Isaac Physics SPC Summer School

It's quite distributed - obviously I have a lot more A-Level than Further-A and University Level questions, but I have around 50 university questions (4 C3s and 4C2s, with the rest being C1s), and have roughly 160 Further-A questions, of which roughly 40 are C3, 60 are C2 and 70 are C1. The rest are all A-Level, although some questions obviously overlap between A-Level and Further-A, and between Further-A and University. I will do a lot more University and Further-A questions when I work through the Quantum Mechanics Book, though. Hope that helps!

That's super helpful. Thanks! I'm slightly worried now as I am only on around 250 questions in total. Seeing as we only have just over a month left I hope I can get to around 350 maybe 400 questions. Do you have any idea of what the threshold for the certificates may be in terms of questions? And of course other tips would be super appreciated! Thanks again.

That’s brilliant, I’ve started the QMP book too and am enjoying it. Do you know where else I could get more questions? You’ve done a maybe 150 more than me but when I go on the further a level question finder, I don’t have many left.0

I think the best way to do more questions is honestly just to dedicate more time to it, as the more you do, the better you become at solving difficult questions like these - that's my best advice. Judging from previous years, around 400-600 questions were required to get into the summer school (and so get the highest tier certificate), but unfortunately I can't say for certain if it will be the same this year.

My school had mock UCAS examinations early in the year so I had restricted time to do Isaac physics but I'm ramping it up now. 400-600 questions would be ideal and not too unrealistic for me. Thanks for all of this advice. Do people from your school regularly get into it? Seems like you know a lot about it. Thanks again!

Have you done all of the mechanics and maths further A questions? There are quite a lot there. Look at the maths for sciences book if you haven't already, since there are quite a lot there. To my knowledge, that's at the further A questions available on the site.

Thanks! I’ll make sure to give these a go. Focussing on mocks now because I’ve done 500 questions so have a decent amount of hope. Maybe I’ll see you on camp!

No problem! From what I've heard from previous years, it has been quite passive up until now, with only a couple people participating in doing most of the questions per year. It seems that due to pure misfortune, my year group ended up with a bunch of maniacs (including myself) willing to dedicate insane time and effort into this, such that there are now roughly 10 people who, if they didn't go to the same school, would have already qualified for the summer school. Then again, my school is ranked one of the best in the country so it's by no means a good example to use when discussing competition for the summer school. Regardless, as a result of all the competition I have learned quite a bit about Isaac Physics and entry into the summer school, although there are still a couple of things I'm not sure on, such as the original focus of this thread. If anyone else knows any information regarding the answer to that question, it would be greatly appreciated.

There's only one other nerdy guy in my year actually doing it, but I don't know how scared I should be. He's hella good at school but he's been on holiday for two of the three Easter holiday weeks and he only knew about it after Christmas, so I might still have a chance. I've done 740-750 questions (not including overlaps); is that top 10 or top 20?

Although I can't say for sure, from what I've seen right now, most people are on roughly 300-500 (at least the ones going for the summer school), so it's safe to say that you are probably one of the top in the country. However, if the other person in your year get more questions done than you, that doesn't guarantee a place on the summer school.

Although I can't say for sure, from what I've seen right now, most people are on roughly 300-500 (at least the ones going for the summer school), so it's safe to say that you are probably one of the top in the country. However, if the other person in your year get more questions done than you, that doesn't guarantee a place on the summer school.

Do you reckon if we’re on about 500 and no one from our school is doing it we’re sorted? Sorry for you guys who have competitors!

Should be - it says on the website itself that people who get in usually only do around 300 questions.