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A level physics

I’m currently year 12 and doing AQA a level physics. I feel like I understand the topics studied but when it comes to exam questions I don’t know how to answer them and they seem much harder than the actual concepts. Does anyone have any advice about this? Also any useful revision methods would be great.

Reply 1

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Mturks

Hiya, I'm currently a 3rd year astrophysics and cosmology student at Lancaster Uni and it's really hard to say one way to revise but I can give you suggestions based off what worked for me:

Know what it is you need to revise.
• go through your exam board specifications (all available to you online) and look through each topic and make sure you know everything it says you should. It's a great way to find gaps in your knowledge as they have the basis of everything you can be tested on.
• Make sure you prioritise your weaker topics as there isn't much point revising things you already know. Do revise them to a certain degree, just don't spend too much time focused on topics you are confident in.

Make a plan
• some people find scheduling out revision really effective when making sure they get everything done / having a structured plan to make sure you reach daily targets so if it's something you would want to try, I'd recommend it

Fill in your gaps before you start practicing
• do all your notetaking before you answer practice questions / past papers, especially with physics
• I would make short mind maps or page summaries of topics for physics and use them for when I start answering questions so everything I need to know is condensed and easy to access in a way I can revise it / use it effectively
• I used physics and maths tutor (https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/) for some summary page content for all subjects and used science shorts (https://scienceshorts.net/) for physics. They have video run-throughs of exam papers / making mind maps, etc, so highly recommend them.

Active revision
• make sure you're not just reading notes / highlighting / rewriting content as that wont make you remember any info!
• make your own revision cards / mindmaps / quizzes
• timed recall: write as much as you can about a topic for 15 mins without looking at your notes. Then after you've reached your time limit, go through your notes for and see what's missing. With a different colour, go back and add as much as you can remember for 5 mins and keep repeating so you are activiely recalling information.
• do past papers and look at markschemes, they're the key to forming well-worded answers in physics!
• do practice questions and if possible, ask your teacher to give feedback on them
• spaced repitition also works very well, making sure you can still remember something 15 mins, an hour, a few hours, the next day after you revise it.

Finally, make sure you prioritise consistency and quality over spending hours sat trying to revise without it being effective. Revision is different for everyone so make yours catered to you. Ask others for advice or help, especially your teachers, they have so many resources available for students to use so just ask them!

In terms of being able to understand concepts but struggling to apply them to questions, try and see if it tends to be associated with particular topics. If it isn't, then look at the questions type, e.g. is it a long, worded answer or are they multi-step calculations? Sometimes there are questions that use ambiguous language / require you to understand particular wording to make assumptions that are key to get an answer, so I'd recommend having a look and seeing what it is specifically that is catching you out and see if it something you can address yourself or if you require someone else to explain specific techniques or knowledge to you instead.

I hope all this helps and make sure you start your revision early and pace yourself. Wishing you all the best for your exams! If you have any other queries, feel free to ask

.-- Arya (Lancaster University Student Ambassador)