What you are preparing for
GCSE Physics is usually assessed by written exam papers, and your school will have chosen an exam board. Check which one it is before you plan anything, because the topic order and wording differ between boards. Each board publishes its specification online: AQA 8463, Edexcel GCSE Sciences, and OCR Physics A or Physics B.
AQA’s contents list for 8463 has these main areas: energy, electricity, particle model of matter, atomic structure, forces, waves, magnetism and electromagnetism, and space physics, which is marked as physics only. AQA also states that the specification includes eight required practicals. Paper lengths, marks and the split of topics between papers are in each board’s specification, so read that rather than relying on a summary. If you take combined science instead, AQA states that the subject content and required practicals of its Trilogy specification also appear in its separate Biology, Chemistry and Physics GCSEs, and it marks space physics as physics only, so use your own specification as the checklist.
Common mistakes to design your revision around
Units
Most lost marks in physics calculations are quiet ones. A value in grams used where kilograms are needed, minutes where seconds are needed, or kilowatts where watts are needed will give a wrong answer that looks perfectly sensible. Before substituting, write every quantity with its unit and convert anything that is not in the base unit the equation expects. Then write the unit on your final answer.
Rearranging
Rearrange the equation in symbols first, then put the numbers in. Doing it in this order lets you spot a slip early and often gives you a mark for a correct rearrangement even if the arithmetic goes wrong. A quick check: does the answer have a sensible size? A car with a mass of 1 000 kg should not have a kinetic energy of 3 J at 20 m/s.
Significant figures
Give your answer to a sensible number of significant figures, usually matching the least precise value in the question. Keep extra digits in your calculator during a multi-step problem, and only round at the end. Rounding halfway through is a common cause of a final answer that is slightly off.
A four-week plan
Move the weeks around to suit your own timetable. Aim to alternate learning with retrieval, and finish with exam-style questions done under time.
- Week 1, foundations. Energy and electricity. Learn the equations you need to know, then practise unit conversions and rearranging until they are routine.
- Week 2, matter and the nucleus. Particle model of matter and atomic structure. Work on density, specific heat capacity, the structure of the atom, radiation types and half-life.
- Week 3, motion and fields. Forces, waves, and magnetism and electromagnetism. Draw force diagrams, practise speed and wave calculations, and sketch magnetic field patterns.
- Week 4, joining it up. Space physics if your course includes it, then required practicals and mixed practice. Do full past papers under timed conditions and mark them honestly.
Use the free revision timetable, review planner and past-paper links to lay this out.
Technique by topic
Energy
Name the store or stores before you do any sums, and say which one is increasing and which is decreasing. Efficiency questions go wrong most often because the useful output has been confused with the wasted energy. Keep energy in joules unless told otherwise.
Electricity
Sketch the circuit and label the known values on it. In a series circuit the current is the same everywhere; in a parallel circuit the potential difference across each branch is the same. Decide which rule you are using before writing any numbers. Take care with power and energy: kilowatt-hours and joules are different units for the same sort of quantity.
Particle model of matter
Explain things in terms of particles, their arrangement and their motion, not only in terms of what you can see. A common slip is saying that particles expand when heated; it is the spacing and the motion that change. For density questions, keep volume units consistent with mass units.
Atomic structure
Be exact with vocabulary: isotope, ionisation, half-life, contamination and irradiation each mean something specific. For half-life questions, count how many half-lives have passed first, then halve that many times.
Forces
Start with a free-body diagram: arrows for every force, drawn from the object, labelled. Decide the direction that counts as positive before adding forces. Remember that weight is a force measured in newtons, while mass is measured in kilograms.
Waves
Know the difference between frequency, wavelength, amplitude and wave speed, and the units of each. When a question gives you a period, convert to frequency before using the wave equation.
Magnetism and electromagnetism
Practise drawing field lines with arrows from north to south, and keep your sketches neat; spacing shows strength. Learn the pattern for a straight wire and for a solenoid, and be ready to describe why a current-carrying wire in a magnetic field can experience a force.
Space physics
If your course includes it, link ideas back to forces: orbits are about a force that changes the direction of motion, not a thrust that keeps it moving.
Required practicals
Questions on practicals reward method, not memory of a particular set-up. For each practical, be able to say what you changed, what you measured, what you kept the same, how you would reduce error, and what a graph of your results would show.
Where to practise next
Try the GCSE Physics glossary for definitions and units, and the GCSE Physics quiz for calculation practice with worked explanations. Free calculators and flashcards are also available.
Part of the GCSE Physics revision set: the glossary of key terms and self-marking quiz.