At a glance
The course in numbers
How to read it. One row is one 45-minute lesson; its pack holds the plan, worksheet and quiz. The week column counts 3 lessons a week until you change the control above; the sheet you download uses the same numbers. Each topic ends at an assessment point, its question bank, which you can assign in the app for a marked score. The learning intention is the first idea of each lesson in the students' own pages; the traps are the examiner traps those pages pre-empt.
AS Level
Year 1: the AS topics
Weeks 1 to 12Topic 1Physical quantities and units
Week 1| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1-1.2 | Physical quantities and units | Reduce each side of an equation to SI base units and put them on a balance. |
| 1 | 1.3 | Errors and uncertainties | The bullseye is the true value. |
| 1 | 1.4 | Scalars and vectors | Set two vectors and watch their resultant form nose to tail, with its perpendicular components drawn in. |
| 1 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 53 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not treat a successful homogeneity check as proof.
- Do not claim that "taking more readings improves accuracy".
- Do not add vectors by adding their magnitudes.
2.1Kinematics
Week 2| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2.1 | Linear motion and graphs | Set an initial velocity and an acceleration, then run the trolley. |
| 2 | 2.1 | Equations of motion | Drop a ball from rest. |
| 2 | 2.1 | Projectile motion | Set a launch speed and angle and fire. |
| 2 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 51 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Match the operation to the right graph.
- Two slips cost marks here.
- Never mix the components.
Topic 3Dynamics
Week 3| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3.1 | Newton's laws and momentum | A constant force pushes a cart on a frictionless track. |
| 3 | 3.2 | Motion with resistance | Drop an object and watch the two arrows. |
| 3 | 3.3 | Conservation of momentum | Set the masses and velocities of two trolleys and choose elastic or inelastic. |
| 3 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 51 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The classic error is to pair the weight of an object with the normal contact force from the surface it rests on.
- Terminal velocity is a constant velocity, which means the acceleration is zero, not that there are no forces.
- Two traps recur.
Topic 4Forces, density and pressure
Week 4| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4.1 | Turning effects of forces | Slide the loads along the beam and change their weights. |
| 4 | 4.2 | Equilibrium of forces | A weight hangs from two strings. |
| 4 | 4.3 | Density and pressure | Lower a 1 litre block into the liquid and change the two densities. |
| 4 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 51 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Use the perpendicular distance, not the distance along the force or the slanted distance to the pivot.
- Equilibrium needs both conditions.
- Liquid pressure depends on depth and density only, never on the shape of the container or the area of its base; a narrow tube and a wide tank filled to the same depth have the same pressure at the bottom.
Topic 5Work, energy and power
Week 5| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5.1 | Work, energy and power | A constant force drags a crate at a steady speed against friction. |
| 5 | 5.2 | Kinetic and potential energy | Release the ball and watch the two energy bars trade: gravitational potential energy falls as kinetic energy rises, while the total stays fixed. |
| 5 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Two slips recur.
- Kinetic energy depends on v², not v, so doubling the speed quadruples the kinetic energy (and the braking distance).
Topic 6Deformation of solids
Weeks 5 to 6| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 6.1 | Stress, strain and the Young modulus | Add load to the wire and trace the force-extension graph. |
| 6 | 6.2 | Elastic potential energy | Stretch the spring and watch the shaded triangle under the force-extension line grow. |
| 6 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 38 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Keep the limits straight: the limit of proportionality is where the graph stops being straight, while the elastic limit is where permanent deformation begins; they are close but not the same.
- The stored energy is the triangle area ½Fx, not Fx; using the full rectangle doubles the answer.
Topic 7Waves
Weeks 6 to 7| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 7.1 | Progressive waves | Adjust the frequency and wavelength and watch the wave travel; the read-out confirms v = fλ at every setting. |
| 6 | 7.2 | Transverse and longitudinal waves | Switch between transverse and longitudinal and watch how the particles move relative to the energy travel. |
| 7 | 7.3 | The Doppler effect | Move the source and watch the circular wavefronts crowd together in front and spread out behind. |
| 7 | 7.4 | The electromagnetic spectrum | Move along the spectrum and watch the wavelength and frequency trade off through c = fλ, with the named regions and the narrow visible band highlighted. |
| 7 | 7.5 | Polarisation | Rotate the second polariser and watch the transmitted intensity follow I = I₀ cos²θ: bright when aligned, dark when crossed at 90°. |
| 7 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Keep amplitude and intensity distinct: intensity goes as amplitude squared, so halving the amplitude quarters the intensity.
- Do not confuse the graph shape with the motion.
- Get the sign right: subtract the source speed in the denominator for an approaching source (which raises the frequency) and add it for a receding one.
Topic 8Superposition
Weeks 8 to 9| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 8.1 | Stationary waves | Step through the harmonics of a string fixed at both ends and watch nodes stay still while antinodes oscillate. |
| 8 | 8.2 | Diffraction | Change the gap width relative to the wavelength and watch the diffracted wavefronts spread. |
| 8 | 8.3 | Interference | Change the slit separation, the wavelength and the screen distance and watch the fringe pattern respond exactly as λ = ax / D predicts. |
| 9 | 8.4 | The diffraction grating | Set the wavelength and the grating spacing and watch the orders appear at the angles given by d sinθ = nλ, with the highest visible order limited by sinθ ≤ 1. |
| 9 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 48 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Adjacent nodes are half a wavelength apart, not a whole wavelength, so the wavelength is twice the node spacing.
- Diffraction does not change the wavelength, frequency or speed of the wave; it only changes its direction of spread.
- The two sources must be coherent; two ordinary lamps will not interfere because their phase difference is random.
Topic 9Electricity
Weeks 9 to 10| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 9.1 | Electric current | Watch the charge carriers drift along the conductor. |
| 9 | 9.2 | Potential difference and power | Set the voltage across a resistor and the current follows from V = IR; watch the power dissipated track P = VI and the three equivalent forms agree at every setting. |
| 10 | 9.3 | Resistance and resistivity | Sweep the voltage and plot the I-V characteristic for a metal conductor, a filament lamp and a diode, and see why only the first is a straight line through the origin. |
| 10 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 42 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Keep the symbols in I = Anvq straight: n is the number of carriers per unit volume, not the total number in the wire.
- The three power formulas are equivalent, not different physics: pick the one matching your known quantities.
- Resistance R = V/I is the value at a point, found from the coordinates, not the gradient, on a curved I-V graph.
Topic 10D.C. circuits
Weeks 10 to 11| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10.1 | E.M.F. and internal resistance | Draw more current from the cell and watch the terminal voltage fall below the e.m.f. by the lost volts Ir. |
| 10 | 10.2 | Kirchhoff laws | Switch resistors between series and parallel and watch the currents split and recombine while the totals obey both Kirchhoff laws and the combination rules. |
| 11 | 10.3 | Potential dividers | Move the divider tap, or swap in a thermistor or LDR, and watch the output voltage follow V × R₂ / (R₁ + R₂) as the resistances change. |
| 11 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 42 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The e.m.f. is not simply the voltage you read across a battery in use; that is the terminal p.d., which is lower by Ir.
- Add resistances directly only in series; in parallel you must add the reciprocals, and the result is always less than the smallest branch.
- Use the resistance of the component you take the output across in the numerator: Vₒᵤₜ = V R₂/(R₁ + R₂).
Topic 11Particle physics
Weeks 11 to 12| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 11.1 | The atom and radiation | Fire alpha particles past a nucleus and vary the aim. |
| 11 | 11.1 | Antiparticles and neutrinos | Watch a neutron decay: an electron and an antineutrino fly out, sharing the available energy. |
| 12 | 11.2 | Quarks and leptons | Combine up and down quarks and read off the total charge. |
| 12 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 42 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Most alpha particles pass straight through the foil because the atom is mostly empty space; only a near head-on approach to the tiny nucleus gives a large deflection.
- An antiparticle has the same mass as its particle, only the charge is reversed; do not say it is lighter or heavier.
- Quark charges are fractional: up is +2/3 e and down is −1/3 e, and they add to give the whole-number charge of the particle.
