AQA Physics PHYA5 - Thursday 18th June 2015 [Exam Discussion Thread]

OP

You think section A was harder or easier than last year? I hope the boundary will be about the same as last year. (I did the applied one though)

Personally section A I think was harder. Calculations were easier but written questions had a lot more scope for marks to be lost.

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Reply 3821

ubisoft

3

Anyone did the internally marked isa? What do you think the boundaries on that will be? They fluctuate so much, one year 40 was 33 ums the next it was 45...

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Reply 3822

Jamesbe1993

2

Hello everyone will people help me out and just give me question numbers, a short description of the question and number of marks... i'm making a mark scheme, no need to provide answers in your posts :smile:

Thanks!! For Nuclear and Astro only please.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3823

adamjhodg

2

Original post by ubisoft

You think the GB will be same as 2014? you have any idea why they were so low?

I can only judge the Unit 4/Astro grade boundaries because that's the course I studied and therefore have only done these papers but there is a big correlation between the number of 'maths-based' marks and the grade boundaries.

In the 2012 Nuclear/Astro paper, there were 36 maths calculation marks (the most in the 5 papers) and the A* boundary was 63...last year there was only 23 marks available for calculations (the lowest of the 5 years) and the A* boundary was 52.

The trend has been followed all 5 years (whether it actually makes any difference I have not got a clue) but there was a lot of maths questions this year and a significant number of these were also 'show me' questions. I cannot see grade boundaries being as low as last years but with the odd 6 mark questions, I can't see them being as high as they used to be either

June 2013 or slightly higher would be my guess...but my guess would be no better than yours :hmmmm:

Reply 3824

CD223

OP

10

Original post by adamjhodg

I can only judge the Unit 4/Astro grade boundaries because that's the course I studied and therefore have only done these papers but there is a big correlation between the number of 'maths-based' marks and the grade boundaries.

In the 2012 Nuclear/Astro paper, there were 36 maths calculation marks (the most in the 5 papers) and the A* boundary was 63...last year there was only 23 marks available for calculations (the lowest of the 5 years) and the A* boundary was 52.

The trend has been followed all 5 years (whether it actually makes any difference I have not got a clue) but there was a lot of maths questions this year and a significant number of these were also 'show me' questions. I cannot see grade boundaries being as low as last years but with the odd 6 mark questions, I can't see them being as high as they used to be either

June 2013 or slightly higher would be my guess...but my guess would be no better than yours :hmmmm:

Seems a reasonable prediction. I'm thinking around 56 for an A*.

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Reply 3825

notthatclever

if I got a C/B in this, and a C in the ISA but an A/A* in unit 5, could i get a B overall?

Reply 3826

Absent Agent

21

Original post by notthatclever

if I got a C/B in this, and a C in the ISA but an A/A* in unit 5, could i get a B overall?

Yes, you are most likely to get a B but that still depends on your overall UMS. For example, in maths I had 2 A's in my core units and an E in S1 at AS but I received a B overall.

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Reply 3827

Vincent Song

2

I probably got 65-67/75 in unit4 and 50ish75 in unit5(because I messed it up...) will I get an A* overall? I need an A* for my firm..... I am worried about the unit5 boundary and I have no idea if it will go up or down. What do you reckon guys? Thank you very much indeed.

Reply 3828

Gome44

10

Original post by Vincent Song

I probably got 65-67/75 in unit4 and 50ish75 in unit5(because I messed it up...) will I get an A* overall? I need an A* for my firm..... I am worried about the unit5 boundary and I have no idea if it will go up or down. What do you reckon guys? Thank you very much indeed.

Which optional module did you do?

Reply 3829

Vincent Song

2

Original post by Gome44

Which optional module did you do?

applied

Reply 3830

ubisoft

3

Original post by Vincent Song

I probably got 65-67/75 in unit4 and 50ish75 in unit5(because I messed it up...) will I get an A* overall? I need an A* for my firm..... I am worried about the unit5 boundary and I have no idea if it will go up or down. What do you reckon guys? Thank you very much indeed.

Imperial? same man, I messed up so bad I don't think I'll even get an A lol. Was focusing so much on A* in further maths that I barely did any physics the whole year

Reply 3831

oli-dancer

For the section a 6 marker I said keep volume constant and take readings for temperature and pressure, then use those readings to calculate KE of the gas , plot temperature in the y axis and KE on the x axis, then the y intercept will be absolute zero, would this answer be ok ?

Reply 3832

Gome44

10

Original post by Vincent Song

applied

No idea then, I did astro :smile:

Reply 3833

CD223

OP

10

Original post by oli-dancer

For the section a 6 marker I said keep volume constant and take readings for temperature and pressure, then use those readings to calculate KE of the gas , plot temperature in the y axis and KE on the x axis, then the y intercept will be absolute zero, would this answer be ok ?

Probably not the conventional answer they were looking for - the KE is proportional to temperature I suppose so I wouldn't be sure as to how many marks that would get.

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Reply 3834

TheRAG

2

Do you think I'll get any marks for the 6 marker by describing an experiment where volume is changed and pressure kept constant, but still said that absolute zero can be found by extrapolation; is the x intercept ?

Reply 3835

sam_97

6

Original post by TheRAG

Do you think I'll get any marks for the 6 marker by describing an experiment where volume is changed and pressure kept constant, but still said that absolute zero can be found by extrapolation; is the x intercept ?

Yes I think that's absolutely fine, the graph of volume against temperature (Charles' Law) can be extrapolated to find absolute zero just like the pressure graph. If you've made enough points, you're likely to get full marks :smile:

Reply 3836

TheRAG

2

Does anyone who took the ISAs know what they got?