During the exam
Section 1 - Multiple choice
- Read the question. (This sounds obvious but many students lose marks by not correctly understanding what is being asked)
- Consider your own likely answer to the question before reading the answers given. Incorrect answers are termed ‘distractors’ for a reason. Read all the possible options before choosing your answer.
- Although it won't get you marks, setting out full working prior to any calculation is often a more reliable way to obtain the correct response. This can be worth the extra time taken.
- If a question is particularly challenging leave it until last to ensure all accessible questions are attempted in the allocated time. Mark any questions you haven't answered so they are easy to find again.
- Finally, do not leave any blank answers on the grid. Even if you're not sure, you have, on average, a 20% chance of scoring a mark from a random answer!
Section 2 - Written or extended response questions
- Read the question fully. (This advice is repeated from paper 1, but it is SO important!)
- To ensure a good understanding of a question, summarise any numerical data as a list along with units. If you need to convert units, do this before considering the relationship to use. A common mistake is to start with a wrongly chosen equation and try to fit the data from the question to an incorrect relationship!
- Check what wording is being used to ask the question. 'State' is very different to 'explain' or 'calculate'. A list of question types used in the exam are listed on the third page of the general marking instructions included in the question paper on the SQA 2024 Physics Marking Instructions. The number of marks available can be a guide as to the level of difficulty or depth of answer required.
- If an answer is to be re-worked, write the revised version and then cross through the original. SQA markers will ignore two possible answers, any ambiguity will not be rewarded. It is not up to the marker to choose the correct answer!
