IB Physics Paper 1 - The Ultimate Guide
At the end of your IB journey, you will have to take final exams. For students who follow the physics course, two mandatory exams will dictate as much as 80% of the final grade for the subject. The remaining 20% is allocated for your Internal Assessment, completed and submitted before exam season starts. If you would like to find inspiration for your topic and tips on how to best succeed with your IA, take a look at our guide and list of ideas. Here, we will focus on unpacking what the first paper of the External Assessment for physics looks like.
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Time and worth
Whether you are a student following the subject on the Standard or Higher Level, the exam accounts for 36% of your final grade. Paper 1 is divided into two sections - 1A and 1B.
The first section consists of multiple-choice questions, each worth one point, where only one answer provided is correct. Section 1B consists of open-ended questions, where you will have to work with a database and analyse it.
SL students will be given 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the exam, worth a total of 45 points (25 points for 1A and 20 points for 1B).
If you are an HL student, you will have 2 hours to score 60 points (40 points for 1A and 20 points for 1B). The paper is to be completed using a graphic display calculator and a formula booklet.
General preparation tips
Tip 1 - Syllabus is your best friend
The best way to get ready for any exam is to be aware of how it will be structured and what will be expected of you. The first step in preparation is to become familiar with all the syllabus contents. Whether you are an SL or HL student, it is important to know and understand all of the topics covered over the two years IB takes.
Tip 2 - Simulate Exams and Reflect Honestly
When you think you are done learning the theory, you should put it to the test. Print a past paper question, sit in a quiet place, set a timer for the duration of the exam (as mentioned above, 1 hour 30 minutes for SL and 2 hours for HL students) and try to complete it. When the time runs out, check your answers with a mark scheme and honestly grade your attempt. After that, ask yourself questions to point out and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses.
Examples of such are:
Did you have enough time to complete both sections of the exam?
Did you find yourself struggling to understand what the questions want from you?
Were you able to identify what topics the question was related to?
Was there a need for the formula booklet? If yes, did you know where to find the required formulas to solve a question?
Were there any specific topics you especially struggled with?
Which topics out of the syllabus were your strongest suit?
Did you feel distracted at any point during the ‘exam’?
Although it may be awkward or distressing to point out your mistakes, there is no better way to fix them than admitting and targeting them in further practice. After answering at least a few of the questions above, it might become more apparent what needs improvement and what you can already do well. The same method of practice will also work for any other IB exam, whether it’s experimental sciences, individuals and societies, or mathematics. Know what is expected of you and prepare accordingly.
Tip 3 - Use Correct Significant Figures
It is important to write all of your answers to the correct number of significant figures. For example, a question may provide a number such as 0.00417802 and ask you to express it to three significant figures or three decimal places. For the first case, the correct answer would be 0.00418, and for the second one, 0.004.
Make sure to read the questions carefully, as many students often confuse the two concepts. If the question doesn’t state explicitly the number of significant figures to which the answer must be provided, 3 are generally accepted. However, if you encounter the sentence ‘State your answer to a correct number of significant figures’, you have to be cautious - the final number should be stated to the same number of significant figures as the answer that has the least of them. As an example, if you are to find the volume of a cuboid and given that the sides measure 0.53cm (2 sf), 0.476cm (3 sf) and 0.14cm (2 sf), then your final answer should be given to two significant figures.
Tip 4 - Use of the Formula Booklet and Graphic-Display Calculator
As you are allowed to use a GDC and a formula booklet during both sections 1A and 1B, make sure that you are familiar with their use. The calculator is a powerful yet complicated tool. You are most likely taught about its use and applications in the mathematics course, whether it is AA or AI. There is a reason why you are allowed to use the calculator during exams, so do not be afraid of using it!
The booklet provides many formulas for SL and HL topics, but do keep in mind that it does not include everything taught during classes. As an example, in section B.2 The particulate nature of matter (Greenhouse effect), the albedo is defined as the total scattered power divided by the total incident power. This is only one of the many definitions for what albedo is, another may be described as a ratio between the reflected light to the incident light on a surface. Although the definitions are very similar, only one of them is provided in the booklet. Therefore, keep in mind that even if the formula is given, you still have to know what the concepts it’s connected to are and what the other possible applications of it are to different aspects of physics.
Tip 5 - Master Formula Booklet Symbols and Usage
Aside from knowing what formulas are given in the booklet, make sure that you know what the symbols in each equation stand for. Even when doing practice questions from your teacher during the course, refer to the formula booklet and make sure you understand what letter stands for which variable. That way, not only will you become used to the use of the booklet, but also know which formulas you have to know by heart for the final exam.
Section 1A
This part of the examination is built to test your general knowledge of the entire syllabus for physics. These questions do not require explanations for your choice, and the examiners only look at your final selected answer. Considering the time constraint for the exam, you should be spending on average no more than 1 minute and 30 seconds on each.
If you are unsure which answer may be correct, you can always try each by elimination - check which answers will not match what is asked by the question. This may help narrow down your options and point in the direction of the correct answer.
An example question may include an object on an incline sliding down, and your task is to select which of the answers provided shows a correct free-body diagram describing the forces experienced by the object.
Although the potential diagrams will be provided, to avoid their bias, you can create a sketch of the forces yourself with the approximate lengths of each vector. When done, compare your diagram to the ones in the answers and select the most accurate one. You may also be asked questions that include SI multipliers and asked to state which answer is the greatest or the smallest. These prefixes can be found in the formula booklet in the section Metric (SI) multipliers. Always double-check the units of the values provided in a question and convert them to basic SI units (unless the question states otherwise).
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Section 1B
The purpose of this section is to test your critical thinking skills, how well you understand uncertainties and data extraction from graphs. To best prepare for this part of the exam, make sure that you are familiar with the basic tools for measurements (for example, what device can be used to measure length, voltage, temperature), how to consider their uncertainties, and what systematic and random errors are.
In the exam you may encounter a question providing a graph describing a relationship between two variables, and your goal in the sub-questions will be to critically analyse the methods used to create such a graph, whether there are any errors and where they could have arisen from, calculate fractional uncertainties, draw a best-fit line, discussion whether the data follows the expected relationship between the above mentioned variables.
The overarching goal of this section is to check whether you can work with experimental data, interpret results, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
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