How to revise for a physics degree exam
How to revise university physics: exams ask for derivations from memory and unseen problems. What changes after A-Level, the research, and a term plan.
University Physics
THE KERFOX BLOG
The word the mark scheme wants, and why.
What the exam boards actually credit, from their own examiner reports. What the research on revision actually found, at the size it found it.
9 posts, newest first
The word that scores.
Struck through, the word the examiners refused. Under it, the word they credit, from the board’s own reports and mark schemes.
Active site, binding site or receptor: AQA A-level Biology
AQA A-Level Biology
An enzyme has an active site, an antibody a binding site, a cell a receptor. AQA’s A-level Biology reports flag the wrong word 4 times on 3 papers.
Denatured, not killed: the GCSE Biology enzyme word
AQA GCSE Biology
AQA’s GCSE Biology mark schemes credit “denatured” and carry the line “do not accept enzyme(s) killed”. The line, the reason, and the words that are allowed.
Less dense, not lighter: 6 A-level Chemistry answers refused
AQA A-Level Chemistry
AQA’s report on the June 2023 A-level Chemistry Paper 3 refuses six answers by name and gives its reasons. Each ruling, and the word to write instead.
Nucleophile: AQA A-level wants “electron pair donor”
AQA A-Level Chemistry
AQA’s June 2018 A-level Chemistry Paper 2 report: calling a nucleophile an “electron donor” lost the mark. The missing word, and what else was refused.
Every claim names the document it came from, so you can go and look.
The rest of the shelf.
Why rereading your notes feels like revision and mostly is not
Study science
Rereading wins if the test is in 5 minutes and loses by a week. The experiment that showed it, what students actually do, and what to do instead.
The same hours, spread out: how far apart to space revision
Study science
4 hours across 4 days beats 4 hours in one evening for a test more than a day away. The evidence, the gap to leave, and why cramming feels better.
An extra hour of revision costs about eight minutes of sleep
Study science
Five hundred students kept diaries for a fortnight. Studying more than usual cost little, and it hurt the next day only when the hour had come out of sleep.
How AQA marks a 6-mark A-level Chemistry question
AQA A-Level Chemistry
A levels-of-response answer is marked twice: for its shape, then for its content. What AQA’s examiners said a Level 3 answer looks like, and what holds it back.
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