Ib Physics Paper 3 Past Papers
Marthe Bernskoetter
AQA GCSE (9-1) Physics (8463) past exam papers. If you are not sure what tier you are sitting foundation or higher check with your teacher. You can download the papers and marking schemes by clicking on the links below.
We upload past test papers and reports on test outcomes as they become available to help prospective students prepare for the PAT. Note that the PAT has evolved over time and that past papers dated before May 2006 are based on an earlier syllabus and are not relevant to the current test.
We do not generally provide solutions to the past papers; when marking the PAT, all suitable methods for solving the questions are allowed and we would not want you to feel only one specific way of solving the problem will gain you marks. We have however published sample solutions to the 2009 and 2010 papers and our Access team has created unofficial sample solutions for the 2019 paper; these can all be found below.
This is only a selection of our papers. Registered Cambridge International Schools can access the full catalogue of teaching and learning materials including papers from 2018 through our School Support Hub.
Our recommendation is that you prepare for the coming open book exams in a similar way to what has been successful for you in past exams. This time round you know that you have the fallback of referring to your notes if you need to, but for the benefit of your future studies as well as these exams you want to be as familiar with the module material as you can be. Your coming exams are still time-limited, so you are not likely to have lots of time to refer to your notes.
The coming AS and PH exams will look reasonably similar to "usual", but it is likely that there will be less in there than in previous exams that requires a student just to copy a definition or a "standard" derivation from their notes. You can expect there to be marks that require a good functional understanding of the content in the module and associated skills.
We suggest aiming for a good functional understanding of the material in the module, as usual. That will likely be of great help for those of you studying with us again next session, and will likely be useful for you in the online exam.
We suggest that in preparation for the exam you generate a two or three page summary of core ideas in each module and how they inter-relate, and maybe relate to work in prior or concurrent modules. This will likely be useful in "seeing the wood for the trees", getting a better functional understanding, in seeing how things link together, and for quick access during the exam.
We recommend not spending substantial time re-listening to lecture-recordings for revision: you will likely gain much more from actively working with the material. If you can not make sense of something in the recording, there is probably a gap in your knowledge or understanding that is not in the recording itself, so that it is likely to be much more useful to consult other resources such as textbooks and your notes from earlier lectures, or discuss with peers, etc.
Once you feel that you are on top of the ideas and techniques in a module, or a chunk of a module, we recommend that you then get practice in problem solving from tutorial questions, past exam papers, and maybe exercises and questions in text books.
We note that past exam questions can be useful to practice, but these should not direct your revision. It could be that the August exam questions cover material that has not featured in the exam for that module in recent years.
The University publishes past exam papers for AS and PH modules; these are accessible from MySaint, Academic Activities.
The School of Physics and Astronomy publishes for most of its modules one past exam paper with a draft solution and often the generic feedback supplied to that set of candidates. This may be accessed from the School's home page > Current Students > Undergraduates > School information> Examinations - Past Paper solutions.
Some of the 2022 and 2023 past papers are labelled 'modified'. This means SQA made changes to the question paper in response to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of our modifications to assessment in National Courses. For example, a modified past paper may be shorter, have fewer marks or contain fewer topics than past papers from previous years.
Some of the 2022 past papers are labelled 'modified'. This means SQA made changes to the question paper in response to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of our modifications to assessment in National Courses. For example, a modified past paper may be shorter, have fewer marks or contain fewer topics than past papers from previous years.
Specimen question papers are available for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications. These show what a question paper looks like - how it is structured and the types of questions it contains. They also include marking instructions. Find them under 'Past Papers and Marking Instructions' on our NQ subject pages.
The information in a past paper may be reproduced in support of SQA qualifications only on a non-commercial basis. If it is reproduced, SQA must be clearly acknowledged as the source. If it is to be reproduced for any other purpose, written permission must be obtained from permi...@sqa.org.uk
Where a past paper includes material for which SQA does not own the copyright, this material can only be reproduced on a non-commercial basis for the purposes of instruction in an educational establishment. If it is to be reproduced for any other purpose, it is the user's responsibility to obtain the necessary copyright clearance from the copyright owner. The acknowledgements page in a past paper lists the owners of copyright items that are not owned by SQA.
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Each physics concentrator must complete a junior paper (JP) in each semester of the junior year. Each JP is a full-semester effort intended to be roughly comparable to one Princeton course. The goals of the JP are to gain experience doing independent research, to become familiar with the physics literature, and to learn to present information in a clear, concise, scientific style. Students are expected to work closely with faculty advisers throughout the JP process.
Typically, faculty members suggest topics (often from their own research area), although student-inspired topics are also more than welcome. For many of you, this will be your first chance to participate in working with a faculty member on a subject of mutual interest. Make the most of it!
The final version of your JP is due in electronic form by 3:00pm on the date the University sets as the deadline for junior independent work. The requirements when turning in your JP are somewhat detailed; please consult the section entitled Grading. The page on important dates gives a complete listing of dates and deadlines relevant to junior independent work. In case of any confusion about dates and deadlines, the page on important dates should be regarded as authoritative.
A committee of several faculty in Physics oversees all the junior papers. In spring 2024, the committee members are Professor(s) M.Zahid Hasan(chair), Andrei Bernevig and Thomas Gregor. The junior committee is assisted by Karen Olsen, the Undergraduate Administrator. The committee meets with the juniors at the beginning of the academic year to outline what is expected and to help them get started on choosing advisers and topics. The committee may establish milestones during the semester in addition to the ones indicated on this webpage; any such additional milestones will be announced to all juniors via e-mail and clearly indicated on the important dates page. For general questions about JPs, please contact the chair of the junior committee.
You must submit electronically your choice of adviser and topic in Canvas 3:00pm February 15. If your adviser does not have their primary appointment in the Physics Department, you must submit electronically your choice of second reader in Canvas by 3:00pm April 9. This second reader will then function as a co-adviser for the JP, responsible for ensuring that the topic involves physics.
You can build on previous work in your junior papers, for example summer work (recall however that the second JP cannot build upon the first). However, it is equally acceptable to start a brand new project at the beginning of each term with an adviser you have not previously worked with. In any case, in order to have a level playing field, your JP will be evaluated based on work done during the term at the end of which it is turned in.
The main advice on writing a good JP is to limit the scope. An overview of an active field, or an account of some reading that you undertook during the term, is to be avoided. Go for specificity and depth rather than breadth. Experimental work is welcome in a JP, but take particular care to have a defined goal that is not too many steps beyond your reach when you start. JP extensions are not granted on the basis of equipment failure. Computer simulations as part of a JP are possible, but you should ensure that your JP work goes beyond programming and shows understanding of the physics and of why the simulations came out the way they did. Some JPs contain original work, but this is not a requirement. Strong JPs could come from rederiving results already in the literature (perhaps in a better or clearer way), making relatively routine measurements with an experimental apparatus (whose purpose you can explain clearly in the JP), or finding some modest extension of work already published or in progress. The key is to meet regularly with your adviser, prioritize the JP sufficiently so that you make steady progress, and focus on a writeup which tells us what you did and shows your understanding of your specific project.
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