Physics GCSE

mglover070588 said:
I know many many people with loadsa As and A*s at GCSE who get Us in their 1st AS exam as they simply arent clever enough. having said that, most Alevels are a waste of time anyway (media studies, psycology, sociology, art, RE)
Click to expand...
Quite a lot of people in my sixth form were shocked at their first set of AS exams, as was I, they were a massive step up from GCSE. I do Physics, IT and Media - Although you say it's a waste of time, it's pretty much English but using TV, Film and Newspapers as it's medium, with current contexts and debates; hey it's not a core subject but I've learnt a hell of a lot from it; a lot more that I can apply than Physics in real world situations.

Adding 'art' to that waste of time list made me actually laugh out loud, I guess most subjects except the core could be said aren't useful but that's not what this debate is about; in my opinion the step up from GCSE-A level is a large margin and it makes you realise how ridiculously easy GCSEs are.
 
I just did my Physics A Level and there's some of this "dumbing down" taking place at A Level too.

The main problem is that physics is now taught to people who aren't necessarily any good at maths. This is fair enough, but the people who do maths at A Level are missing out.

In my final A2 physics paper I had to count squares under a graph! :eek:
 
My GCSE physics (triple science, so subject specific papers and 3 GCSE's in Biology, Chemistry and Physics) last year was nothing like that.

Admittedly there was perhaps one "energy sources" question, but nothing on the same scale as the stuff there.. must be a very low level syllabus they do at that school :confused:


A-Level physics I'm doing at the moment (AQA Physics spec B) covers a large amount of the different areas in physics, and as such doesn't go into massive detail, but in todays scientific climate, there are so many different areas of study, it's hard to go into depth in all of them. Formulas are given, but there are still some tough concepts to learn. Also, it seems as though the course is geared towards students not taking maths as a subject, which seems stupid to me, as Maths is integral to Physics..
 
p4radox said:
In my final A2 physics paper I had to count squares under a graph! :eek:
Click to expand...
same here! The were only 2 guys in my physics class who wernt doing the alevel maths. One did AS maths so at least he knew what a log was, and how to differentiate and integrate. The guy who did no maths above GCSE had no clue and as a result scraped an E
 
Killerkebab said:
Got a better way to work out the area underneath the curve? ;)

Sure, they could teach you integration... but the curve doesn't have an equation :p
Click to expand...

Yeah I know. But that's the stupid thing. Physics without maths just seems dumb. All the way through the course it's felt as if they're holding stuff back from us. We learn the concepts, but never go into any depth about anything. :(


mglover - you don't do OCR B 'Advancing Physics' do you?
 
It is all part of the programming, remove the ability to think for themselves and the sheep won't question what they are told.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Hmm, all the people who did GCSE Tripple Science (thats 3*90mins exams just finished + 3*45mins still left to be done in the next few weeks) at my school found it harder than the mocks/past papers. :(
Click to expand...

what exam board im doing edexcel linear.
 
Hamoodii said:
what exam board im doing edexcel linear.
Click to expand...
OCR - Physics is #1982, Chemisty is #1981, Biology is #1980

So each seperate science gets two papers, physics below.

15-Jun-07 Fri. am OCR GCSE Physics: Paper 1 Higher 1982/02 1h 30m
25-Jun-07 Mon. am OCR GCSE Physics: Paper 6 Higher 1982/06 45m

Note that Tripple science was an option, everyone else does double science (OCR 2413).
 
Last edited:
mglover070588 said:
nope. i did the edexcel maths alevel and AQA specB physics alevel. I find both essential in my uni course, Im just finishing 1st year mechanical engineering
Click to expand...
mglover070588 said:
thats exactly what i did :p
Click to expand...

You're doing what I hope to do, and same syllabi(sp?) for the A-levels.

At my school for GCSE, you had the option of Single science (one GCSE, all sciences combined.. unbelievably easy even to those not scientificially minded).

Triple science GCSE (3 separate sciences.) Harder, but still easy.


A-level is a bit of a step up, but the majority of it is easy. The main challenging parts I've had this year have been where our teacher has been teaching way above what the syllabus contains, so we know the thinking behind the theories, which makes our understanding much improved and thus we find the exams easier, since we're "better" for want of a better word
 
Last edited:
Read all that, i did my GCSEs in '94 and there was no sign of any of those type of questions, that fuel one is more related to a very basic (yr 8 or 9) chemistry test not GCSE physics(!) :confused:

Even then, the jump up to A Level was huge, I I had to really concentrate on my A Level physics (and for me to have to work at something to get a decent grade is a shock in its self :o ) But then I chose to do the specialist Nuffield Physics rather than the standard board physics course (dunno if this is still running)

In real terms Physics and Applied Maths have a very close link - hence any waffly, essay type question involving and answer than more than ten words should be rejected. Any one care to tell how to calculate the momentum of a particle and the resulting forces based on wall collision in essay form? :confused:

I've never been sure on dumbing down myself but in the 13 yrs since I did my GCSE's its seems to have, erm..... drifted a bit ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom