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AQA Physics PHYA5 - Thursday 18th June 2015 [Exam Discussion Thread]

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Don't worry mate, people tend to do a lot better - 52 was an A* last year so personally I'm going for full UMS

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Reply 1221
Original post by MsFahima
I managed to self teach it. :lol: (My teacher wasn't great).

I haven't revised it in like 2 weeks. Lots to do.. so little time! I will be so glad once everything is over though! :smile:


Wow well done for self teaching! How did you find unit 4?


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Original post by CD223
Wow well done for self teaching! How did you find unit 4?


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Thanks. :smile:

Erm.. Unit 4 in terms of difficulty was okay.. not that bad but I just didn't have enough time! :frown: It really sucks. I had to choose random MC answers when I had a few mins left. And I couldn't remember all the three laws of motion. :frown:

How did you find it?
Original post by kevincarreira
well after the disaster that was unit 4 i've decided to ace unit 5


Good Luck! I'm hoping for the same.
Anyone know some good reasons to why carbon dating is unreliable? That will work in all contexts.
Reply 1225
If its an object: object was made some time after tree was cut down
Background activity is high compared to the observed count rates
The count rates are low OR sample size is too small
Possible contamination
I think thats a good 4 marks possibly 6 if you describe carbon dating but i doubt itll be a 6 marker

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Original post by MsFahima
Thanks. :smile:

Erm.. Unit 4 in terms of difficulty was okay.. not that bad but I just didn't have enough time! :frown: It really sucks. I had to choose random MC answers when I had a few mins left. And I couldn't remember all the three laws of motion. :frown:

How did you find it?


I always had to do this in timed conditions. I found the MC questions were just not worth the mark/time trade off. Answering questions that, if they appeared in the actual exam would net 2 maybe even 3 marks being worth 1? Definitely not worth the time.

I had the strategy of just doing the easy questions that didn't really require much calculation or maths. So things like "Which statement is correct/incorrect" Or when you're given a grid of possible answers, since you can usually work out 1 correct answer. Which gives a 50/50 chance of getting it right from a 25/75 chance.

I think I had to choose around 10 or 13 MC questions are random. Didn't get to read most of them.

I also forgot the laws of motion! I remembered something about bodies accelerating if there was an external force acting? F=ma and every force has an equal but opposite force. I think those were them? Not too sure. I've probably only scored around 2 or 3 of 6 on that.
Original post by dominicwild
I always had to do this in timed conditions. I found the MC questions were just not worth the mark/time trade off. Answering questions that, if they appeared in the actual exam would net 2 maybe even 3 marks being worth 1? Definitely not worth the time.

I had the strategy of just doing the easy questions that didn't really require much calculation or maths. So things like "Which statement is correct/incorrect" Or when you're given a grid of possible answers, since you can usually work out 1 correct answer. Which gives a 50/50 chance of getting it right from a 25/75 chance.

I think I had to choose around 10 or 13 MC questions are random. Didn't get to read most of them.

I also forgot the laws of motion! I remembered something about bodies accelerating if there was an external force acting? F=ma and every force has an equal but opposite force. I think those were them? Not too sure. I've probably only scored around 2 or 3 of 6 on that.


Omg same here! These MC require calculations for one mark only! It's a bit ridiculous since we don't even have enough time. -_- In the end the invigilator said to put our pens down so I quickly just filled in any points at random. I didn't even read them.

I probably got 2/6 on that six marker. :colonhash:

We're in the same boat. But it's so disheartening after the ridiculous empa I know I can't get an over all B.

The three laws were (I learnt after the exam).

F=ma
Every force has an equal and opposite reaction force.
And an object remains at rest unless a force acts on it. So the motion will continue to be the same unless an external force acts on the system.

How did they even relate to the swinging ball!?
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by MsFahima
Omg same here! These MC require calculations for one mark only! It's a bit ridiculous since we don't even have enough time. -_- In the end the invigilator said to put our pens down so I quickly just filled in any points at random. I didn't even read them.

I probably got 2/6 on that six marker. :colonhash:

We're in the same boat. But it's so disheartening after the ridiculous empa I know I can't get an over all B.

The three laws were (I learnt after the exam).

F=ma
Every force has an equal and opposite reaction force.
And an object remains at rest unless a force acts on it. So the motion will continue to be the same unless an external force acts on the system.

How did they even relate to the swinging ball!?


Ahh, so I knew the laws, but am probably gonna look like a right derp getting the laws in the wrong order. Since I guessed which order they went in (first law, second law etc).

I related F=ma with centripetal acceleration. I remember referring to the force and how it correlates with F=ma. As a=v2r a = \frac{v^2}{r} centripetal force is F=mv2r F = \frac{mv^2}{r} . Saying it correlated with that equation, applying to circular motion.

