BBC Bitesize – Paper 1 Revision

November’s trial examination will include everything in Paper 1. This means everything that was due to be covered in Y10 – and that in turn means a fair amount of content that you had to study at home during the lockdown. Now you are about to be tested on what you know and it is REALLY important that you revise thoroughly because, if GCSE exams are cancelled next summer, this paper will be a key piece of evidence that will help to determine your teacher-assessed grade. Therefore, you must think of this as a real exam, not just an in-school test.

The topics that you need to revise are; Motion & Forces, Conservation of Energy, Waves (including the electromagnetic spectrum), Radioactivity and Astronomy.

There is lots of information to help you here on physbang.com but there is also lots of good stuff elsewhere, especially on BBC Bitesize. On physbang, look under each of the topic tabs above, including the Exam Tips and Key Skills sections.

For BBC Bitesize, I have provided direct links to the appropriate content at the end of this post. Almost all of the content applies to everybody but momentum applies only to Higher Tier students. Read the summary information for each section then test yourself by answering the online quizzes. Take screen-grabs and send me your scores so that I can follow your progress.

And don’t forget that there is an example of Paper 1 in the back of your CGP GCSE Edexcel Physics (9-1) Complete Revision & Practice book, pages 195 to 215. It’s a Higher Tier paper but even if you are a Foundation Tier student you should be able to have a go at most of the questions if you treat it as an “open book” learning exercise. To do this, first answer as many questions as you can, confidently (not just guessing). Then switch to a different colour pen and go through the paper again but this time look for the appropriate information in the front of the revision guide to help you answer the questions. Finally, go through the answers (pp 247-8) and make sure you understand why the right answers are correct. If there is anything that you don’t understand, then email me for help.

• BBC Bitesize: Motion and Forces (five sections, plus Momentum for Higher Tier only)
• BBC Bitesize: Conservation of Energy (four sections)
• BBC Bitesize: Waves (four sections)
• BBC Bitesize: Electromagnetic Spectrum (four sections)
• BBC Bitesize: Radioactivity (five sections)
• BBC Bitesize: Astronomy (four sections)