Edexcel A-Level Physics Paper 3 - 21 October 2020

Edexcel Physics Paper 3 (General and Practical Principles in Physics)

Date: 21 October 2020
Session: PM
Length: 2h30
Marks: 120 (40% of the total A-level)

Paper 3 may examine any topic from the specification, and will include synoptic questions drawing on various topics. You will also be examined on understanding of experimental methods - including the 16 core practicals.

A formula booklet is at the end of the paper, and can be found here.

At least 40% of the marks over the three papers is awarded for maths at level 2 or above.

This paper is probably the most intimidating to revise for. Of interest for revision of experimental methods is the written alternatives to the old unit 3 and unit 6 for international candidates. The Core Practical worksheets can be found here.

Other Edexcel Physics Exams:

•

Paper 1 - Advanced Physics I

•

Paper 2 - Advanced Physics II

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

Compost

19

Edexcel A level Physics papers have a habit of requiring unexpected stuff like protractors. What is required can be shared before the exam so check beforehand to save the stress of not having what you need.

Reply 2

spchee

12

Should we make a checklist of everything that hasnt come up for p3?

Reply 3

spchee

12

Aight, idk how i feel about that paper. There were a lot of iffy questions I weren't sure about. Such as the radium one. I also messed up the graph one because i plotted the wrong values of change in x, so it took me like 10 minutes to fix it.

Also, I never knew there existed 7 markers? Though luckily the 7 marker was easy.

Reply 4

spchee

12

Also, what was the specific charge question? Were we literally meant to just plug in the values from the formulae booklet or something? But then was the velocity and PD for?

Reply 5

anonymousxxxxyy

7

Original post by spchee

Aight, idk how i feel about that paper. There were a lot of iffy questions I weren't sure about. Such as the radium one. I also messed up the graph one because i plotted the wrong values of change in x, so it took me like 10 minutes to fix it.

Also, I never knew there existed 7 markers? Though luckily the 7 marker was easy.

radium one was talking binding energy and talking about half life and activity rate is larger.
also temperature would mean its kinetic energy is larger, leading to larger root mean square speed leading to larger energy.
good synoptic though.

Original post by spchee

Also, what was the specific charge question? Were we literally meant to just plug in the values from the formulae booklet or something? But then was the velocity and PD for?

from the above equation find v and the r =V/E.
and then r=mv/bq rearrange to q/m which is v/br.

Reply 6

spchee

12

Yeah, that paper was messy for me I feel, honestly I have no idea how i did. Hopefully i got atleast 55%. How did you find it?

Reply 7

anonymousxxxxyy

7

Original post by spchee

Yeah, that paper was messy for me I feel, honestly I have no idea how i did. Hopefully i got atleast 55%. How did you find it?

for the last one, did you get the first claim of 2k as false
and the 2nd claim of 0.5 % as true.

Reply 8

spchee

12

Original post by anonymousxxxxyy

for the last one, did you get the first claim of 2k as false
and the 2nd claim of 0.5 % as true.

For the second claim I believe I ended up with some 10000 GW instead of 100GW, so I said it was false as much less coverage would be needed. Maybe I made a though when calculating hence why I got an extra 2 0s.

What exactly was the first claim? As I think I said it was false, but I can't remember what exactly it was.

Reply 9

anonymousxxxxyy

7

i exactly got around 0.47 percent which is around 0.5 percent, so I said true.
so i first find out the surface area of earth.
then I find out the surface area using the luminosity and intensity.
and then divided each other and x100.
and got around 0.47, which is true.

Reply 10

spchee

12

Original post by anonymousxxxxyy

i exactly got around 0.47 percent which is around 0.5 percent, so I said true.
so i first find out the surface area of earth.
then I find out the surface area using the luminosity and intensity.
and then divided each other and x100.
and got around 0.47, which is true.

Yeah I did something similar to that aswell, I think it mightve been a small calculation error on my part then