A few folk have worried that they can’t interpret graphs, so I’ve gone through some SG Credit Papers and written a few questions. You can answer the past paper questions. I’ll upload the answers when I’ve done them!
Interpreting Graphs word
SG past paper questions and answers
Here I will post a few tips and hints to remember when answering SQA N5 Papers. Hopefully they’ll be quick, snappy and memorable. You’ve got the whole of the Scottish Physics Teachers’ Community Wisdom Below!
Some practice notes from Mr Dawson from Wallace Hall Academy.
N5 Revision Pupil Questions pdf version
N5 Revision Pupil Questions word version
This is a great little document from the Science Faculty at LA- whom I have just discovered pinched it from Mr Bowled Over formerly of the Physics Dept. It applies to all your subjects.
Remember to revise at the first opportunity after any lesson, asking yourself;
Also, plan your revision and do not put things off to tomorrow when you could fix them today.
Keep a note of areas you are finding challenging and bring them with you to after school classes for targeted help and support.
Hope you find this useful and thanks to the Chemists and Mr Bowles.
It is important that you realise that this year will go really quickly. As a part of your life it seems a long time, but trust me, it will go quicker than you can possibly imagine. That is why it is important to realise how little time you have to cover the whole course and revise it.
For people in D&G I’ve made a D&G Calendar. For other Regions you’ll just need to adjust your holiday dates. From the first Monday you return to school there will be only 146 teaching days until Study Leave. Now if you think that you only get 4 periods a week, on 3 days per week that is about a maximum of 88 times I’ll see you over the year. You can start ticking them off if you dislike me that much. Take off all those days when you will be having trips, meetings, be at Sporting Events, doing prelims; and the time to complete the course begins to look less plausible! We also have to fit in an Assignment.
I would therefore ask any student studying any subject not to waste any time in class and get as organised as possible. That means get into class, get out your stuff, and get going straight away. If there is a distraction then review your work, answer questions etc. Don’t waste a second!
Click on the link above (Revision plan). This takes you to an EXCEL spreadsheet. I can add a pdf file if some of you can’t open this. Revision isn’t just about LEARNING the work. What will take more of your time are the other bits!
You can and should be doing step one throughout the course. The better prepared you are as you go along the less time at the end of the course you will need for revision. Likewise with step 2. If you make sure you’ve fully understood each part of the work, then even if you’ve forgotten it, it should be easier to understand and grasp the second time around. If you pass on it and hope it will go away as you move through the course you’ll begin to have a fear of this section of the course and it will be harder to understand.
I’ll see if the Physics Jewel can make one up!
Here is a little document I made up when we had foreign students in an Intermediate 2 class. It was not as successful with the foreign students as with those studying in Scotland as there was confusing over what they were asked to do and I assumed (obviously wrongly) that the symbols were universal.
I think you’ll find these fine, providing you:
If you don’t have a printer just copy them out on to paper or card!
This will give you 8 dominoes per sheet and two different sets. One if for quantity and symbol and one is for quantity and unit.
I’ve found it best to print on different colour card so that you don’t try muddling them up. If you do it correctly you should end back at the start, or with a quantity that has no unit (work out which one that is)
I recommend you working against the clock, so that you can increase your speed as you practice. It will make revision at least a little more interesting. Or practice with your friends.
“Six months from Now, you’ll have wished you started revising today”
Here is a table showing some of the command words that are used in the exams. It is important to answer the correct command word in the right way or you are likely to not be awarded marks.
Do go through past paper questions and get examples of the different command words and then look at the marking instructions and see how they are answered.
Below the table is a exemplar sheet to try some of these words out, produced by Mr L Phin (thanks from us all)
| response to questions that ask candidates to: | Candidates must: |
|---|---|
| calculate | you must provide a number from given facts, figures or information. It is not expected that this can just be known from information. |
| compare | This requires you to describe the similarities and/or differences between things, not just write about one. If you are asked to ‘compare x with y ’, you need to write down something about x compared to y , using comparative words such as ‘better, ‘more than’, ‘less than’, ‘quicker’, ‘more expensive’, ‘on the other hand.’ |
| describe, | you must provide a statement or structure of characteristics and/or features; |
| determine or calculate, | you must determine a number from given facts, figures or information; You should use numbers given in the question to work out the answer. You should always show your working, as it may be possible for the examiner to award some marks for the method even if the final answer is wrong. Always give the units as the final mark is for the answer and unit. |
| estimate, | you must determine an approximate value for something; |
| explain, | you must relate cause and effect and/or make relationships between things clear. Students should make something clear, or state the reasons for something happening. The answer should not be a simple list of reasons. This means that points in the answer must be linked coherently and logically.All of the stages/steps in an explanation must be included to gain full marks. |
| evaluate, | you must make a judgement based on what you know or have been given, or determine the value of something. |
| identify, name, give, or state, | you need only name or present in brief form. Only a short answer is required, not an explanation or a description. Often it can be answered with a single word, phrase or sentence. If the question asks you to state, give, or write down one (or two etc) examples, you should write down only the specified number of answers, or you may not be given the mark for some correct examples given. |
| justify, | you must give reasons to support their suggestions or conclusions, e.g. this might be by identifying an appropriate relationship and the effect of changing variables; |
| outline, | you must provide a brief summary of the content. It should be more detailed than naming, but not as detailed as describe. |
| predict, | you must suggest what may happen based on available information; |
| show that, | you must use physics [and mathematics] to prove something e.g. a given value – All steps, including the stated answer , must be shown; |
| suggest, | you must apply your knowledge and understanding of physics to a new situation. A number of responses are acceptable: marks will be awarded for any suggestions that are supported by knowledge and understanding of physics. |
| use your knowledge of physics or aspect of physics to comment on, | you must apply your skills, knowledge and understanding to respond appropriately to the problem/situation presented (for example by making a statement of principle(s) involved and/or a relationship or equation, and applying these to respond to the problem/situation). you will be rewarded for the breadth and/or depth of their conceptual understanding. |
| Use the information in the passage/ diagram/ graph/ table to… | The answer must be based on the information given in the question. Unless the information given in the question is used, no marks can be given, even if what you write is correct. |
On a similar matter, it is important that you don’t use the wrong adverb for a quantity.
