AQA Physics PHYA4 - Thursday 11th June 2015 [Exam Discussion Thread]

Woah I couldn't self study anything as I lack discipline haha.... I won't last at uni...

Oh that's cool! How did your mock go?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah 0/10 would not recommend (same... fortunately physics courses usually have loads of contact hours and things you should be going to so that will help!)

It's tomorrow Today I had one hour of chemistry... no matter how much work I take in to do in my frees I seem to finish it within the first two hours :| I did three maths past papers this morning!

Surely that means you're hella productive? Haha


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah but then I have nothing left to do all afternoon! Ended up getting a book and reading in costa for two hours

It's always good to have a break! If it's nice and sunny (basically once in a blue moon) my friends and I will drive to a local pub which is by a lake and chill in the afternoon I'd go mad if I had to do work constantly all day without a break


Posted from TSR Mobile

That sounds pretty cool! It's only recently that anyone has learnt to drive out of my friends recently (no one could last summer anyway really), and there's nowhere to go except the park in town anyway so we don't get up to much.
Yeah that's my Thursdays :/ (although I get a free this week because I'm skipping physics to avoid doing the presentation...). Sometimes in the holidays or something I get really motivated and do loads of work but mostly I'm not great at doing things!

Ah yeah it's the only place that is remotely picturesque in my town haha!
Oh nice! I had to deliver a physics presentation on gamma telescopes today...

Looks like this holiday I'll be forced to work out of pure panic!


Posted from TSR Mobile

There's a fair amount of picturesque I suppose (very rural area) but it comes with a large side of farm animal faeces, mud, rain and the smell of fertiliser.

Ick :/ our table is doing one on nuclear physics, they'll be fine without me though (Tim is properly confident talking in front of people, Nathan is willing, Ed will either join me in skiving or suffer through it).

Yeah that's basically how I'm feeling. If it wasn't for FP2 I'd probably only get a bit more done than during college weeks, have a nice rest, but so much left to do :/

Does anyone have any idea what the ISA grade boundaries are usually like at a2? Are they lower than the AS ones?

Does anyone have the 2014 Phya4 paper?

Does anyone have any idea what the ISA grade boundaries are usually like at a2? Are they lower than the AS ones?

I think they're roughly the same

Hahah you'd make a great travel agent

I love that you refer to them by name as if I'll know them would be quite ironic if I did!

I think it's time to start thinking positively for us both! We have Easter. Let's smash it


Posted from TSR Mobile

The June 2014 paper is still locked by the exam board for public access due to it being the last paper before this year's one. Your teacher should be able to access it if you ask them, as all should now have access upon entering their centre's password.

I've not found stray copies around on here as you're not the first to ask. I completed it as a mock so I have a copy myself but it is all filled out with my answers.





The ISA and EMPA boundaries generally stay fairly consistent from AS to A2 year on year. I presume this is because they will scale the marks from each paper to be a certain mark for a certain grade, no matter what the content of the paper is, which is where the practicals tend to differ from the theory papers.

Thanks Can anyone remember what the grade boundaries were last year? I have such an awful memory

Damn, knew I was going into the wrong career

I'd just confuse myself otherwise! (that said, most of the guys I know are called Ed, Sam, Tim or Andrew so it doesn't help all that much...). Tim has finally succeeded in persuading me and Ed to go see the college musical maybe (he's in one of the lead roles so he's pretty persistent and half of my friends are in the band or orchestra).

True! We can work super hard for the next few months, do great on exams and then we have all of summer to do what we want

Mock EMPA was... interesting, to say the least! We did one of the experiments (on simple harmonic motion with springs) and a relevant question from the written section, and also an impressive amount of not-physics. Like, our teacher kept walking around the room and never even tried to tell us off for the off topic conversations going on, just kind of listened in for a moment and then kept walking (he's taking his wife to a McBusted concert this weekend though he looks so done with everything it's pretty funny). We must have done about 50 minutes actual work in two hours!

We've been given a booklet of three written sections to complete over Easter though so that should be pretty helpful, and we got 7/10 for our practical section and 5/9 on the written part (mostly because we failed to do the last three mark question)

You can find them here, see what marks correspond to which UMS (if you click "Convert multiple marks" it comes up as a list down the right hand side)

Haha you really are!

That's so cool, you should go

I like that idea...just need to finish this darn coursework! Got 3 gigs in the next 3 weeks to keep me motivated over Easter though . May have gone overkill but work hard, play harder, right?!?

That sounds brilliant. Physics teachers make up the entire crowd at McBusted analysing the standing waves produced by each pluck of the guitar and whether there's constructive or destructive interference at different points in the room

Sounds like you're having fun and making good progress though? Well done
Do you think I should attempt some past papers for Section B of the EMPA? Not sure how to prepare really.




Posted from TSR Mobile

Hey guys,

I finished making notes for PHYA4 and PHYA5 some time ago, I've been regurgitating and trying to focus more on my weaknesses but I feel reading over notes is getting very repetitive. The issue I have is I'm not sure when the right time is to start past papers practice. There isn't too many past papers for our exams so I'm worried I'll finish them all and not have anything else to test me on any advice would be great!