A Level revision
This A Level revision section contains a variety of resources to prepare you for end of year exams, mocks and your final exams in year 13.
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Remember your will sit three exams at the end of year 13:
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Modelling physics- 1 & 2. Foundations of physics, 3. Forces and motion, 5. Newtonian world and astrophysics
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Exploring physics- 1 & 2. Foundations of physics, 4. Electrons, waves and photons, 6. Particles and medical physics
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Unified physics- A mixture of everything
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The Modelling and Exploring physics papers are both worth 100 marks and contain a mixture of multiple choice and longer answer questions. The Unified physics paper is worth 70 marks and only has longer answer questions.
Specification and topic checklist
Use the below topic checklist to rate your knowledge for each specification area in order to focus your revision. More detail for each area is given in the specification. Once you have found the areas you need to work on revisit these areas of your notes or this website
Physics equations and maths skills
For success in A Level Physics you must know, be able to use and rearrange all the equations in the equation booklet including knowing what each symbol stands for and the correct units to use.
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Print yourself a copy of the equation booklet and add you own annotations for what each symbol means
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Remember there are also some equations that don't appear in the equation booklet which you need to know, these are in the document below
Past papers
Practising past papers is one of the most useful things you can do to help you prepare for tests and exams. Below are all the past papers and mark schemes accessible to students. You should also practice doing these under timed conditions. Before you sit your final exams you should be obtaining your desired grade in past papers. The practice and specimen papers do not have grade boundaries, however the boundaries for the official 2019 and 2018 papers are below. (Please note these are the marks required for a particular grade not a percentage). Grade boundaries between 2020 and 2023 were impacted by the pandemic and should not be used as a guide.
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2018 A* A B C D E U
Modelling (out of 100) 83 72 60 49 38 27 0
Exploring (out of 100) 81 69 57 46 35 24 0
Unified (out of 70) 55 47 39 31 24 17 0
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2019 A* A B C D E U
Modelling (out of 100) 88 80 70 59 48 36 0
Exploring (out of 100) 87 77 65 53 41 30 0
Unified (out of 70) 55 47 39 32 25 18 0
2022 papers
2021 papers
2020 papers
2019 papers
2018 papers
2017 papers
Specimen papers
Practise papers- set A
Practise papers- set B
Required practicals
Over the course of your A Level lessons you will cover a series a practicals which you may be asked about in you final exams, some of these will also count towards your practical endorsement in Physics. The full list of these can be found in the required practicals booklet below with details for each experiment given in the Modelling Physics Experiments and Exploring Physics Experiments PowerPoints. Practice questions can be found in the "long answer questions" section.
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For each of these practicals you should know the equipment you would use, the method, how you would analyse the data from the experiment, any factors which would effect the reliability of the data and health and safety considerations
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Long answer questions
Although the majority of questions in A Level Physics are short answer questions there will always be a couple of longer 5-6 mark questions. These are usually around the Medical Physics and Astrophysics topics, and tend to be on similar themes. You should practise writing answers to long answer questions, remember you can write in bullet points. Below are PowerPoints going through information on common long answer questions for Exploring and Modelling Physics and practise long answer questions and answers on topics from Exploring and Modelling Physics
Multiple choice questions
Both the Modelling and Exploring Physics papers have a section on multiple choice at the start of them. Have a strategy to do these and do not spend too much time on each question, as they are only worth 1 mark each. The below document provides practise multiple choice questions
Revision websites
The below websites will provide additional support for your revision
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Revision websites providing content and quizzes on the whole course. Once signed up search the OCR A A Level Physics higher tier course
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Set your own questions on topics from across the A Level course
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Website providing full past papers and questions on individual topics
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Website covering the whole A Level course with revision materials and videos
Aiming for A*
To achieve an A* you need to be practicing high challenge questions. The links below will give you access to higher level questions and British Physics Olympiad practice questions. These are particularly good as a stepping stone for anyone considering to go on to study a Physics based university course.