Cambridge AS Level Physics Tutors Online

Cambridge AS Level Physics is syllabus 9702. This page works from the syllabus for exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027, version 1. Exams are available in the June and November series, and the syllabus is also available for examination in March for schools in India.

An AS Level candidate sits three papers in the same exam series, and candidates following an AS Level route are eligible for grades a to e. Candidates following an A Level route are eligible for grades A* to E. The AS grade scale stops at e and uses lower case letters.

Paper 1 is Multiple Choice, lasting 1 hour 15 minutes and carrying 40 marks as 40 multiple choice questions on the AS Level content, worth 31% of the AS Level. Paper 2 is AS Level Structured Questions, lasting 1 hour 15 minutes and carrying 60 marks, on the AS Level content, worth 46%. Paper 3 is Advanced Practical Skills, lasting 2 hours and carrying 40 marks, worth 23%.

The AS Level content is topics 1 to 11: physical quantities and units; kinematics; dynamics; forces, density and pressure; work, energy and power; deformation of solids; waves; superposition; electricity; D.C. circuits; and particle physics.

The first six topics are mechanics and materials, then two topics on waves, then two on electricity, and finally particle physics. That is a different shape from a school course that spreads topics evenly, because roughly half the AS year is mechanics and matter, and the electricity topics come late.

Particle physics closing the AS year is worth noting. It introduces quarks, leptons and the standard model at a level many students have never met before, and it appears in both written papers.

A Level candidates continue to topics 12 to 25: motion in a circle; gravitational fields; temperature; ideal gases; thermodynamics; oscillations; electric fields; capacitance; magnetic fields; alternating currents; quantum physics; nuclear physics; medical physics; and astronomy and cosmology. The syllabus states that the content of the AS Level learning outcomes is assumed knowledge for the A Level components.

The assessment objectives are three. AO1 is knowledge and understanding. AO2 is handling, applying and evaluating information. AO3 is experimental skills and investigations. The weightings are AO1 at 40 per cent, AO2 at 40 per cent and AO3 at 20 per cent, identical at AS Level and A Level.

Per paper, Papers 1 and 2 are each 50 per cent AO1 and 50 per cent AO2 with nothing on AO3, and Paper 3 is 100 per cent AO3. The written papers therefore never ask a candidate to demonstrate a practical skill, and the practical paper asks for nothing else.

Paper 3 is the most clearly described practical paper of any AS science, and its structure is fixed. It consists of two questions, each of 1 hour and each of 20 marks.

Question 1 is an experiment requiring candidates to collect data, to plot a graph and to draw conclusions. Question 2 is an experiment requiring candidates to collect data and to draw conclusions, but it may or may not include the plotting of a graph. The important difference is this: in Question 2 the experimental method to be followed will be inaccurate, and candidates will be required to evaluate the method and suggest improvements.

That means Question 2 is not really an experiment paper at all. It is a criticism paper with data attached. A candidate who simply follows the instructions and plots a neat graph has missed the point of ten of its marks, because the method is designed to be flawed and the marks are for spotting why.

The syllabus also states two things that reduce the pressure here. The two questions will be set in different areas of physics, and no prior knowledge of the theory will be required. So a candidate is being assessed on whether they can measure, record, graph and reason, not on whether they have revised a particular topic.

The mark allocations are published separately for each question. In Question 1, manipulation, measurement and observation carries a minimum of 7 marks, presentation of data and observations a minimum of 6 marks, and analysis, conclusions and evaluation a minimum of 4 marks. The remaining 3 marks are spread across the same skills.

In Question 2 the balance shifts sharply. Manipulation, measurement and observation carries a minimum of 5 marks, presentation of data and observations a minimum of 2 marks, and analysis, conclusions and evaluation a minimum of 10 marks, with the remaining 3 marks spread as before.

So Question 2 carries half the paper but twice the analysis of Question 1, and only a third of its presentation marks. The skills it lists for analysis are drawing conclusions, estimating uncertainties, identifying limitations and suggesting improvements. Those four are the whole point of the question.

The apparatus expectations are specific enough to be a revision list in themselves. Candidates should be able to make measurements using common laboratory apparatus such as millimetre scales, protractors, top pan balances, newton meters, analogue or digital electrical meters, measuring cylinders, calipers, micrometer screw gauges and thermometers, and should be able to use a stopwatch to measure intervals of time, including the period of an oscillating system by timing an appropriate number of consecutive oscillations.

Candidates should also be able to use both analogue scales and digital displays, and where calipers are required, centres may provide either vernier or digital calipers, so a candidate should be familiar with whichever type their centre supplies.

The table requirements are exact and easy to lose marks on. Candidates should present numerical data in a single table of results, record all data in it, draw the table up in advance of taking readings so that results do not have to be copied up later, include columns for raw data and for values calculated from them, and use column headings that include both the quantity and the unit and that conform to accepted scientific conventions.

Candidates are also expected to set up apparatus correctly without assistance from the supervisor. If help is needed, it should never go beyond the minimum necessary to take some readings, help is never given with presentation, analysis or evaluation, and any assistance is reported, with the candidate unable to receive full credit for collecting data.

The qualification is graded a, b, c, d or e for an AS Level candidate.