AQA Physics new specimen papers

I had a go at the first specimen paper and it is literally impossible. The questions are so unusually challenging, nothing like previous years and I honestly do not like the new format of the physics AQA exams. I don't know if many of you have done the 2016 specimen papers but please tell me i'm not the only one that found it hard for those of you that have done it?

Reply 1

sammyyrosee

2

Indeed, I find them very challenging, tbh not far off the difficulty of the Olympiad papers.

I am concerned that I will not be doing well in Physics..

The papers seem to be testing our problem solving skills and maths abilities more than our physics knowledge. Very disappointing.
Hopefully the entire year will suffer from the paper and AQA can deal with the consequences.

Reply 2

atsruser

11

Original post by Logic4Life

I had a go at the first specimen paper and it is literally impossible. The questions are so unusually challenging, nothing like previous years and I honestly do not like the new format of the physics AQA exams. I don't know if many of you have done the 2016 specimen papers but please tell me i'm not the only one that found it hard for those of you that have done it?

Do you have a link to these? I'd like to take a look.

Reply 3

nem11

1

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/as-and-a-level/physics-7407-7408/assessment-resources

These are all the specimen papers that have been released.

Reply 4

atsruser

11

Original post by sammyyrosee

The papers seem to be testing our problem solving skills and maths abilities more than our physics knowledge. Very disappointing.

I've just taken a quick look at these. My impression is very positive. They've done a good job of:

a) increasing the difficulty of the testing of conceptual understanding of the physics

b) widening the syllabus e.g. dielectrics in capacitors, lens formulae

c) making the mathematical standard something close to what one would expect in an A level physics course, given the limitations imposed by a lack of calculus.

This is much closer to what A level physics should be, and it looks like a decent preparation for university physics - more challenging conceptually, more physics, and more mathematical.

Reply 5

RegrettingAS

13

Original post by atsruser

I've just taken a quick look at these. My impression is very positive. They've done a good job of:

a) increasing the difficulty of the testing of conceptual understanding of the physics

b) widening the syllabus e.g. dielectrics in capacitors, lens formulae

c) making the mathematical standard something close to what one would expect in an A level physics course, given the limitations imposed by a lack of calculus.

This is much closer to what A level physics should be, and it looks like a decent preparation for university physics - more challenging conceptually, more physics, and more mathematical.

is that in regards to the a level or the as paper?

Reply 6

atsruser

11

Original post by RegrettingAS

is that in regards to the a level or the as paper?

I was referring to the A level content. I haven't yet had a chance to see how they've split stuff up between A and AS.

Reply 7

psy12

I did the second set of papers last week in school and they were even harder than the set on the AQA website, everyone reckons they did terribly.
Does anyone have a mark scheme available for the second set of papers? Hopefully Ive gotten above a C hahaha

Reply 8

bootsandbooks

1

Original post by psy12

I did the second set of papers last week in school and they were even harder than the set on the AQA website, everyone reckons they did terribly.
Does anyone have a mark scheme available for the second set of papers? Hopefully Ive gotten above a C hahaha

We did the second set of papers as a mock at my school a couple of weeks. We all did terribly too haha
I don't think you can find the mark scheme online, but your teacher should have access to it.

Reply 9

maximo17000

1

has anyone found any other good questions similar to the ones in the specimen papers? i'm really struggling to find questions on all topics that are equally as challenging (and confusing) as the questions in these specimen papers. sooooo much harder than the past papers on the old spec.

Reply 10

Logic4Life

OP

17

I have the second set of specimen papers w/ a mark scheme which my teacher kindly printed off for me. If anyone wants them pm me.

Reply 11

aminxv

2

Everyone at my school found the AS specimen papers extremely challenging. I found the rigor of the mark scheme really weird. E.g a momentum question with a ball bouncing off something, you had to physically right the words "going up" and "going down" to get all 3 marks. I used a minus sign to show I understood the change in direction of the momentum vector, and my answer was 100% sound but I only got 1/3 for that question. This sort of thing with bizzare marks scheme pedantic-ism really caught us out.

Our year average was around 25/70 for each paper. Best grades around 50/70 on each paper.

Reply 12

Courts99

1

Original post by bootsandbooks

We did the second set of papers as a mock at my school a couple of weeks. We all did terribly too haha
I don't think you can find the mark scheme online, but your teacher should have access to it.

Paper one of the second set were a lot harder than all the other past papers that I have done so far. Especially question 2 the one on pumped storage and power.

Reply 13

money-for-all

17

just to confirm, is paper 1 the multiple choice paper?

Reply 14

themedic96

7

Btw guys i know its late but if you need revision advice i found a channel on YouTube which is quite helpful, he's called Ryhan Hussain https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg2u5o5dvS5iIu74rRO5x1w

Reply 15

theguywhosaidhi

8

Original post by Tyronewatermelon

Btw guys i know its late but if you need revision advice i found a channel on YouTube which is quite helpful, he's called Ryhan Hussain https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg2u5o5dvS5iIu74rRO5x1w

this is so obviously Ryhan Hussain *cringe*

look at all his posts :colonhash:

Reply 16

Inam97

7

Guys does anyone have a list of all the experiments you need to know for the new spec for AS physics (AQA)

Thanks

Reply 17

Lukazztic

3

Original post by Inam97

Guys does anyone have a list of all the experiments you need to know for the new spec for AS physics (AQA)

Thanks

Investigating the vibrations of a stretched string
Investigating interference using young's double slit experiment
Measuring the accelerations of a falling object
Measuring the young's modulus of a wire
Measuring the resistivity of the material of a wire
Measuring the emf and the internal resistance of a cell or a battery