I've often stressed that just reading your notes, and even highlighting the important parts, is not enough if you want to revise effectively: you must revise actively and the more you do to process information, the better your revision will be. Instead of highlighting important facts, write summary notes; better still, connect the important points … Continue reading How to Revise
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
There are various GCSE topics where physics and chemistry intersect, so revising these areas can have a double benefit. One such example is atomic structure. Helpfully, BP Educational Services has just released a new set of resources to help you revise this content as you prepare for this summer's examinations. To access the free knowledge … Continue reading Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
AQA Trilogy – Summer Exams 2022 (revision links)
AQA recently issued guidance about the topics that will be included, and excluded, for this year's GCSE papers (available here). I've gone through AQA's document and mapped the physics topics for Trilogy to revision resources provided by BBC Bitesize: the links are on a dedicate webpage, at https://start.me/p/2px9qe/aqa-trilogy-revision-summer-2022 (see screen-grab below). This page is not … Continue reading AQA Trilogy – Summer Exams 2022 (revision links)
Revision Starts Now!
No matter where you are in your learning journey, it's never to early to start "revision". Why have I put quotation marks around the last word? Because if you "revise" early enough you will be front-loading your learning - and that's even better than retrospective revision! Front-loading is sometimes known as flipped learning and it's … Continue reading Revision Starts Now!
Energy: the biggest “big idea”
Physics, let alone all the sciences put together, covers such a vast range of knowledge that it's useful to identify a small number of "big ideas" that link across a greater number of concepts. And energy is undoubtedly the biggest of these "big ideas". When it comes to revising energy, the breadth of its impact … Continue reading Energy: the biggest “big idea”
Interpreting graphs
Graphs are a great way of presenting information in a format that is easy to understand but it's important you can describe them accurately as this skill is commonly tested in GCSE Physics papers and it ought to be an easy way to accumulate marks. I recommend a three-step approach, as outlined below. 1. Always … Continue reading Interpreting graphs
Revision resources
If you are a member of one of my Y11 classes for 2020-1 then you'll now be on the final straight of your Physics studies. It's a slightly sad time for me because you are the last cohort taking the pure Physics course and I'm especially keen that you all do as well as you … Continue reading Revision resources
Compare and Contrast
A really useful revision tactic (and also quite a common type of exam question) involves looking at the differences that exist between two related things in the same area of physics. These comparisons can be very simple, such as the definitions of scalars and vectors, or they can be more complicated, such as competing theories … Continue reading Compare and Contrast
Happy Holidays!
It's tempting to think that happiness comes from not being in school over the Christmas break but I want you to think further ahead than the next two weeks. I want you to think about next summer and how happy you will be with a good grade in your GCSE Physics examination! Thinking ahead is … Continue reading Happy Holidays!
Electrical Circuits: mini-test
It is really important that you check your understanding as you work through a topic. With that in mind, I have created a short online test that you can use to check your recall and understanding of some of the basic knowledge required for the Electricity module. You can access the test, which is hosted … Continue reading Electrical Circuits: mini-test
Mr Tarrant's physbang 'blog 