Don’t use the terms
Quicker, slower, faster
for words such as time, acceleration, velocity.
Use terms
longer, shorter for time
greater or less for acceleration and velocity.
To say quicker time, you are talking about relativity! You want to say that the time will be less to do the same action.
Here are some links to past papers to give you some practice for your N5 exam. The HGMP stands for Hodder and Gibson Model Papers, the LL stands for Leicke and Leicke
| Multiple Choice | 2013 SQA SPC | 2014 SQA N5 | 2015 SQA N5 | 2016 SQA N5 | HGMP1 | HGMP2 | HGMP3 | LL PPA | LL PPB | LL PPC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity and Energy | |||||||||||
| Conservation of Energy | 3 | 4 | 16 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Electrical Charge Carriers and Electric Fields | 2 | 2 | 1,2 | 1,2,3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Potential Difference (Voltage) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| Practical Electrical and Electronic Circuits | 5 | 2, 3 | 3 | 1,3,4 | 2,4,5 | 3,4 | 5,6 | 2 | |||
| Ohm’s Law | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4,5 | 3,4 | 4,6 | ||||
| Electrical Power | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||||||
| Specific Heat Capacity | 6 | ||||||||||
| Gas Laws and the Kinetic model | 5, 6, 7 | 8, 6, 7 | 5, 6 | 5,6,7 | 6,7,8 | 6 | 7,8 | 6,7,8 | 7,8 | ||
| Waves and Radiation | |||||||||||
| Wave Parameters and Behaviours | 10, 11 | 8 | 7 | 8,9,10 | 10,11,13 | 7,8 | 9,10,11 | 9,10 | 9,10 | ||
| EM Spectrum | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | |||
| Light | 12, 13 | 11 | 14 | 9 | 12,13 | 12 | 12,13 | ||||
| Nuclear Radiation | 14, 15 | 10, 11, 12, 13 | 9,10,11,12,13 | 12,13 | 12,15 | 10,11,12,13,14 | 10,11,12,13,14 | 14,15 | 13,14,15 | 14,15 | |
| Dynamics and Space | |||||||||||
| Velocity and Displacement | 16, 17 | 14, 15 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 15,16 | 16,17 | 16,17 | 16 | |
| Velocity - Time graphs | 18 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | |||||
| Acceleration | 15 | 19 | 17 | ||||||||
| Newton’s Laws | 19,20 | 16, 17 | 16,17,18 | 17 | 18,20 | 16,17,18 | 18 | 19,20 | 19,20 | 18,20 | |
| Projectile Motion | 18 | 19 | 19 | 19 | |||||||
| Space Exploration | 19, 20 | 19 | 7 | ||||||||
| Cosmology | 18 | 19,20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | ||||||
When completing a past paper or prelim paper it is important for you to do an analysis of where you went wrong. Use the list below to see where your weak areas are and start working on them, but don’t forget all the other areas too.
| Mistake | No. of ocassions | Content statement |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong units | ||
| Did not understand question | ||
| Did not read question carefully | ||
| Wrong maths | ||
| No summary of question | ||
| No units | ||
| Wrong Formula | ||
| Had not revised this section | ||
| Wrong substitution | ||
| Wrong value for quantity | ||
| lack of working | ||
| changing units wrongly | ||
| significant figures | ||
| m/c wrongly recorded | ||
| no direction on vectors | ||
| failure to spot importance of vectors | ||
| leaving out a question | ||
| wrongly transcribing a number | ||
| poor/ missing explanation | ||
| wrong facts | ||
| wrong diagrams | ||
| not getting data from data sheet | ||
| powers of 10/ prefixes/sci-notation | ||
| ran out of time | ||
| lack of information esp on diagram | ||
| wrongly rearranging formulae | ||
| not using data book/ making up eq! | ||
| selecting the wrong equation | ||
| prefixes | ||
Although this table refers to points from the Intermediate 2 Physics paper they are exactly the same points that can arise for N5 & H so take note! Get some of these points on your revision timetable for Physics.