For equal and opposite, I said there would be a reactionary force of friction acting opposite to the tension in the string. Since I just remembered this weird box question on one of the mock exams, where it had a box and a reactionary force acting directly away. I don't remember the exact properties of it, but it made sense to me it was more friction than anything.

And the motion of the ball is constantly changing. Which insinuates a force, the centripetal force, is an actingon it. Changing its direction.

There was the other criteria of how the string would never be horizontal. I just used logic for that. That the force would act on the part of the string which was closer to the center point, then later at the end point? Not very physic-ey so good bye marks for proper physics terminology.

I did the ISA, which was actually fairly easy. Conveniently a lot of similar questions to previous ISA's.

Our invigilator told us we had 4 minutes left, so I quickly randomly dotted stuff. Apart from the last question, which I was going at the time. I really dislike this invigilator. She once made me speed up on a C2 maths paper, by saying we had 5 minutes left. When actually WE didn't have 5 left, WE had 15. The other students had 5. But she never stated this. It caused me to make a crazy error in working losing me 3 marks on a question. Netting me 1 mark off an A overall for maths.

Considering how low grade boundaries generally are, I've probably got a mid or high B, possibly A if I'm lucky. That's usually how it goes with physics for me.
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-PHYA51-W-QP-JUN10.PDF why for question 1.d) are you not allowed heat loss to surroundings? thanks
Original post by oonic0rn
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-PHYA51-W-QP-JUN10.PDF why for question 1.d) are you not allowed heat loss to surroundings? thanks


I think because the surroundings is the iron mould which you actually took into account in part a?
Original post by dominicwild
Ahh, so I knew the laws, but am probably gonna look like a right derp getting the laws in the wrong order. Since I guessed which order they went in (first law, second law etc).

I related F=ma with centripetal acceleration. I remember referring to the force and how it correlates with F=ma. As a=v2r a = \frac{v^2}{r} centripetal force is F=mv2r F = \frac{mv^2}{r} . Saying it correlated with that equation, applying to circular motion.

For equal and opposite, I said there would be a reactionary force of friction acting opposite to the tension in the string. Since I just remembered this weird box question on one of the mock exams, where it had a box and a reactionary force acting directly away. I don't remember the exact properties of it, but it made sense to me it was more friction than anything.

And the motion of the ball is constantly changing. Which insinuates a force, the centripetal force, is an actingon it. Changing its direction.

There was the other criteria of how the string would never be horizontal. I just used logic for that. That the force would act on the part of the string which was closer to the center point, then later at the end point? Not very physic-ey so good bye marks for proper physics terminology.

I did the ISA, which was actually fairly easy. Conveniently a lot of similar questions to previous ISA's.

Our invigilator told us we had 4 minutes left, so I quickly randomly dotted stuff. Apart from the last question, which I was going at the time. I really dislike this invigilator. She once made me speed up on a C2 maths paper, by saying we had 5 minutes left. When actually WE didn't have 5 left, WE had 15. The other students had 5. But she never stated this. It caused me to make a crazy error in working losing me 3 marks on a question. Netting me 1 mark off an A overall for maths.

Considering how low grade boundaries generally are, I've probably got a mid or high B, possibly A if I'm lucky. That's usually how it goes with physics for me.


About that fact that it wouldnt be horizontal, i wrote that the ball has weight acting downards and centripetal force towards the centre of the circle so the overall resultant force would be at an angle below the horizontal. and drew a little triangle which was what my "diagram" consisted of...probably didnt do very well on that one tbh, i forgot to revise newtons 3 laws
Reply 1232
Now onto PHYA5 after that controversial paper for unit 4!


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What optional unit is everyone doing?
Reply 1234
Original post by ubisoft
What optional unit is everyone doing?


Astro! (Made two separate revision guides in the first post). You?


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Just out of interest what grades are you lot aiming for and what course do you want to do?

I'm more confident for this exam purely because I feel they can't be as awkward with the questions as they can with unit 4.

What revision techniques are you using from now till next week??


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Original post by CD223
Astro! (Made two separate revision guides in the first post). You?


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Applied, more maths haha
Hey is anyone doing the applied physics option for unit 5 (PHYA5C)? If so, do you know if the old spec questions are all relevant? (ie PHA7W) I need to use them for extra practice but I don't want to be wasting my time on irrelevant questions if there are any
Is anyone doing option 5D ? And worried about the optional bit? I really like it and understand it but last years paper was so weird, it was unlike anything I've seen 😳😳 up until last year all questions where standard experiment ones


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Original post by BoigaDendrophila
Just out of interest what grades are you lot aiming for and what course do you want to do?

I'm more confident for this exam purely because I feel they can't be as awkward with the questions as they can with unit 4.

What revision techniques are you using from now till next week??


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Hi, I think what I'm going to do is go through each topic looking at notes watching videos on concepts etc then I'm going to re do all the old past paper (2001-on) and then as I struggle with the heat questions I'm going to do the synoptic ones for them


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