GCSE revision
This GCSE revision section contains a variety of resources to prepare you for end of year exams, mocks and your final exams in year 11.
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Remember your will sit two exams at the end of year 11:
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Paper 1- Energy and energy resources, Electricity, Particles, Atomic structure and radioactivity
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Paper 2- Forces and motion, waves, magnetism and electromagnetism and space physics
Physics equations and maths skills
The most important thing you can do to prepare for tests and exams is to learn the Physics equations. The below equation sheet highlights which equations are given to you (in bold) and which you need to know.
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The second most important thing you can do is practise using these equations. The practise questions below will give you lots of practise of using different equations from across the whole GCSE course.
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When completing a question it is essential that you put all quantities into base units e.g. distance in metres not kilometers. The units documents below provides guidance with this.
Required practicals
Over the course of you GCSE lessons you will cover a series a "required practicals" which you may be asked about in you final exams. These are:
1. Determining the specific heat capacity of a material
2. Thermal insulation
a) Investigating the effectiveness of different materials as thermal insulators
b) Investigating factors that may affect the thermal insulation properties of a material.
3. Resistance investigations
a) Investigating how the resistance of a wire varies with its length
b) Investigating resistors in series and in parallel.
4. Current (I)-Voltage (V) characteristics of circuit components (lamp, resistor, diode)
5. Finding density of regular and irregular objects
6. Investigating reflection and refraction of different materials
7. Relationship between force and extension of a spring
8. Relationship between force, mass and acceleration
9. Observing waves in a ripple tank and elastic cord
10. Radiation and absorption variation with surface type
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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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In addition to above you could be asked about your general practical skills. As part of this you need to be able to define and apply all the key words listed in the experiment keywords document below.
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The practise questions below give some example questions using these experimental skills.
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Past papers
Practising past papers is one of the most useful things you can do to help you prepare for tests and exams. You should also practise doing these under timed conditions. The grade boundaries on the papers change every year, but the following can be used as a rough guide:
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Grade 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Percentage (%) 75 65 55 45 35 25 20
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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 AQA GCSE Physics higher tier course
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Set your own quizzes on topics from across the GCSE course
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Pages divided into content onto the GCSE specification and mini quizzes
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Phone app to help you memorise the 23 equations required for your Physics GCSE
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Website providing full past papers and questions on individual topics
Aiming for level 9
The below question and answer packs are full of level 8-9 questions. Further high level questions can be found in this CGP book.
Paper 1
Paper 2