Where the marks sit
AS Physics is examined on four papers: AS 1, Forces, Energy and Electricity (SPH11), and AS 2, Waves, Photons and Astronomy (SPH21), each 100 marks in 105 minutes, plus the practical units, AS 3A (SPH31), 40 marks in 60 minutes, and AS 3B (SPH32), 50 marks in 60 minutes. That is 290 marks across 330 minutes, examined from 2023 to 2025. The two theory papers run at just under a mark a minute, so an 8-mark structured calculation deserves close to eight minutes of working, not a rushed guess.
As with A2, the largest single mark-holder in our analysis is not a content topic but a skill: analysis, the practical work of drawing conclusions from data, which outweighs even Waves, the biggest content topic on the specification. Implementing and Evaluation, the other two AS 3 practical skill strands, also carry serious weight between them. Waves, Refraction and Quantum Physics follow as the heaviest content chapters. Split your revision time between content and practical technique deliberately, rather than treating AS 3 as a lighter add-on to the two theory papers.
Paper structure and timing
AS 1 is built mostly from structured multi-step mechanics and electricity calculations worth around 8 marks each, with a couple of graphical questions and one longer, applied calculation worth 13 marks. AS 2 mixes short wave-characteristic definitions with ray diagram and optical calculations, quantum and photon physics calculations, and one astrophysical Doppler question. AS 3A is a circus of four practical stations, roughly 12 minutes each plus changeover, each worth 10 marks: optical ray tracing, oscillations and timing, dimensional and density measurement, and electrical resistance. AS 3B is the written data-analysis paper, weighted toward one substantial 22-mark question on uncertainty and error propagation.
That uncertainty question on AS 3B is worth roughly the same as the entire AS 1 5-mark definition section, so it earns real, unhurried time, not a rushed final ten minutes. Work through it methodically: identify each source of uncertainty, apply the power rule where a variable is squared or cubed, and combine the percentage uncertainties before converting back to an absolute uncertainty on the final answer.
The highest-yield technique: convert units before you calculate
Multi-step calculations lose marks most often not from wrong physics but from a unit left unconverted. Fringe separation and slit spacing left in millimetres when the wavelength formula \( \lambda = \frac{ay}{d} \) expects metres, energy left in megajoules, time left in hours: convert every value to SI units on its own working line before the main calculation starts, and treat that line as part of your answer, not a mental step you skip.
Uncertainty questions repeatedly catch out the power rule: when a variable such as radius or period is raised to a power inside a formula, its percentage uncertainty must be multiplied by that power before it is combined with the others, for example tripling the percentage uncertainty in thickness for a term raised to the power of 3. Skipping that multiplication under-states the final uncertainty and loses marks even when every other step is right.
Graphs and practical work
Before plotting a single point, work out the range of your data and choose a scale that fills more than half the grid on both axes; a cramped plot in one corner of the grid loses marks even if every point is placed correctly. Draw gradient triangles that span at least 5 cm along an axis, and read gradient values from two points on the drawn line, never straight from the results table. Where a gradient carries a physical meaning with a sign, such as internal resistance from a terminal potential difference graph, keep the negative sign both in the gradient itself and in any value you quote from it.
CCEA conventions to know
Ray diagrams need clear direction arrows on every ray, and virtual rays should be shown dashed but still carry an arrow. "Show that" questions want your working quoted to at least one more significant figure than the value you are asked to show, with every step visible on the page, not just the final line.
Vector questions catch out candidates who subtract magnitudes instead of signed values. For a rebounding object, assign a positive direction first, give the rebound velocity a negative sign, and calculate the change using the signed values, not the two speeds subtracted from each other.
Exam day plan
Convert every non-standard unit to SI on its own line before you start a calculation. On AS 3B, budget real time for the uncertainty question and apply the power rule deliberately rather than from memory under pressure. Before finishing each practical station on AS 3A, check your gradient triangle and axis scale meet the size the mark scheme expects.