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A level physics notes

Basically, I just did a Physics A level (OCR Physics A), but I didn't learn from my teachers and the OCR textbook is 50% waffle 40% physics 10% common sense, so I got fed up and wrote my own learning resources using the (limited) good bits from the textbook, revision guides I had which mainly accommodate all exam boards, and the big tool I used more than anything was the internet. Basically, the information covers OCR A and more, and I often found the extra info I wrote about coming up in past papers as curveball type questions.
1) It’s probably gonna be cringey and personal because I wrote it just for me. If any bits make a weird reference to something (like “REMEMBER:…”) it will probably just be something to do with the way I learned.
2) I got an A* and achieved full UMS in both G484 and G485. I hope this means that the documents aren’t complete ****e
3) If any of the physics is incorrect pleeeease tell me and I will change it. I was learning it myself at the time of writing so I’m not pretending to be an expert, but due to the amount of time I put in and the fact that I’m not an idiot it should be fine. There just may be minor errors. Just thought I should put a disclaimer
4) I seem to have memory of saving some completed ones on my school account which I no longer have access to, so if any of them seem somewhat incomplete then apologies

Finally, these helped me a LOT. Writing them probably helped more than anything because I did a lot of research and you need to understand something before you explain it in your own words, so even if you don’t look at these at all, I really recommend doing something similar. It takes a lot of time, patience and effort, but I promise you if you don’t do it half-heartedly you will come out with a full understanding of your topics, not just remembering information for an exam, and revision is a million times easier. I wouldn’t have got the results I did without doing this, for sure.

(edited 8 years ago)

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Reply 1

hhattiecc

first lot

Capacitors.docx181.5KB

Circular Motion.docx92.4KB

Damping and Resonance.docx59.0KB

Electric Fields.docx134.5KB

ELECTROMAGNETISM.docx93.3KB

Examples of Electromagnetism.docx111.0KB

Newton's Laws.docx24.4KB

NUCLEAR NOTES.docx59.3KB

Research and compare the work of Rutherford.docx74.9KB

Reply 2

K78R

I'm doing aqa, what sites did you use?

Reply 3

hhattiecc

Right that's it. Hope they come in handy for someone at some point :smile:

Simple Harmonic Motion.docx698.6KB

The Universe.docx327.7KB

Thermodynamics.docx138.9KB

Universe RESEARCH - ADD TO FINAL DOCUMENT.docx123.7KB

Uses of Sound in Medicine.docx122.8KB

X rays.docx304.6KB

Reply 4

hhattiecc

Original post by K78R

I'm doing aqa, what sites did you use?

To list them would be too many. I found hyperphysics and wikipedia the best, but they didn't cover everything (well, wiki did but it went into wayyy too much detail sometimes) so I ended up using loads. University websites were also well used

Reply 5

Andy Social

This is awesome! Thanks so much :biggrin:

Reply 6

hhattiecc

Original post by Andy Social

This is awesome! Thanks so much :biggrin:

You're welcome! Really hope they serve someone else as well as they served me. :smile:

Reply 7

TajwarC

These are a gift - thanks in advance!

Reply 8

hhattiecc

Original post by TajwarC

These are a gift - thanks in advance!

no worries, enjoy!

Reply 9

Laurenafenete

Bless your socks for this!

Reply 10

hhattiecc

Original post by Laurenafenete

Bless your socks for this!

haha hope they come in handy :smile:

Reply 11

Laurasaur

Thank you so much! Perfect timing too, I was just writing my own notes :P
Congratulations on the A* by the way :biggrin:

Reply 12

TrueDAN

Thank you so much for these! :biggrin:

Reply 13

Alex621

I just finished OCR A Physics too, well done on full UMS in those 2! How did you find the papers? I thought G484 was horrible but G485 was lovely in comparison :lol:

If you don't mind me asking, are you going to uni and to study what?

Reply 14

hhattiecc

Original post by Laurasaur

Thank you so much! Perfect timing too, I was just writing my own notes :P
Congratulations on the A* by the way

no worries :smile:

it's so good to do isn't it?! Writing my own notes is the best thing I could have done for physics!! Especially when so many revision guides out there just skim the surface - they don't provide a real understanding. Thank you, and good luck with your studies! :smile:

Original post by TrueDAN

Thank you so much for these! :biggrin:

s'ok, hope they are of benefit! :smile:

Reply 15

hhattiecc

Original post by Alex621

I just finished OCR A Physics too, well done on full UMS in those 2! How did you find the papers? I thought G484 was horrible but G485 was lovely in comparison :lol:

If you don't mind me asking, are you going to uni and to study what?

Thank you, I certainly worked for it! How did you get on? Oh my goshhhh yes, on the whole I didn't think either were very hard, at least in the past they've been worse, but paper 1 wasn't like any of the past papers which made it seem like one big curveball, and then paper 2 had some seriously kind questions (which really peeved me off because I was so prepared for long winded explanation questions). OCR just love the game playing.
yup, I'm going to icl to study maths :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 16

Alex621

Original post by hhattiecc

I resat G481 alongside the A2 papers and managed to bring my B from AS up to an A*, but I only just made it :tongue:

I agree that it seemed different to past papers, and I found that it was a similar experience with the mechanics paper, and it seemed quite hard for an AS exam, but I managed to improve my mark due to a lot more work this year and I had the added practice from doing the M1 maths module. In a way I'm glad I've finished A-level physics as I didn't really enjoy the lessons but I'm still considering a physics degree as there are topics which really interest me and I would like to study in a lot more depth.

Congratulations on your uni place!

Reply 17

speed1✈️✈️

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I OWE YOU :tongue:

I was always searching for proper notes for G484 and G485, and then I incidentally found your thread!

I TOTALLY AGREE the heinemann textbook is absolute crap, literally 90% of its content is irrelevant and the text is such a complete waffle. Unfortunately, my Physics department is also absolute crap as well, the teaching is appalling. Most of my lessons are spent watching old documentaries, reading off Boardworks powerpoints, chatting, or just sitting down in silence doing worksheets, whilst the teacher has his Iphone out on whatsapp texting people (I even hear the chat ringtones from his phone :colonhash:

). So yeah I'm basically forced to self teach the whole of A-Level Physics :frown:

Last year I got a very mid B in AS Physics, (227/300), which is shocking for me as I thought I worked hard and did all the past papers on the current spec, I got an A* in GCSE (lol), and I desperately need a minimum grade A in Physics to get into my choice university. :frown:

So to break it down:

G481 - 52/90 d :angry:

, but I got 93UMS in Maths M1 :colonhash:

G482 - 122/150 a
G483 - 53/60 a

G481 was by far the worst exam in my entire life :frown:

, it was so time constraining and I lost a very high number of marks, all the past papers were a joke but this exam was completely different to all the spec papers so I didn't know how to answer most of the questions :frown:

I would have got a higher ums in G482, if I hadn't had a 1h30 Business exam on the same day :angry:

, so I barely had time to revise Physics the day before, plus I had no proper notes to revise from (relied on the stupid textbooks and revision guides), and I only did a few years worth of past papers. I wouldn't mind resitting to gain extra marks, but this year's resit also clashes with my 2h30 Geography exam, so I would definitely do worse in my resit than first time round. :frown:

I'm obviously resitting that stupid D in Mechanics, but I also need to do well in my A2 units as well.
Do you have any notes/tips advice for G481, and how to get the grade A/A* ? :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 18