Oxford PAT 2016

How are you guys doing these kind of questions?! I literally have no idea what that is

I would definitely advise people doing this to learn inequalities inside out, rational inequalities in particular. This is the first chapter of Edexcel FP2 and it's crucial you learn it. Also make sure you learn C3 and C4 integration inside out. Also learn projectile motion where the particle is projected at an angle. Some/all of you may have already done this in Edexcel M2 but some may not have. Also learn about Newtons law of universal gravitation F=(GMm)/r² . Also be aware that they expect you to use the Maths in the physics section including calculus. For example they may ask you to integrate force with respect to time to find impulse without explicitly stating it, so don't be afraid to use integration/differentiation in the Physics section. I would also strongly advise learning as much of M3 as possible, especially circular motion.

Hope this helps

Great Post:

Just to clarify knowledge should be learnt is:

Physics Unit 4 - Ideal gas laws/circular motion/newtons laws etc.

FP2 - Inequalities

C1- Arithmetic Series

C2- Logarithms

C3 + C4 - Learnt Fully


Do I need to know much from FP3, C4 vectors etc

Thanks

Is it important to have read some books in order to show your passion to the subject because I have not done so yet?

I wanted to be a mathematician when I was a child. It was only two years ago when I came to know that I wanted to become a physicist. Approximation in physics is what frustrated me the most. I couldn't digest it when tan x and sin x were approximated to be x when deriving some relation in optics. I wanted mathematics to be exact, I used to hate it when binomial expansion and approximations was used in deriving effect of rotation of earth (latitude) in gravitational field intensity. When deriving relation between linear, surfacial and volumetric coefficients of expansion my teacher used similar kind of approximation and I started hating Physics. I thought most of the relations I derive are done using approximation and these relations are used in deriving some other relations and at some point these relations can't be used in derived form and sooner or later it would be hard to keep track of it. When mgh couldn't be used to find change in potential energy when h is large and T = 2pi sqrt (l/g) couldn't be used to find time period of simple pendulum when l is comparable to radius of earth, I felt everything is wrong with the physics I was learning.

Now that I am comfortable with approximation, I laugh looking back at the incidents when I used to angrily argue with teacher annoying whole class but that was innocent past.

I had heard the story of Einstein and Special Relativity which made me dive into fantasies. I wanted to be like him. At some other point I happened to watch few YouTube documentaries on quantum mechanics. Those bizarre documentaries made me dive further into this topic. I knew nothing about these theories. I came to know that Einstein's theory and Quantum Mechanics are inconsistent and Einstein himself did not believe in Quantum Theory made me feel that latter is wrong.

I made a decision. Those formulaic explanation mean nothing to me unless I know those equations myself and layman explanations are nothing but another fantasy movie from Disney to me. I am not going to waste my time looking at such books.


I desperately wanted to learn these theories. I watched many lecture videos, read many internet articles but could not understand anything. I came to know (not understand) about Young's double slit experiment, quantum entanglement, quantum superposition, time dilation, length contraction, mass-energy conversion, mass expansion, Lorentz's transformation and 'speed of light in vacuum is the ultimate speed of light.


Later on, I realised that I can't jump into those topic like this. I came to know that I need to learn classical mechanics and probably electromagnetism before learning quantum mechanics or relativity. As I knew Newton's laws, Work-energy theorem a little bit of rotational dynamics, I thought I would be comfortable with classical mechanics books. I began googling best books on CM and downloaded few. To my surprise it was nothing as I had expected. Those books were filled with partial differentials, summation signs everywhere and terms like constraints, degree of freedom, Euler-Lagrange equation, Principle of Least action, Jacobean, Hamilton principles and what not. No matter how hard I tried it was a failure again.

I thought let me learn Euler-Lagrange equation first. Same failure story again, I had to learn multi variable calculus and some linear algebra first then calculus of variation. It was a nice journey to me.

I then (recently) started studying University Physics by Young and Freedman, Feynman's lectures in Physics and Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering by K.F Relay. I have only covered few portion of it so far. I thought this would never be a problem with me.

Now that I need to write a personal statement, I have nothing to prove that I am interested in this subject. It is not that I was blind regarding outside world. I know how LIGO detected gravitational wave twice (though I can't explain the mechanism) and further verified General Relativity. I am conscious about detection of Higgs boson. But, I still don't know how to prove my passion for the subject.

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Much appreciations.

Thanks in advance.

Bruh thats passion in there. You tried to learn stuff that you were not forced to learn, if thats not passion then what is ? xD
You don't need to know about whats going on in the physics world to be passionate about physics. I know many people who are fascinated by things like time dilation but they don't get excited of actually doing Physics. There's a difference between learning physics and doing physics. They probably want you to enjoy DOING physics rather than Learning it. For example the reason i'm doing physics, is i like mathematically modelling physical phenomena, for eg. I once wrote a computer program to simulate the behavior of two planets crashing into each other etc ( the time taken between collisions etc )
Maybe you could write about how you enjoy doing physics, the problems, the harder problems the different approaches etc
Side note : You might like this book, Classical mechanics by david Morin

Morin's book is fantastic I have to say

Theres one on electrostatics/magnetism too :P

What are the common values of sin cos tan I should know in both degrees and radians?

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Bruh thats passion in there. You tried to learn stuff that you were not forced to learn, if thats not passion then what is ? xD
You don't need to know about whats going on in the physics world to be passionate about physics. I know many people who are fascinated by things like time dilation but they don't get excited of actually doing Physics. There's a difference between learning physics and doing physics. They probably want you to enjoy DOING physics rather than Learning it. For example the reason i'm doing physics, is i like mathematically modelling physical phenomena, for eg. I once wrote a computer program to simulate the behavior of two planets crashing into each other etc ( the time taken between collisions etc )
Maybe you could write about how you enjoy doing physics, the problems, the harder problems the different approaches etc
Side note : You might like this book, Classical mechanics by david Morin

Thank you so much. TSR won't let me give you reputations atm.

Morin's book looks ideal to me. Will get that book after PAT.

What are reputations ?

What are reputations ?

How long do you guys think someone needs to prepare and be able to get a good mark in the PAT? I've been really undecided on whether to apply or not to Oxford, but my head of year has talked me into it. I would be starting ASAP. The problem is that I'm doing WJEC Maths/Physics, so I haven't even seen a lot of the stuff on the PAT before, and most of the topics seem to be stuff I learn in A2. I'm a super hard worker and can guarantee I will spend every spare minute I have revising for it. Anyone have any suggestions on whether it's worth it?

:d. Copied from http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/faq.php?faq=rep

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Since I have given you some reputations recently, TSR won't let me give you any more for couple of days.

How long do you guys think someone needs to prepare and be able to get a good mark in the PAT? I've been really undecided on whether to apply or not to Oxford, but my head of year has talked me into it. I would be starting ASAP. The problem is that I'm doing WJEC Maths/Physics, so I haven't even seen a lot of the stuff on the PAT before, and most of the topics seem to be stuff I learn in A2. I'm a super hard worker and can guarantee I will spend every spare minute I have revising for it. Anyone have any suggestions on whether it's worth it?

It depends on whether you are aiming to scrape an interview (around 55-65/100) or 90+. To get an interview, 2-3 hours a day for 3-4 weeks would do that job, but if you aiming for the highest mark then there's really no limit to how much work you can do.

Edit: Assuming no extra work done outside AS syllabus.