A Level (A2)
Year 2: the A2 topics
Weeks 12 to 26Topic 12Motion in a circle
Week 12| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 12.1 | Angular quantities | A point on a spinning disc sweeps out equal angles in equal times. |
| 12 | 12.2 | Centripetal acceleration and force | Swing a ball on a string in a vertical circle. |
Topic 13Gravitational fields
Week 13| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 13.1-13.2 | Gravitational field and Newton's law | A mass placed near a planet feels a pull even with nothing touching it. |
| 13 | 13.2-13.3 | Orbits and field strength | A satellite in a circular orbit has only one force on it: the planet's gravity, and that single force is the centripetal force. |
| 13 | 13.4 | Gravitational potential | Gravitational potential is the work done per kilogram to bring a mass from infinity to a point. |
Topic 14Temperature
Week 14| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 14.1 | Thermal equilibrium | Bring a hot object and a cold one together and energy crosses the boundary from hot to cold. |
| 14 | 14.2 | Temperature scales | Many properties change with temperature, but two thermometers using different properties need not agree between their fixed points. |
| 14 | 14.3 | Specific heat and latent heat | Supply energy at a steady rate and the temperature climbs on the sloping parts and holds steady on the flat parts. |
Topic 15Ideal gases
Week 15| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 15.1 | The mole | Atoms and molecules come in numbers far too large to count one by one, so we group them: one mole is a fixed, enormous number of particles, the Avogadro number. |
| 15 | 15.2 | The equation of state | For a fixed amount of ideal gas the three quantities are tied by one relation. |
| 15 | 15.3 | Kinetic theory of gases | Pressure is not a property of single molecules; it is the steady drumbeat of countless collisions on the walls. |
Topic 16Thermodynamics
Week 16| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 16.1 | Internal energy | Internal energy is not the heat in a body or its temperature; it is the grand total of the random kinetic and potential energies of every molecule. |
| 16 | 16.2 | The first law of thermodynamics | When a gas expands at constant pressure it pushes a piston back, doing work W = pΔV. |
Topic 17Oscillations
Weeks 16 to 17| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 17.1 | Simple harmonic motion | Set an oscillation going and three curves emerge together. |
| 17 | 17.2 | Energy in simple harmonic motion | As an oscillator moves, energy sloshes between kinetic and potential. |
| 17 | 17.3 | Damping and resonance | A real oscillator loses energy to resistive forces and its amplitude decays: it is damped. |
Topic 18Electric fields
Weeks 17 to 19| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 18.1 | Electric fields and field lines | Switch between a single charge, a dipole, like charges and parallel plates. |
| 18 | 18.2 | Uniform electric fields | Set the plate voltage and separation to control E = V/d, then watch a positive charge curve toward the negative plate. |
| 18 | 18.3 | Coulomb’s law | Vary the two charges and their separation. |
| 18 | 18.4 | Electric field of a point charge | Field lines stream straight out from a positive charge or straight in to a negative one. |
| 19 | 18.5 | Electric potential | Compare the 1/r potential with the 1/r² field for the same point charge. |
Topic 19Capacitance
Weeks 19 to 20| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 19.1 | Capacitors and capacitance | Switch between a single capacitor and series or parallel pairs. |
| 19 | 19.2 | Energy stored in a capacitor | Vary C and V and watch the shaded triangle under the V-Q line. |
| 20 | 19.3 | Discharging a capacitor | Adjust R and C to change the time constant and watch the curve stretch or steepen. |
Topic 20Magnetic fields
Weeks 20 to 21| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 20.1 | Magnetic fields and field lines | Switch the source between a bar magnet, a straight wire and a solenoid. |
| 20 | 20.2 | Force on a current-carrying conductor | Vary the flux density B, the current I, the length L in the field and the angle θ. |
| 21 | 20.3 | Force on a moving charge | In the magnetic field, the force points to the centre and the charge loops round; change the speed or the field and watch the radius follow r = mv / BQ. |
| 21 | 20.4 | Magnetic fields due to currents | Choose the direction and size of each current and the separation. |
| 21 | 20.5 | Electromagnetic induction | As the magnet moves through the coil the flux linkage rises and falls, and the e.m.f. follows its rate of change, reversing as the magnet leaves instead of enters. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Field lines never cross, because the field has a single direction at each point.
