Help choosing Physic syllabus

I am planning to take physics AS (at least, maybe to A2 if i want) outside of school, so i was wondering if people could post information about their syllabus, especially information on the non exam side (i.e. how much coursework or practical is included in overall grade). obviously the less coursework/practical the better it is for me! thank you.

Reply 1

dimexi

I did Salters Horners EdExcel physics almost 3 year ago now and I found it very very useful because instead of just bunging you with a whole load of theory, it had excellent practical applications as examples and topics... Let me just give you an example of this, When we studied "wave theory", the title of the unit was "earthquakes" hence we studied waves but the applications we saw was the part different types of waves play in earthquakes, i thought this was very useful,.. also when we studied elctromagnetic induction, we used the trains as a brilliant application, the text books tells all about trains and how electromagnetic induction is used in "eddy braking"..
We didnt have a pratical exam but we had a 2 month investigation where you have to pick a topic and do some research on and carry out experiments... (this was in second year).
For the AS, it mainly fundamental physics like equations of motion and stuff, we had 2 lab experiments which counted as coureswork marks, and we got to do a visit and then you write an essay on the "physics" involved in the place you visit.. for example, they could take you to Alton towers for a trip, and then they will pick a paticular ride for analysis, then in your essay you write on stuff like gain in PE and KE when the ride rises or drops, you talk about "G" loading as well... (im sure you have a general idea)...
I would say the weighting between coursework and exams is about 30/70 respectively...
Thats all i can think of now... just post here if you need more info

Ah! i forgot to add, the official exams u take at the end can tend to be "wordy" because of all the applications you have studied... e.g. they could start an exam question talking about proton accelerators in Geneva and how they help discover blah blah blah blah!! then they ask you a question, like 2 minutes down the page :biggrin:

Reply 2

Zuber

thanks dimexi, that was very helpful. your syllabus however might not be the best for me due to the amount of coursework involved (ie the 2 month investigation etc) as i am doing this out of school. i was hoping to find a syllabus with no coursework or practical exam, just 100% exam based, but that is looking grim now. the reason being i am doing this out of school, so i don't know how to arrange for coursework and so on.
anyone else can tell me about another syllabus for physics or have any tips for doing A-levels outside of school?

Reply 3

dimexi

ah!! i see what you mean... Well, im not sure if there is a sylabuss that doesnt run any coursework.. The reason why the usually run coursework is so they are satisfied that the theory you have learnt has been put into pratice.. But nevertheless I do hope u find one and good luck in ur search... Check all the Sylabii available in ALL boards .i.e. OCR, AQA, Edexcel and so on

Reply 4

Comp_Genius

I did Edexcel, no coursework, just practical assessments.

Reply 5

dimexi

i though Edexcel had a practical exam? :confused:

he said he wants a board with no practical or coursework i think

that's not possible.

i thought it wasnt possible, just hoping. i guess i am really looking for minimal practical or coursework (with practical favourable to coursework). also could anyone give me pointers on how to go ahead doing an external course outside of my school that contains practical or coursework? thanks

Reply 8

Comp_Genius

no, may be go ring up schools and colleges, and see whether they would take you?

Reply 9

spin

I did the OCR Advancing Physics course. This didn't have a practical exam but did have practical courseworks.

If you're doing it outside of school / college you're going to need to arrange somewhere to take the exams.. I'm taking A level Maths in my gap year and have arranged with my old school to take the exam there. If you were to find a course that had written coursework and a practical exam, then the centre where you were taking the exam would provide the equipment I'd have thought? (Not talking from experience, just postulating..) It's an idea anyway.

Reply 10

dimexi

ah yes!! edexcel only has a practical exam as darkenergy said.. it will be ur best bet for now :smile:

Reply 11

sig.fig.

I'm halfway through the OCR Advancing Physics syllabus, having just done my AS levels.
The practicals, if you put everything in the coursework that is asked for, are a good way of picking up marks (you do three practical investigations at AS).
The modules for the January exam are a bit boring:
Sensing - this is to do with electricity, circuits and the equations that go with them. Materials - fairly self-explanatory. To do with the properties of materials and their different uses. Imaging - to do with how different types of images (i.e. IR, ultrasound, radio, x-ray) are produced. Signalling - similar to the above except with signals. e.g. how information is converted to binary and transmitted. The last two overlap a bit, as they have some similarities.
The modules for the summer exam are a bit more interesting and are to do with wave behaviour and quantum behaviour, as well as some mechanics (incidentally if you do a mechanics module in maths you'll find the mechanics bit of physics pretty simple). :biggrin: