Not sure how to study for the VCE Physics exam?
You’ve come to the right place. This article is going to guide you through the process of preparing for your VCE Physics exam, right through to the actual day of the exam.
So, let’s dive in!
Preparing for the VCE Physics Exam
24 Hours Before the Exam
Reading Time in the VCE Physics Exam
Exam Time
Extra Time in the VCE Physics Exam
Preparing for the VCE Physics Exam
Cover any Knowledge Gaps
First things first, make sure you’re completely on top of the curriculum a month before your VCE Physics exam.
A great resource for this is the VCE Physics Study Design. Start you’re studying by going through the study design and figuring out where you’re the strongest and where you’re the weakest.
A great way to do this is by highlighting each dot point using a traffic light system: green for content you’re confident in, yellow for the content you’re okay in and red for content you don’t understand.
Tip: Make sure to focus first on the areas you were unsure in your knowledge checks, before moving onto the yellow and green points.
Identify knowledge gaps like this can help focus you study on the areas you need the most practice with, and the areas you need to focus on in your summary sheet.
Before attempting practice questions, make sure to revise these red points by taking notes from the textbook or any other resources you have available to you.
Excerpt from the VCE Physics Study Design by VCAA
Practice Makes Perfect
It’s as true for your VCE Physics exam as it is for everything else: practice is the only way to get good.
To ace your Physics exam, you’ll need to complete practice questions and trial exams regularly.
Once the exam is a bit closer, you should start attempting to complete practice exams.
Make sure to complete these under exam conditions: especially in terms of the resources available to you (such as notes) and the time allowed. This will help you improve your time management for the exam.
If you aren’t able to complete the practice exams under the time limit, consider the following:
- Am I prioritising? Make sure to use the reading time to identify questions you are confident you can answer quickly, and complete these first.
- Am I confident in the content? Oftentimes, students are unable to complete questions in a timely manner due to a lack of confidence. This can only be improved through attempting practice questions, as this will build confidence in your own skills.
- Do I know all the content? If there are any gaps remaining in your knowledge, they may reveal themselves when you attempt to answer questions on a practice exam. If this happens, go back to the textbook and revise the content before attempting practice questions.
Remember, exams should never be surprising. If you practise enough, you’ll find that the VCE Physics exam is perfectly manageable.
As a plus, you may find questions on the exam that strongly resemble practice material you have completed before, since there are only so many questions they can ask!
Studying With Friends
To get the most out of your revision, organise a study group with peers from your Physics class.
Working in a group allows each member to learn from each other, while also getting in some vital socialising during the busy exam period.
It’s likely that you have some dedicated study periods, these can be a great time to run a study group. If you run one outside of school hours, make sure to commit to the same time every week as consistency is key to effective revision.
24 Hours Before the Exam
Sleep
The most important thing to do the night before the VCE Physics exam is get to sleep!
Make sure to stop revising (and get off all screens) by 8pm, and try to be in bed by 10pm. Getting a good night’s sleep is absolutely vital to focus and recollect, both of which are going to be tested tomorrow.
When revising the night before the exam, focus on recollecting topics using flash cards or just completing some revision questions. At this point, most of your revision should be done, so just take it easy!
At this point, it’s much more important to prepare physically and mentally for the exam tomorrow.
The Morning of the Exam
Now that the exam day has come, what do you do? The most important thing at this point is to relax!
To ensure you’re confident walking into the exam, make sure you de-stress. For example, you could:
- Eat a healthy, filling breakfast
- Go for a brisk walk
- Do some Yoga
Just before the exam, you should try and take your mind off it. At this point, there isn’t much to be gained from studying, so just sit and talk to your friends about something besides the exam.
Reading Time in the VCE Physics Exam
Now you’re in the exam, how can you best use the 15 minutes of reading time? There are two main things to prioritise during reading time:
Tip #1: Find the Easy Questions
The first thing to do during reading time is identify the questions you personally find easiest to solve.
Giving each question only a cursory glance, identify which ones you know exactly how to solve. These are the questions to attempt first.
Figuring out which questions are easy will be up to your own knowledge and intuition — after all your revision, you should have a good idea of where you’re the strongest and where you’re the weakest.
Tip #2: Work Through Short Answer Questions
If you still have time left over after reading through every question in the exam, then you can best use the time by tackling one of the deeper short answer questions.
For example, consider Question 4 from Section B of the 2021 Physics Exam.
Question 4 from the VCAA Physics 2021 Practice Examination
This question is asking you to explain, using physical principles, why the reaction force takes a certain value. This type of question requires more thought than work, which makes it perfect for the remaining reading time you have left.
Exam Time in the VCE Physics Exam
After your reading time is up, you’ll have 130 minutes to complete the VCE Physics exam.
Order of Questions
Make sure that you begin by completing the easy questions you identified during reading time.
These questions should be ‘free marks’ for you, and getting them now should give you ample time for the rest of the exam.
Time Management
Notice that the exam has a total of 130 marks?
This isn’t by accident, this has been purposefully set so that you have 1 minute of time for each mark.
Tip: Try to use this as quick guide to figure out how much time you should spend on each question. Make sure to give every question an attempt.
Extra Time
If you’ve got any extra time after completing every question, then don’t just relax!
This is a great time to go back to any harder questions and attempt them again. This is a great way to catch any errors that you make.
And, That’s All You Need to Know!
Want more tips to acing VCE Physics? Check out more of our resources here:
- The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Scientific Poster for VCE Physics
- What to Do the Night Before Your VCE Physics Exam
- The Ultimate 7 Day Study Plan for Your VCE Physics Exam
- VCE Physics Multiple Choice Practice Questions For External Assessment
- VCE Physics Short Answer Practice Questions For External Assessment
- The Ultimate Guide to Units 1 and 2 VCE Physics
- The Ultimate Guide to Units 3 and 4 VCE Physics
Are you looking for some extra help with preparing for your VCE Physics exam?
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Scott McColl is a content writer with Art of Smart and a Civil Engineering student at Monash University. In between working and studying, Scott enjoys playing music and working on programming projects.
