Messes up Year 12

Hi!
I did the OCR A Physics A-Level (no maths) and received an A, when at the beginning of year 13 I was at a C! The best advice on how to pick up physics quick is to go back to the basics all the time, AKA the entirety of year 12. By this I mean for one, memorise all the exam board given definitions with flash cards as easy marks can be picked up here, and all the laws like Newton’s and Kirchhoff’s. If you struggle with electricity like I did, then it’s best to get a better understanding of things like the difference between EMF+potential difference, and current, past the fact it is the rate of flow of charge carriers and think of it as electrons oscillating about their fixed positions, and each change of direction of the electrons is where the current also changes direction (AC current). This goes for potential dividers and their relationship with NTC thermistors and LDRs. Lastly I would go and look at all the the 6 mark questions (may not be necessary if you’re doing, say, AQA) and read the mark schemes. Each paper should have at least one long answer question on a practical. They often want an equipment list and for a graph to be drawn to represent an equation you may be given or expected to produce. Always say to draw a best line of fit and find the gradient, explaining what the value means, then draw a worst line of best fit and show the percentage discrepancy of that gradient to the first one- this shows the amount of error your investigations has produced and how precise your values are.
As you do maths as well, this should help your understanding of 2D vectors as it is a large part of the maths of physics, so revise those too. Don’t hesitate to ask me questions about physics!

Definitely use your free periods for revision of year 12 work or reviewing your lessons of the week! I made the mistake of going home for almost all of them until 2 months before exams hehe. You could also try pre-reading your lessons if you have access to an online textbook so you won’t be behind in class. Use Physics and Maths tutor religiously for topic questions and notes for each module too.
While doing practice questions, you may also realise that a lot of questions are basically the same. There’s only so many different ways they can test you on these topics, so learning to spot exactly what they’re asking you is a major help. (crucial in the 6 markers, I once dropped 3 marks for reading the second part of the question wrong)
My class in general found electric and magnetic field questions the hardest, specifically on magnetic flux and flux linkage, so you could watch some videos on that- I recommend videos by ZPhysics and PhysicsOnline. I personally found the circular motion and simple harmonic motion topics the most difficult, especially with how it linked to some differential stuff, so keep up with maths too at the same time.
Also! Another basic to keep reviewing is energy changes. You might have come across a lot of questions with energy changes on terminal velocity and springs at AS level, and it gets even worse in year 13 (esp springs with simple harmonic motion). The good side of this is that it’s a pretty small topic so if you get confused by it, many more marks are available in other topics.
Do you have a module/topic you’re looking forward to?

Hi,
Thanks for your response. I am not sure what module we will be revising for in the future but I just need motivation if I can at least get an A in physics and Maths. I just was not giving much time. I know if I make the right decisions and take proper decisions I can get A.