The AS Course
Repton offers the AQA Physics Syllabus A at A-level. It is not necessary to have followed a specific GCSE course as a pre-requisite but a good grounding in the subject will be expected. Students should ideally hold at least a grade A in Physics or Science and Additional Science, along with a grade A in Mathematics at GCSE too; anything less and the pupil is unlikely to cope with the demands of the course.
The six-unit structure of the AS/A2 course contains traditional curriculum physics and includes material covering mechanics, electricity, waves, nuclear & particle physics and thermal processes. The first three units, which form the AS course, contain the following topics:
Unit 1 – “Particles, Quantum Phenomena and Electricity”
The nucleus including particles, antiparticles and photons; hadrons and leptons; the quark model; Quantum phenomena including photoelectricity, energy levels and photon emission, wave particle duality; Electricity including electrical quantities, resistivity, circuits and components, and alternating current.
Unit 2 – “Mechanics, Materials and Waves”
Mechanics, including motion along a straight line, projectile motion, Newton’s laws of motion, energy and power; Properties of materials, including density and the Young modulus; Waves, including longitudinal and transverse waves,
progressive and stationary waves, refraction, diffraction and interference.
Unit 3 – “Investigative and Practical Skills in AS Physics”
Selection and use of various equipment; Processing of data; Making observations and measurements; Analysing and evaluation of results.
Units 1 and 2 are assessed by traditional written examination papers of structured questions each worth 40% of the AS course (20% of the overall A level). The third unit is a practical assessment worth 20% of the AS (10% of the overall A level).
The A2 Course
The A2 course consists of a further three units covering the following topics:
Unit 4 – “Fields and Further Mechanics”
Further mechanics, including momentum, circular motion and simple harmonic motion; Fields, including gravitational
fields, electric fields, capacitors, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic induction.
Unit 5 – “Nuclear Physics, Thermal Physics and Medical Physics”
Probing the nucleus, radioactivity, nuclear instability, nuclear energy, thermal properties of materials, ideal
gases, kinetic theory of gases; Physics of the eye and ear, biological measurement, nonionised and x-ray imaging.
Unit 6 – “Investigative and Practical Skills in AS Physics”
This is another formal assessment of practical skills but now with an increased sophistication of mathematical analysis appropriate to A level.
Unit 4, worth 20%, is a more advanced treatment of topics covered in the AS course and is assessed by a mixture of multiple choice questions and structured questions. Unit 5, worth 20%, contains two elements – the core Nuclear & Thermal Physics followed by the selected option element of Medical Physics.
As a science, Physics is more than a catalogue of facts and formulae. Within the Repton curriculum it is presented as a process of developing concepts and models and a structure of closely interwoven facts and ideas. Together the structure and process provide a field of knowledge which raises certain questions about the nature of the physical world around us and offers methods and material for the resolution of these questions.