| Advice to centres for preparation of future candidates |
| • Candidates should be encouraged to take more care in reading questions thoroughly and ensuring that the instructions in questions are followed precisely. |
| • Candidates should be aware that they may need to state or derive expressions which are not listed in the Data Booklet; for example, the component of weight of an object down a slope. |
| • Candidates should be encouraged to present their numerical analyses in a clear and structured way – markers need to be able to follow the logic in their answers. |
| • Most candidates require more practice at taking account of the vector nature of velocity and impulse in numerical calculations. A wrong sign used for these in a substitution is wrong physics. |
| • Where a question asks candidates to “show” that a certain value is correct, they should write down any relevant formula followed by correct substitutions and calculations in a clear and structured way. |
| • The number of marks allocated to each part of a question should be used by candidates as a guide to the extent of calculation or explanation required. |
| • There is a need for candidates to work on developing a deeper understanding of Physics at Higher level beyond having the ability to answer numerically based questions. |
| • Most candidates need more practice in writing descriptions and explanations. They need to be more careful in the precision of the language used in their descriptions and explanations. For example, saying that an increase in temperature causes “molecules to collide more” means very little. A more precise description would be “molecules collide with the container walls harder and more frequently”. |
| • Candidates should be encouraged to study the content statements for the course. They must be able to give definitions of terms such as potential difference, irradiance etc. |
| • Candidates should label the origin and axes on sketch graphs. |
| • When a candidate makes two (or more) attempts for the same part of a question, they must score through the part(s) which they do not wish to be considered by the marker. |
| • Candidates should practise using all the prefixes listed in the content statements for the course. |
| • Candidates need to practise transferring knowledge from one Unit of the course to another; for example, the charge on a proton met in the Unit on Radiations and Matter may be used in a question based on the Unit on Electricity and Electronics. |
| • Many candidates need to develop a better understanding of how to quote “an appropriate number of significant figures” in final answers. |
| Advice to centres for preparation of future candidates (int 2) |
| Apart from the specific topics outlined under the heading “Areas which candidates found demanding” it is recommended that the following receive attention: |
| Units and prefixes |
| Scientific notation |
| Explanations of Physics phenomena – in general, descriptive questions were very much less well done than numerical questions. For example, many candidates could correctly calculate potential and kinetic energy but could give no sensible explanation as to why one was bigger than the other. |
| It is recommended that attention should be given to drawing conclusions in Problem Solving situations. |
This is the document that we will be going through. We wont have time to go through all the material, so you might want to use this as part of your revision. Do start your revision early and be sure to look over some of the ways to revise, I’ll get a link when I can locate it! It the Higher Revision section of the site there is a link to type of learner. Try the learning styles it will help you revise.
Click on the link below to go directly to the SQA website where you can make a personalized exam timetable.
https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/1439.html
If you’re less computer savy, or a parent he is the paper copy for this year
Nat 5 open ended questions booklet
Nat 5 Dyn 3 Skills and Open ended
Thanks to Mr Cavers, and Belmont Academy for sorting the N5 past papers into topic order.
Exam Practice Questions DYNAMICS
Exam Practice Questions ELECTRICITY
Exam Practice Questions ENERGY
Exam Practice Questions PROPERTIES OF MATTER
Exam Practice Questions RADIATION
Here are the test questions we attempted today. I will try to upload the answers and correct the mistakes a.s.a.p.
Many are from SG papers, with the others coming from Int 2 materials.
For Friday 6th January tackle any of the questions below
ALL CREDIT PAPERS
| Paper | Questions |
| 2001 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11c, 12, 13 |
| 2002 | 3, 4 (some), 9, 12 |
| 2003 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14 |
| 2004 | 1 a, b, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15 |
| 2005 | 1, 4, 7, 8, 13 |
| 2006 | 2, 3, 4b, 5, 6, 11, 13 |
| 2007 | 1, 2, 4b, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14 |
| 2008 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6b, 7, 11, 12 |
Check the answers from Mr Mackenzie Physics- a few of you can log on to the computers on for people to check answers. SHUT DOWN at the end of the period.
I’ll try to upload the answers but I wont have access to the computer. Here is what I’ve managed to add just now. I’ll get it done asap
What Type of Learner are You?
Before you start a revision plan check out what kind of learner you are. This will then direct you to the best way for YOU to revise. Find your learning style
Once you’ve found your learning style take a look at the advice in the documents below. How to work to your learning style . learning style
study skills , study skills here is a powerpoint and pdf document of the power point to give some tips on revision.
Revision Documents
Nat 5 – Physical Quantities – Quantities and equations used at Nat 5
N5 WORKSHOP booklet 2017– Some hints to revision and relaxation ready prepared for your exam on 17th May 2017
