Contents
Introduction
Getting a top grade in A Level physics is challenging, but if you work effectively throughout the academic year you will be able to achieve the results you are looking for.
In this post, we’ll be covering our top tips for studying effectively and getting a high grade in A Level physics.
Let’s dive in!
How to approach your studies for a top grade
If you’re aiming for a top grade in A Level physics, you will need to make a consistent and sustained effort throughout the academic year. The best approach will be to master topics as fully as possible as you cover them because during revision there won’t be much time to fill in gaps or learn topics from scratch.
It will therefore be important throughout the academic year to:
- Do extra reading for a solid understanding
- Do plenty of practice questions to hone your problem solving skills
- Write summaries as you complete each topic
- Ensure your summaries cover all your exam board’s specification points for each topic (including required practicals)
- Get help if you are stuck
This will require drive and determination, but if you are committed to the process you will succeed!
Getting organised
The first thing to do is to gather your resources:
- Your exam board’s specification
- The textbooks you will use
- Any practice question books you will use
- Past papers
- Revision guides
You might want to create a folder for your class notes and homework and another for your summaries. You can then use your exam board’s specification as a checklist when you’re writing your summaries to ensure you’ve covered every required point for each topic.
Study tips and techniques
Independent study will be the driving force behind your success. To make this time effective, there are some great techniques you can use to achieve results! You can:
- Manage your time
- Use multiple sources
- Learn actively, not passively
- Make it fun
Time management essentially consists of breaking an outcome down into the tasks required to achieve it, and scheduling them. For example, if you want to write summaries of mechanics and materials over the next month, you can break this down into subsections that you schedule each week. In any given week over the next month, you will therefore have one or more slots for your homework and a special slot for creating the summaries!
Scheduling your tasks successfully also involves being as realistic as you can about how long they will take. When the scheduled time arrives, you will need to remove distractions and allow yourself to focus on the scheduled task until it is complete.
It is also helpful to know when your brain works best. For example, are you a morning person or does your brain wake up in the evening? It’s best to schedule study time for when your brain is in gear!
Multiple sources can be extremely helpful when learning a new topic. Different explanations of the same subject matter can help you consolidate your understanding and even make a difficult concept click. You could consider, for example, reading from two textbooks as standard.
There should also be a healthy proportion of active study in your schedule. For example, instead of just listening in class and reading textbooks (which are passive forms of study), it will also be important to write summaries, practice plenty of unseen questions and regularly test your recall (which are all active). This will ensure you retain more information and are able to you check that you can successfully apply the physics you’ve learnt.
Finally, it’s important to make your studies fun! Use bright colours in your notes. Tick off your tasks when you’ve achieved them. Give yourself a gold star! Make your desk clean and inviting. Wear your favourite socks to study. This will help you enjoy your studies, feel a sense of achievement and keep the momentum going.
Making the most of lesson time
While independent study is the foundation of your success, it’s also important to make the most of valuable lesson time. Classroom time is a golden opportunity to benefit from your teacher’s delivery and to ask questions.
If you’ve read around topics in advance, it will be easier to catch the details and develop your initial understanding during the lesson.
It will also be well worth it to get into the habit of participating actively in class. As you develop confidence asking questions and discussing new concepts, it will get easier and more fun and you’ll be able to resolve any confusions quickly for a secure understanding of the subject matter.
How to get really good at A Level physics
The simple truth is that being really good at A Level physics means becoming highly proficient at solving the types of problems that come up in exams.
This is entirely possible if you do a lot of practice questions and make sure you learn from them. Over the course of the academic year including during revision, you could aim for something like: all the questions in your textbook, all the questions from a revision guide (or other source of exam style questions), and at least 10 past papers for each exam. Basically, keep doing questions until you get really good!
As you mark your answers and learn from your mistakes, you can update your summaries to enrich them with useful details. This process of making mistakes and learning from them will enable you to develop your problem solving skills to a high level and generate a robust set of notes to revise from.
How to memorise all the equations and facts
Although succeeding in A Level physics is based on understanding concepts and developing your problem solving skills, it’s also true that there are a lot of equations, facts and definitions to memorise.
It’s much easier to memorise facts and equations when you understand exactly what they mean and the physics behind them. So understanding the concepts is the first step.
Then you need to pump the material into your long term memory! Ultimately, you’ll need to write lists of what you want to memorise and test yourself regularly. If you prefer to learn visually, you could also draw diagrams of what you’re memorising. If you like audio, you could record yourself reading out definitions and listen back. Whatever method you use, getting these facts, definitions and equations lodged in your brain will put you in a much stronger position for the exam.
Speaking of the exam, facts and definitions are easy marks! And even though the equations are in the formula sheet, if you know them off by heart it will be easier to recognise what physics to apply in unfamiliar questions. You can always – and should – use the formula sheet as a back up.
Staying motivated
There is a lot of work to be done, and therefore staying motivated in the long term is key. Motivation is not so much about trying to convince yourself to work, but more about making sure that your goal is motivating. Two things need to happen:
- You need to believe that the goal is realistic (you can achieve it)
- The goal needs to be compelling, exciting, and worth the effort
With those boxes ticked, you can plan and implement! You can start by converting your big goal (succeeding in exams) into some smaller goals (e.g. reading about waves using two textbooks; writing nuclear and particle physics summaries; doing all electricity practice questions from a revision book). Then decide when these smaller goals need to be completed by and schedule the work that you’ll need to do.
Maybe you need a couple of hours two evenings a week for a month to get these done. Whatever it is, if you break it down into smaller tasks and schedule them, you’ll be able to track your progress and feel a sense of achievement building.
This will only increase your confidence that you can achieve your goal, which will make it even more compelling and exciting to work for.
What to do if you get stuck
If you really can’t make sense of a concept or topic, it’s important to get help. There’s no point in going round in circles getting confused!
Great sources of help include:
- A different textbook with an alternative explanation
- Our blog that explains topics
- Your teacher
- Your friends – they will be happy to help!
- Someone you know in the year above
- YouTube channels about A Level physics
If you identify a topic you’re struggling with, you deserve some help to understand it! Be proactive and reach out for help. It might take some extra work, but there is no topic in A Level physics you can’t master if you seek help and persevere with it.
Don’t forget maths and practical skills
Crucial for exam performance are:
- Maths
- Measurements
- Uncertainties
- Interpreting graphs
- Units
- Prefixes
Make time to create notes on these side topics because they’re really important for scoring easy marks, navigating calculations successfully, and answering graph-based and experiment-based questions. If you make friends with these side topics, they will reward you with a smoother exam experience and higher marks.
Positioning yourself for success in exams
To position yourself for success, you’ll need to bring everything together during revision so that your knowledge is sharp, your problem solving skills are on point, and your performance ideally peaks on exam day.
Planning your revision strategically can help manage this intensive period as you ramp up for exams. Plus, if you feel you have a plan and know what you’re doing, this can reduce the stress of the situation.
Spending a bit of time learning good exam technique also makes a difference. It will be important to manage your time during the exams and know how to present your answers so that it’s clear to the examiner that you deserve the marks.
Above all, looking after yourself during this period will help you relax and concentrate on the day, which is of the utmost importance. If you’ve applied yourself throughout the academic year and approached your revision sensibly, there is every reason to believe you will succeed!
Conclusion
Getting a high grade in A Level physics takes a lot of work, but with dedication, good study techniques, and an effective revision plan, I have every confidence you can achieve the results you are looking for!
Happy studying.
