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Love physics, hate physics A Level

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Original post by Euclidean
1v1 me m8


eh?
I was originally going to take AS Chemistry and Physics in September, but my mum being an A-Level Chemistry and Physics teacher recommended me to take Biology instead of Physics (and with how hard people are saying it is, I'm kind of mixed on making the switch)...
Reply 42
Original post by Collombia
I was originally going to take AS Chemistry and Physics in September, but my mum being an A-Level Chemistry and Physics teacher recommended me to take Biology instead of Physics (and with how hard people are saying it is, I'm kind of mixed on making the switch)...


If you never do anything hard, you won't get very far.
Original post by ombtom
If you never do anything hard, you won't get very far.


I made the better choice in my opinion, so it doesn't bother me...
Reply 44
Original post by TheFarmerLad
Anyone else feel this way? Revising physics A Level is a pain in the bloody arse which is frustrating as it's such a fascinating subject imo. The questions are just so incredibly tedious, there's hardly any maths involved and the markscheme is always slightly different when a repeated question comes up. Why can't there be more emphasis on getting a long calculation right rather than counting squares to figure out the impulse or converting prefixes? **** you OCR A


Tbh, I remember quite a bit of maths on the exams, granted I did it with AQA and not OCR, and I haven't heard any good reviews about OCR tbh, so maybe thats the problem.

Like electricity, photoelectric effect, hooks law, electric and magnetic fields, capacitance, harmonic motion, momentum, mechanics, wow AQA had a lot of maths now that I think about it, I'm sure you learn the same content, so do they ask worded questions on this stuff instead of asking you to work them out for most of the paper?

Physics is interesting, I especially liked the particle physics section
Original post by mikeymk
Tbh, I remember quite a bit of maths on the exams, granted I did it with AQA and not OCR, and I haven't heard any good reviews about OCR tbh, so maybe thats the problem.

Like electricity, photoelectric effect, hooks law, electric and magnetic fields, capacitance, harmonic motion, momentum, mechanics, wow AQA had a lot of maths now that I think about it, I'm sure you learn the same content, so do they ask worded questions on this stuff instead of asking you to work them out for most of the paper?

Physics is interesting, I especially liked the particle physics section


I haven't seen any AQA physics papers but in regards to Edexcell and OCR physics, there's no comparison. OCR always change their markschemes for the same questions and other times the questions they ask and the methods they require are so stupid. For instance putting in the exact value in continuous calculations to yeild the exact answer is often penalised as they want you to use 2/3 s.f for accuracy, lol bloody joke. And there are so many wordy questions compared to Edexcell, the latter of which seems to have more calculations and multiple choice questions. I agree the topics learnt are fascinating, don't get me wrong I love the content. Just don't like the way the questions are asked :banghead:
Reply 46
Original post by TheFarmerLad
I haven't seen any AQA physics papers but in regards to Edexcell and OCR physics, there's no comparison. OCR always change their markschemes for the same questions and other times the questions they ask and the methods they require are so stupid. For instance putting in the exact value in continuous calculations to yeild the exact answer is often penalised as they want you to use 2/3 s.f for accuracy, lol bloody joke. And there are so many wordy questions compared to Edexcell, the latter of which seems to have more calculations and multiple choice questions. I agree the topics learnt are fascinating, don't get me wrong I love the content. Just don't like the way the questions are asked :banghead:


The mark schemes for AQA's ISAs changed a lot each year. Glad they're gone, but apparently the new year 12s have to do "12 practical experiments" :lol:
Reply 47
Original post by TheFarmerLad
I haven't seen any AQA physics papers but in regards to Edexcell and OCR physics, there's no comparison. OCR always change their markschemes for the same questions and other times the questions they ask and the methods they require are so stupid. For instance putting in the exact value in continuous calculations to yeild the exact answer is often penalised as they want you to use 2/3 s.f for accuracy, lol bloody joke. And there are so many wordy questions compared to Edexcell, the latter of which seems to have more calculations and multiple choice questions. I agree the topics learnt are fascinating, don't get me wrong I love the content. Just don't like the way the questions are asked :banghead:


Oh, I remember the s.f. being a pain for me too, we we're told to use the minimum s.f. that was given for the calculation, which always seemed to me like it was really inaccurate to put as a value in the calulation would be 0.8 lets say meaning my answer would be to 1 s.f, I don't think I would enjoy it as much if it was worded questions, its a shame you didn't do AQA as honestly, by my own personal experience and others at uni, that was the best exam board. We had multiple choice for part of the unit 5 paper, which was tricky but doable.

