VCE Physics practice exams and worked solutions

What the course asks of you

Motion and forces

Newton's laws, momentum and energy applied to collisions and circular motion.

Fields

Gravitational, electric and magnetic fields, and the forces they exert.

Electricity

Circuits, generators and transformers, and where energy goes.

Light and matter

Wave and particle behaviour, and the evidence for each.

Sample questions

Written for this site, in the style of the exam. Answer first, then see the model response and what the marks were for.

1. Question 1

   1 mark

   A 2.0 kg trolley moving at 3.0 m/s collides with a stationary 4.0 kg trolley and they move off together. Their common velocity immediately after the collision is:
   A. 0.50 m/sB. 1.0 m/sC. 1.5 m/sD. 3.0 m/s
   Check answer

2. Question 2

   4 marks

   A car of mass 1200 kg travels around a horizontal circular bend of radius 50 m at a constant speed of 15 m/s. a. Calculate the magnitude of the net force acting on the car. b. State the direction of this force and identify what provides it.
   Show the model answer

3. Question 3

   3 marks

   Explain why a transformer will not operate on a direct current supply.
   Show the model answer

4. Question 4

   3 marks

   In a photoelectric effect experiment, increasing the intensity of the incident light while keeping its frequency constant increases the number of photoelectrons emitted but not their maximum kinetic energy. Explain this observation.
   Show the model answer

What the Physics exam is testing

Physics rewards students who can say why, in words, about something they have just calculated. The arithmetic is rarely the hard part.

Explanations carry as many marks as calculations

A question asking you to explain what happens to the current wants physics in sentences — cause, mechanism, consequence. Numbers alone, however correct, do not answer it.

A formula sheet and data are provided

Which means the marks are not for remembering the relationship but for choosing the right one and knowing what its symbols mean in the situation described.

Units and significant figures are marked

A correct number with the wrong unit is not a correct answer. This is the cheapest mark in the subject to lose and the cheapest to stop losing.

Diagrams are answers, not decoration

Where a question asks for a field, a ray or a force, the diagram is what is marked: arrows in the right direction, labelled, drawn from the right point.

Where Physics marks are actually lost

In explanations that describe rather than explain. "The current decreases" restates the question; "the current decreases because the induced emf opposes the change in flux" answers it. When a question asks why, the word because should appear in your answer.

In dropped units, missing directions on vectors, and answers given to more significant figures than the data supports. None of these are physics failures and all of them are marked.

And in reaching for an equation before reading the situation. Most Physics questions become simple once you have decided what is conserved, what is constant, and what is changing — a decision made in words, not symbols.

Common questions

Do I have to memorise formulas for VCE Physics?

The relationships you are given are on the formula sheet. What is not given is knowing which one applies and what each symbol means in the situation in front of you, and that is what the exam is actually testing.

How much writing is there in a Physics exam?

More than students expect. Explanation questions carry real marks and are answered in sentences that name the mechanism, not in a restatement of the result.

Are units really worth marks?

Yes, and they are the least excusable marks to lose. A number without its unit is an incomplete answer, and it is marked as one.