PAT 2016 Thoughts

Tough, really tough paper. Was super annoyed with myself, because the maths one about the radius of the sphere was practically identical to one of the past paper Qs but I still managaged to screw it up. Didn't even attempt the last question. Left the exam hall a bit shaken but hey, it was worth a shot.

It was a bit difficult for me, especially because in the US we don't cover thermoresistors and certain bits of quantum mechanics but the maths part went really well for me.

Yeah, tbh there was a lot on the paper which we hadn't covered here in the UK too; there is the expectation that you teach yourself extra content as preparation (which I'm afraid I find is far easier said than done).

I am curious, how much maths and physics do you cover by the time you take the PAT in UK?

It depends slightly on how your A-level works. The maths section is basically made up of C1,2,3,4 (which are just modules of core maths, each one harder than the last) and most people have covered C1,2 and a bit of 3 by the time they get to the exam. But some schools teach it differently and have covered all of them by the exam.

For physics it, again, varies. I'd not covered the sections on charge/fields, circular motion and then the astronomy stuff isn't in the A-level.

It's really irritating they make us learn all this extra stuff, but at least I' well prepared for the rest of my A-level now.

How did you find the paper?