and resistance identified with units | Scored for using the terms precisely rather than interchangeably |
| Series and parallel analysis | What is shared and what divides, stated before any combination | The reasoning aspect; combination formulas alone are thin |
| Calculation | Symbolic work first, then substitution with units carried | Scored for method rather than for the value obtained |
| Magnetic force and direction | The convention used, applied consistently | Stating the convention is itself commonly scored |
| Induction | The changing flux identified, and the opposition explained by conservation | Where conceptual understanding shows most clearly |
| Checks | Power balance, units and physical plausibility | Quick, and it catches errors algebra cannot |
Check power at the end of any circuit analysis. Total power delivered by the source should equal the total dissipated across the components, and that single check catches most arithmetic errors in a network problem in about a minute.
Evidence craft in electromagnetism
Because nothing here is visible, the diagram and the stated conventions carry the evidential weight that a photograph would carry in another subject.
- Draw the circuit and mark polarity and current direction before writing an equation, even for a simple network.
- State your convention for current direction and hold to it. Conventional current and electron flow are opposite, and mixing them silently makes every direction claim ambiguous.
- Say what is shared and what divides before combining resistances, so the reasoning is visible rather than encoded in a formula.
- Identify the changing flux explicitly in induction problems, including whether it changes by field strength, area or orientation.
- Explain the direction of an induced effect by what it opposes, and connect that to conservation of energy rather than presenting it as a rule.
- Cite borrowed problems, data or texts in APA where the rubric asks for citation, and keep quotation minimal since WGU scans submissions for authenticity.
The habit that most improves work here is a stated analogy with its limits. Comparing potential difference to pressure and current to flow rate helps a reader, and adding one sentence about where the analogy breaks down shows that you know it is a model rather than the physics.
What separates Competent from work sent back
Work at WGU is Competent or Not Competent, with no letter grades and no ordinary grade point average. Performance assessment work can be revised and resubmitted with no grade penalty, so a return costs days inside a six-month flat-rate term.
Electromagnetism work that clears on the first read tends to have:
- A labelled diagram with polarity and current direction marked.
- Current, potential difference, charge and resistance used precisely and not interchangeably.
- Series and parallel behaviour stated in words before any combination is computed.
- A declared direction convention applied consistently throughout.
- Changing flux identified specifically in induction problems.
- A power balance check on any completed circuit analysis.
Where a proctored objective assessment forms part of this course in your plan, the boundary is absolute. Objective assessments at WGU are proctored, so support is preparation only: convention drills, worked circuit practice and an honest readiness call. We do not sit assessments and we never ask for portal credentials.
Six mistakes that cost time in DPT2
- Treating current and potential difference as interchangeable. They are different quantities with different units, and conflating them makes every later statement unsound.
- Combining resistances by pattern. Applying a series formula to a parallel arrangement happens whenever the topology was never described in words.
- Undeclared current convention. Conventional current and electron flow run opposite ways, and an unstated choice makes direction answers unscoreable.
- Vague flux in induction problems. Saying the field changed is not enough; whether strength, area or orientation changed determines the analysis.
- Induction opposition as an arbitrary rule. It follows from conservation of energy, and explaining it that way is usually the assessed content.
- No power check. A one-minute balance catches arithmetic errors that no amount of rechecking the algebra will surface.
How support works on this course
Electromagnetism is returned most often for direction and terminology rather than for arithmetic, and both are quick to correct. Send the rubric from your Course of Study and the task directions if a written deliverable is involved. The work comes back with diagrams drawn and polarities marked, quantities used precisely, series and parallel behaviour described in words before combination, direction conventions declared, induction explained through conservation, and a power balance added to every circuit analysis.
Two competency units in a flat-rate six-month term makes this a course worth closing early. It completes the focused physics trio alongside mechanics and waves, and the field concept it develops is the one that unifies all three. Electromagnetic waves are the point where the trio closes on itself: a changing electric field produces a magnetic one and the reverse, and the self-sustaining result travels as light. Seeing that connection written out is usually the moment the whole physics sequence stops feeling like separate subjects.
Questions students ask about DPT2
Is DPT2 the same course as PHYS 5320?
What is the fastest way to get circuits right?
Why does an induced current oppose the change that caused it?
Circuit answers coming out backwards?
Send your rubric and any task directions. Diagrams get polarities marked, conventions get declared, topology gets described in words and power balance gets checked.
Where DPT2 sits in WGU's programs
The July 2026 catalog places this code in 1 current WGU program. Open a program page for the complete standard path and term positions. The live Degree Plan remains authoritative after transfer credit, substitutions, and mentor planning.
The assessments, one by one
The public catalog does not publish this course's PA/OA identity or task count. WGU Tutors publishes at most one PA manual per course and only from a WGU-controlled public rubric. Until that source exists, PA help begins from the student's real Course of Study and OA support remains preparation only.