Cambridge Tutors College > Courses > GCSE Course > GCSE Physics

Cambridge International Board (CIE: 0972)

  • OUTLINE OF THE COURSE

This is an intensive one-year course that is largely covered in the autumn and spring terms. Students’ practical skills are developed during the course and assessed in a final written examination.

 

 

Section Topic Content
1 General Physics
  • Basic measurements, units and  mathematics
  • Motion
  • Forces
  • Equilibrium
  • Energy, work and power
  • Pressure
2 Thermal Physics
  • States of matter
  • Kinetic theory
  • Temperature
  • Specific heat capacity
  • Conduction, convection and radiation
  • Melting, boiling and evaporation
3 Waves
  • Wave properties
  • Light refraction/reflection
  • Diffraction
  • Electromagnetic spectrum
  • Sound
4 Electricity and Magnetism
  • Safety
  • Circuits and components
  • Current, potential difference and resistance
  • Magnetism
  • Electromagnetism: generators, transformers and motors
5 Atomic Physics
  • Radioactivity and its detection
  • Alpha, beta and gamma radiation
  • Half life
  • Isotopes
  • Nuclear atom
6 Space Physics
  • The Earth
  • The Solar System
  • The Sun and Stars
  • The Universe
  • Birth, life and Death of Stars
  • Redshift
  • Big Bang Theory

 

EXAMINATIONS

  All candidates take 3 papers.

Exam Content Duration Weighting
Paper 1 (Core) or 2 (Extended) Multiple choice ¾ hour 30 %
Paper 3 (Core) or 4 (Extended) Theory 1¼ hours 50 %
Paper 6 Alternative to practical (written) 1 hour 20 %

Paper 1 and 3 tests skills appropriate to grades 5 to 1, Paper 2 and 4 tests skills enabling the award of grades 9 to 1 (9 is the highest grade).

  • TEXT BOOK:

Complete Physics for Cambridge IGCSE by Stephen Pople, published by OUP