OxfordAQA International GCSE Physics Tutors Online

OxfordAQA International GCSE Physics is specification 9203. This page works from the current specification, version 5.2, which covers exams from May/June 2018 onwards.

The qualification is linear. There are two question papers, and both must be taken in the same examination series.

Paper 1 is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 90 marks. Paper 2 is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 90 marks. The assessments are equally weighted, the total mark is 180, and both papers use structured and open questions.

On both papers, content from any part of the specification may be assessed. There is no topic split between the papers.

The skills are weighted differently on each paper, and OxfordAQA prints a separate percentage for each. The four assessment objectives are AO1 knowledge and understanding of scientific principles, AO2 application in familiar and novel contexts, AO3 describing analysing interpreting and evaluating scientific information in different forms, and AO4 selecting describing and evaluating scientific procedures.

On Paper 1 the weighting is AO1 at 20 per cent, AO2 at 20 per cent, AO3 at 7 per cent and AO4 at 3 per cent.

On Paper 2 the weighting is AO1 at 10 per cent, AO2 at 20 per cent, AO3 at 13 per cent and AO4 at 7 per cent.

The overall weightings are AO1 at 30 per cent, AO2 at 40 per cent, AO3 at 20 per cent and AO4 at 10 per cent.

So Paper 1 carries twice the recall and Paper 2 carries nearly twice the data work. A student who is fluent with definitions and units but slow with graphs will find Paper 1 kind and Paper 2 hard, and that pattern is worth knowing before the exam rather than after it.

The subject content is organised into eight sections.

The first is Forces and their effects, covering forces and their interactions, motion, resultant forces, momentum, safety in public transport, forces and terminal velocity, centre of mass, and moments and levers.

The second is Energy, covering forces and energy, energy transfers conservation and dissipation of energy, and energy resources.

The third is Waves, covering general properties of waves, the electromagnetic spectrum, sound and ultrasound, reflection, refraction and total internal reflection, and lenses and the eye.

The fourth is Particle model of matter, covering kinetic theory, and energy transfers and particle motion.

The fifth is Electricity and magnetism, covering electrical circuits, and magnetism and electromagnetism.

The sixth is Generating and distributing electricity and household, covering generating electricity, electricity transmission and distribution, using electricity in the home, the motor effect, and transferring electrical energy.

The seventh is Nuclear physics, covering atomic structure, ionizing radiation from the nucleus, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion.

The eighth is Space physics, covering the life cycle of a star, the solar system and orbital motion, and red shift and the expanding universe.

That is thirty-two named topics across the eight sections. The two sections that surprise students most are the last two, because nuclear physics and space physics ask for a different kind of reasoning from the forces and electricity sections.

Most of the subject content is common with and co-teachable with OxfordAQA International GCSE Combined Science 9204. Content that is only applicable to physics is marked with a P, either next to the topic heading where it applies to the whole topic, or immediately before each statement where it does not.

Ten whole topics carry the P mark: momentum, forces and terminal velocity, centre of mass, moments and levers, refraction and total internal reflection, lenses and the eye, generating electricity, electricity transmission and distribution, nuclear fusion, and red shift and the expanding universe.

That list is worth reading twice. Moments, lenses, the national grid and the expanding universe are all Physics only, which means a student on the separate Physics route is examined on material that Combined Science students never study.

The specification also prints five required practicals, and it names each one.

The first is an investigation into the relationship between force and extension for a spring, under forces and their interactions.

The second is an investigation into the refraction of light by different substances, under refraction and total internal reflection.

The third is an investigation into cooling curves for stearic acid, under kinetic theory.

The fourth is an investigation into the V-I characteristics of a filament lamp, a diode and a resistor at constant temperature, under electrical circuits. That single practical covers three components, and the shapes of the three graphs are different, which is why it is worth practising rather than reading.

The fifth is an investigation into the factors that determine the strength of an electromagnet, under magnetism and electromagnetism.

The specification prints its own grid of which scientific processes each practical develops, and the Physics grid has a distinctive shape.

Designing a practical procedure is ticked for the spring, the V-I characteristic and the electromagnet, but not for the refraction investigation or the cooling curve.

Controlling variables is ticked for all of them except the cooling curve for stearic acid.

Risk assessment, collecting data, analysing data, making conclusions and evaluation are ticked against every practical in the table.

So the cooling curve is the odd one out, and a student should be able to say why: a cooling curve follows one sample as it cools, so nothing is being controlled in the same sense as an electromagnet investigation where a variable is deliberately changed.

There is one administrative permission to know. The specification states that students are permitted to use calculators in all assessments.

It also states that students are expected to use units appropriately, while noting that not all questions reward the appropriate use of units. In Physics that distinction matters, because a correct number without a unit can lose the mark and a correct unit cannot always earn one back.

The mathematical requirements are listed as skills that assessments reflect across the full range over a reasonable period of time, rather than as a checklist for each paper.

The grading scale is the nine point one. The qualification is graded 1 to 9, with 9 the best grade, and a student who does not reach the minimum standard for grade 1 is recorded as U and does not receive a certificate.

Exams are available in May/June and in November.

Resits are whole qualification only. The specification describes itself as a traditional linear specification and states that individual components cannot be re-sat, though a candidate may re-take the whole qualification as many times as they wish.

There are no previous learning requirements, and any requirement for entry to a course based on the specification is at the discretion of the school.

Two overlap statements matter to a school. The specification overlaps with AQA UK GCSE Physics 8463, and it overlaps with OxfordAQA International GCSE Combined Science 9204.

Entry for Physics 9203 and Combined Science 9204 in the same series is not permitted.

The specification frames the subject in three dimensions: the subject content, the practices of science, and how science as a discipline develops. The third dimension is where questions about evidence, models and competing explanations come from, and it is the dimension most easily lost when revision turns into a list of formulae.