I guess its just getting through it, but having to cope with wordy questions is a bit like wtf, Physics is applied maths really, so maths is what you should be doing most of the time, yeah, know the information and how it works, but they should only be a few 2 mark questions where you have to explain this and that or just a 5 mark for each topic.
No I hate physics and physics a level. I only like maths now. Physics is way too hard at A-Level.
I hate electricity but the new spec in AS physics ocr was quite easy


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Can't get the mark if you spelt equatorial wrong. Just lol
Original post by inspiringtop123
No I hate physics and physics a level. I only like maths now. Physics is way too hard at A-Level.


It's not hard, it's just awkward. Questions are designed to trip you up by confusing you with irrelevant mumbo jumbo.
I used to like Physics! Chose Physics A level , now its literally the worst subject I've picked, now i hate it tbh
Sup @TheFarmerLad! never knew you did OCR A physics :O. I am also doing OCR A physics, it does physics no good justice at all :frown:
Maybe they should introduce a separate physics with maths a level, since all of the writing and english really bothers me. Maths is the language of physics, not english :yes:
Ill be seeing you at warwick :wink: im going to do computer science though.
How are you feeling about G484 and G485?
Original post by The-Spartan
Sup @TheFarmerLad! never knew you did OCR A physics :O. I am also doing OCR A physics, it does physics no good justice at all :frown:
Maybe they should introduce a separate physics with maths a level, since all of the writing and english really bothers me. Maths is the language of physics, not english :yes:
Ill be seeing you at warwick :wink: im going to do computer science though.
How are you feeling about G484 and G485?


Sup @The-Spartan . Learn something new everyday (apart from in OCR Physics) :lol: Completely agree, but the reason they avoid lots of maths is to make it a more accessible A Level. Uni physics is far more interesting and useful though so I'm very excited about that!

I'm hopefully going to do combined Maths and Physics Bsc. Pretty good but frustratingly not perfect. The content I'm fine with, just simply a case of putting down what the examiner wants to hear instead of what I think is right for wordy questions. Hence I'm literally going through all the markschemes and examiners reports for OCR. How are you finding it?
Original post by TheFarmerLad
Sup @The-Spartan . Learn something new everyday (apart from in OCR Physics) :lol: Completely agree, but the reason they avoid lots of maths is to make it a more accessible A Level. Uni physics is far more interesting and useful though so I'm very excited about that!

I'm hopefully going to do combined Maths and Physics Bsc. Pretty good but frustratingly not perfect. The content I'm fine with, just simply a case of putting down what the examiner wants to hear instead of what I think is right for wordy questions. Hence I'm literally going through all the markschemes and examiners reports for OCR. How are you finding it?


Physics at uni looks alot more fun than a level :P
Im finding it ok, just definitions and such which are a pain to remember. Keywords change like every year im pretty sure.
The worst one is the postulates for ideal gas, they change every year too.
Just hoping the calculations save my bacon in these exams xD G484 is my fave, G485 has way too much writing :frown:
Nailed it fam. #Preach


Skips :smile:
Original post by The-Spartan
Physics at uni looks alot more fun than a level :P
Im finding it ok, just definitions and such which are a pain to remember. Keywords change like every year im pretty sure.
The worst one is the postulates for ideal gas, they change every year too.
Just hoping the calculations save my bacon in these exams xD G484 is my fave, G485 has way too much writing :frown:


Postulates? But I know what you mean, that's the most frustrating thing when the MS's change for the same questions asked! G485 may have more writing but it's easier to score a higher mark in than G484.
Reading this I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have picked OCR...
O.O
BUT I LIKE PHYSICS!!!!
D:>
I do Scottish Higher Physics where I'd say roughly 60% paper is calculations so I have no problem there. Rest is knowledge and explain questions and multiple choice.


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