- The angle factor is sinθ, not cosθ, and θ is between the current and the field: the force is a maximum when they are perpendicular and zero when parallel.
- The magnetic force does no work: it changes direction, not speed, so the path is a circle, not a spiral that speeds up.
Topic 21Alternating currents
Week 22| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 21.1 | Characteristics of alternating current | The top trace is the current, i = I₀ sinωt. |
| 22 | 21.2 | Rectification and smoothing | Switch between half-wave and full-wave rectification and watch the output. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The simple average of a sinusoidal current over a whole cycle is zero, which is why we use the r.m.s. value instead.
- The smoothing capacitor goes in parallel with the load, not in series.
Topic 22Quantum physics
Weeks 22 to 23| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 22.1 | Energy and momentum of a photon | Slide through the spectrum and watch the energy, frequency and momentum move together. |
| 23 | 22.2 | The photoelectric effect | Pick a metal, then lower the wavelength until electrons just begin to escape. |
| 23 | 22.3 | Wave-particle duality | Fire electrons through a thin graphite film and they form diffraction rings. |
| 23 | 22.4 | Energy levels and line spectra | Choose two hydrogen levels and watch the photon. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- A photon's energy is set by its frequency, not by the brightness of the light.
- Wave theory predicts that any frequency should eventually free electrons if you wait or brighten the light.
- Everyday objects also have a de Broglie wavelength, but it is fantastically small (because their momentum is huge), so they never show diffraction.
Topic 23Nuclear physics
Week 24| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 23.1 | Mass defect and binding energy | Slide along the binding-energy-per-nucleon curve. |
| 24 | 23.2 | Radioactive decay | Each nucleus winks out at random, but watch the count: with a whole sample it halves in a fixed half-life and traces the exponential, whatever half-life you choose. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Stability is measured by binding energy per nucleon, not total binding energy (uranium has the largest total but is far less stable than iron).
- Activity and count rate fall on the same exponential as N, because both are proportional to N.
Topic 24Medical physics
Weeks 24 to 25| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 24.1 | Production and use of ultrasound | Set the acoustic impedance of two media and watch how much of the pulse echoes back. |
| 25 | 24.2 | Production and use of X-rays | Choose a material and a thickness and watch the transmitted intensity fall along I = I₀e⁻μᵛ. |
| 25 | 24.3 | PET scanning | Each annihilation sends two gamma photons to opposite detectors; the line joining them runs through the tracer. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The reflection coefficient depends on the difference in impedance, not the impedance itself; matched media (small Z₁ − Z₂) give almost no echo.
- Only a small fraction of the electrons' energy becomes X-rays, the rest is heat, which is why the target must be cooled (often a rotating anode).
- The 0.511 MeV photon energy is exactly the rest energy of an electron, m₋c²; two are produced so the total comes from the electron and the positron.
Topic 25Astronomy and cosmology
Weeks 25 to 26| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 25.1 | Standard candles and the inverse square law | Set the distance and the luminosity, and watch the received flux fall away. |
| 26 | 25.2 | Stellar radii: Wien and Stefan-Boltzmann | Drag the temperature and watch the black-body curve: its peak slides to shorter wavelengths as the star heats up, exactly as Wien's law demands, while the whole curve climbs because the power per unit area grows as T⁴. |
| 26 | 25.3 | Hubble's law and the Big Bang | Set a galaxy's distance and watch its spectral line slide into the red while the point climbs the straight v = H₀d line. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Keep luminosity (emitted, intrinsic, in W) apart from radiant flux intensity (received, in W m⁻²).
- In Wien's law λₘₐₓ is inversely proportional to T: a hotter star has a shorter peak wavelength, not a longer one.
- A redshift is a shift to longer wavelength and lower frequency.
Also for this course
Beyond the scheme
Lesson packs77 packs: plan, worksheet, quiz
Question bankBuild a test from every course
PlannerBlock out the term
Classes and gradebookAssign the banks, track everyone
Student syllabus pageA-Level Physics 9702
Editable originalsThe 9702 scheme as Word and Excel
Original work by the TheLucidSTEM team. Week numbers assume 3 lessons a week unless you change the control; the download carries the numbers shown.