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Teacher guide

AQA GCSE Physics revision for teachers

These activities are mapped to AQA GCSE Physics 8463, the separate science, and they are marked as the student works. There are 35 across the eight topics of the specification. What makes this set different from most subjects here is how narrow it is by design. Twenty-two of the 35 ask the student to type a value rather than choose one, six involve a graph, and none of them are source or extract work. That suits the specification, which asks students to select an equation, rearrange it and use it far more often than it asks them to interpret a passage. Coverage is strongest on forces and waves, and thinnest on energy, the particle model, magnetism and space physics.

This page lists what we actually have for AQA GCSE Physics 8463. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

What this set is heavy on

Physics is the narrowest set of activities on this site, and that is worth saying before the list rather than leaving you to notice it.

Twenty-two of the thirty-five ask the student to type a value. Six involve a graph they read or plot. None of them are source or extract work, where a student marks up a passage or a photograph. On our geography pages that kind of activity is the majority; here there are none at all.

That is not a gap we have failed to fill. It follows the specification: this course asks students to choose an equation, rearrange it and use it far more often than it asks them to interpret a text. The activities are shaped like the assessment.

The practical consequence is that these are unusually good for the thing students avoid. A physics student will happily reread a definition of momentum and will not willingly do twenty calculations, and typing a value removes the escape route that four options on a screen always offer.

What we have, topic by topic

Thirty-five live activities across the eight topics: eight on forces, six on waves, five on electricity, four on atomic structure, and three each on energy, the particle model of matter, magnetism and electromagnetism, and space physics.

If you revise in specification order, note that the order and the coverage do not match. Energy is topic one and has three activities; forces is topic five and has eight. Planning around what exists will be more useful than working through from the front.

Finding the right one

The lists below group the activities by classroom use, worked out from what each contains. Two groupings are absent rather than empty: every one of the thirty-five suits homework and independent study, so headings for those would hold the whole page and separate nothing.

The three activities embedded below are playable here without an account.

Using them

Because none of this needs marking, it survives a full term. The arithmetic behind that claim, and what still needs a human, is on GCSE revision without a second marking load. For the practical side of running short recall sessions, including the seven ways they stop working, see running retrieval practice in a GCSE lesson. To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint.

Our past paper archive carries AQA's own Physics papers and mark schemes, free and unaltered.

What this page does not do

It does not cover the required practicals as a set.

It does not supply an equation sheet, because choosing the equation is usually the skill being practised.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Physics activity for AQA

35 activities, all mapped to AQA GCSE Physics (8463).

Good for starter (27)

Good for intervention (16)

Good for tutor time (7)

Good for mock preparation (7)

Good for cover lesson (1)

See all 35, by topic

Try it with your class

Edexcel Physics 20 minutes

Energy Stores & Transfers

16 steps, 10 interactive, 8 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Independent study Cover lesson
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

Which phrase should never appear in your answer, and why?

AQA Physics 14 minutes

Efficiency Engineer

13 steps, 8 interactive, 7 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Intervention
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

When a device transfers energy from one store to another, what happens to the TOTAL amount of energy?

Edexcel Physics 16 minutes

Circuit Builder

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Intervention Mock preparation
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

In a series circuit, what is true about the current?

Common questions

Is this the separate Physics or Combined Science?

Separate Physics, AQA 8463. Combined Science content sits under its own specification and does not include everything here. Every activity names the specification it is mapped to on its own page, so you can check before you set one.

Which topics are best covered?

Forces has the most at eight activities, then waves at six and electricity at five. Energy, the particle model, magnetism and space physics have three each. That is worth knowing if you plan revision in specification order, because the early topics are not the well covered ones here.

Is it mostly calculation?

Yes, deliberately. Twenty-two of the 35 include at least one question where the student types a value rather than picking from options, and six involve reading or plotting a graph. That is the highest calculation share of any subject on this site.

Do you cover the required practicals?

Not as a set. Some activities touch practical content where the specification requires it, but nothing here is built around the required practicals, and we would rather say so than let you discover it in a lesson.

Are the equations given to students?

Our activities do not supply an equation sheet, because selecting the right equation is usually the part being tested. Check the current AQA rules on what is provided in the exam, since that is the board's decision and it has changed before.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

Create a free teacher account

Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

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