A Student's Guide to Surviving HSC Physics

Olivia is a current Year 12 student. For all things HSC Physics, check this out!

To the confusion of many students, HSC Physics is a combination of math and humanities, which is why the syllabus is being updated to a more math-y subject. To those who are following the old syllabus, here are a few ways you can do to survive HSC Physics. To those following the new syllabus, there may be some tips here that are applicable to you too!

Understanding the Content

Understanding the fundamental concepts in HSC Physics is really important to help you progress through the subject. Simple concepts such as Newton’s Law of Motion, Conservation of Energy and Momentum can really help understand more difficult concepts. Plus, it’s even more helpful when you’re writing short answer responses because you have to explain how these concepts are applied in real-life situations. An example of this is if a question were to ask you to explain the Slingshot Effect – you need to explain how Conservation of Momentum helps spacecrafts to travel further.

While going through the content, take note of any key terms you come across. I would recommend making a glossary of key terms out of this because these terms can enhance your short answer responses. Considering how stingy the physics papers are with lines, using key terms such as the Motor Effect or thermionic heating can help you save lines and shows that you know your stuff.

You should also know how to derive your formulae. This is really helpful when you’re combining concepts or if you need to prove a concept, say, if you’re proving that mass doesn’t impact the satellite keeping in orbit. Combining formulae is usually used when you’re trying to find a missing variable but the original formula results in having two missing variables, say, in P= VI. When you combine the power formula with Ohm’s Law, V= IR, you can calculate power without finding the voltage. These are the simple things you need to figure out so calculations aren’t really difficult. Speaking of formulae, know what formulae are on the formula sheet. Generally, formulae such as finding the period from the Pendulum Experiment is provided but there are some projectile motion formulae that make things easier, such as the formula to find u_x and u_y through trigonometry.

Writing Short Answer Responses for Conceptual-Based Questions

Once you’re able to understand how the formula works, apply fundamental concepts to these formulae to see how everything fits together. One of the difficult things in physics is to be able to explain a concept mathematically and in sentences. Including formulae in your responses can enhance your answer because you need to explain how the formula explains a concept. For example, a simple question from the Moving About preliminary course when you’re asked to explain how airbags prevent injuries on passengers can be answered by using the impulse formula where if the time taken to slow down increases, the force decreases due to time and force being indirectly proportional, as shown in the formula. Plus, in some instances, you may not be able to get full marks in a response if you didn’t include a formula.

Approaching Essay-Style Questions

I’ve gone through a variety of ways to help you enhance your understanding on the content to help write short answer responses that require you to explain concepts. However, the old syllabus also requires you to answer questions that sound more like humanities-style question, or as I like to call them, essay-style questions. Syllabus dot points in Motors and Generators or Ideas to Implementations can have questions were you have to discuss the impact of scientific discoveries or describe the role of a scientist in how they developed their invention. The most humanities-based syllabus dot point I’ve seen thus far is in Ideas to Implementations where one of the syllabus dot points requires you to discuss the social and political factors that influenced Einstein and Planck during World War 2. Is this ridiculous? Very, but your exam can be brutal. I’ve heard that this syllabus dot point can be worth up to six marks in exams. Unfortunately, these kinds of questions are inevitable.

A lot of teachers tend to just send you a PDF to read over the weekend or holidays. Unfortunately, this isn’t the best way since these emails can get lost. The best way for you to solidify your knowledge on these types of dot points is to summarise these PDFs into dot points – make sure the information is useful in helping you understand the syllabus dot point.

When approaching these kinds of questions, take note of the verb in the question. Your approach to an ‘assess’ question is different to an ‘explain’ question. Sometimes, these questions may ask you to evaluate a statement. Know the difference between these terms because there are key terms for specific verbs that can get you full marks. For example, a key phrase in responding to ‘explain’ questions are phrases like ‘as a result’ or ‘consequently’ to show the cause and effect. Questions such as ‘assess’ and ‘evaluate’ require you to make a judgement – usually these questions require you to refer to a statement. If not, include a judgement in your first sentence and set out your response like a discussion.

The amount of marks these questions are worth also give you an indication as to how many points you need to make. For a question that’s worth three marks and asks you to, say, discuss the pros and cons of a DC motor, set out your response where your opening sentence describes what a DC motor is and then go through the pros and cons. Personally, I would come up with one pro and one con argument to show the discussion. My final sentence is almost like an evaluation and I usually relate to how impactful it is to society. However, it depends on what the question is asking.

Studying for HSC Physics

Considering how HSC Physics is a combination of math and humanities, I would combine my study techniques for math and humanities. For the humanities component of the syllabus, my notes would be set out with a syllabus dot point and information in dot points underneath. Tables are also helpful for these sections, especially where syllabus dot points ask you to discuss the impacts of scientific discoveries. An example of this is discussing the impacts of transformers. Tables are great for organising your arguments for advantages and disadvantages. This makes life easier when there are ‘discuss’ questions.

For syllabus dot points where they ask you to do a practical investigation, recall the method you did in class and include them in your notes. I would also add what theoretical ideas apply to what you’re investigating. Diagrams are also important for these kinds of syllabus dot points, so graphs, equipment set up and any other diagrams that help explain a concept are really helpful. Even for content such as centripetal force or angle of re-entry can be enhanced by including a diagram.

I mentioned previously how deriving formulae is important. Include these derivations in your notes. Treat your notes like a condensed textbook – concise yet useful information such as formulae derivations. You should also include how these formulae are applied in questions. Here’s an example from my notes:

Notice how my examples include different types of formula so when I look back at my notes, I’m more exposed to different types of questions. That being said, make sure your notes aren’t filled with sample questions. Include at least three to five sample questions – projectile motion content will most likely require you to add more sample questions but include a variety. Speaking of formula, when including them in your notes, include what these pronumerals mean. You can easily get velocity (v) and volts (V) mixed up so take note of what these variables mean.

As you can see, the things that make HSC Physics difficult is the vastness of content that can be assessed, ranging from math-based questions to humanities-based questions, which is why it is quite difficult for me to summarise this whole article; the formulae is as important as the historical development.

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