Revision guide
IB Physics
Problem-solving habits, the data booklet, and why showing your work is everything.
IB Physics tests whether you can take a small set of principles — conservation laws, field models, wave behaviour — and apply them to situations you haven't seen before. The syllabus content is genuinely smaller than Biology's; the difficulty is in the transfer. That's why passive revision fails completely in Physics: you can understand every line of your notes and still score a 4, because the exam asks you to *do*, not to recognize.
Marks in Physics are awarded for visible reasoning: the equation chosen, the substitution shown, the unit carried. A correct final number with no working risks losing method marks, and wrong final numbers with full working often keep most of them. Train yourself to write physics the way markschemes read.
How you're assessed
Paper 1 (multiple choice + data)
Multiple choice plus data-analysis questions. The MCQs are conceptual traps — estimation, proportional reasoning, and unit sense solve many of them faster than computation.
Paper 2 (extended response)
Structured problems across the syllabus, frequently chaining mechanics with energy, fields with circuits. Diagrams (free-body, ray, field) earn marks and prevent errors — draw them even when not asked.
The IA (Scientific Investigation)
A 20% investigation where uncertainty analysis is the differentiator. Linearize your data, plot error bars, interpret the gradient physically, and discuss systematic vs. random error like you mean it.
How to revise
Solve, don't read
A revision session should be 80% problems, 20% notes. After each problem, ask which principle unlocked it — building that index of 'situation → principle' is the actual skill being examined.
Estimate before you calculate
Before substituting numbers, predict the order of magnitude. This habit catches calculator slips instantly and trains the proportional reasoning Paper 1 loves.
Know the data booklet's equations by location
Every formula you're given, know where it lives and what each symbol means, including the ones that look unfamiliar. Exam time spent hunting the booklet is time stolen from physics.
Write the markscheme skeleton
Equation, substitution with units, answer with units and sensible significant figures. Three lines, every time, even for easy questions — the discipline pays in method marks when problems get hard.
Mistakes examiners see every year
Dropping units mid-calculation and reattaching the wrong ones at the end.
Using equations outside their validity (constant-acceleration formulas on non-uniform motion).
Skipping the free-body diagram and misassigning force directions.
Quoting answers to more significant figures than the data justifies.
Memorizing derivations without being able to apply the result in a new setup.
What's in the syllabus
Space, time and motion
Kinematics · Forces · Work and energy · Momentum · Circular motion · Gravitation
The particulate nature of matter
Thermal concepts · Gas laws · Kinetic model · Internal energy · Phase change
Wave behaviour
Simple harmonic motion · Wave properties · Standing waves · Doppler effect · Interference · Diffraction
Fields
Gravitational fields · Electric fields · Magnetic fields · Potential · Field lines · Motion in fields
Nuclear and quantum physics
Photoelectric effect · Matter waves · Atomic spectra · Radioactive decay · Nuclear reactions · Binding energy
Practical physics
Uncertainty · Graph analysis · Linearization · Data collection · Evaluation
Frequently asked questions
Do I need strong math for IB Physics?
Comfort with algebra and trigonometry is essential; calculus helps at HL but isn't strictly required by the syllabus. Most Physics struggles are actually algebra-rearrangement struggles in disguise.
How do I get better at Paper 1?
Do MCQs in timed bursts and review every wrong answer until you can articulate the misconception it targeted. Paper 1 questions repeat their tricks across years.
What's a good Physics IA?
A simple system with one controlled relationship and honest uncertainties: pendulum variants, fluid drag, thermal cooling curves. The marks are in the analysis, not the apparatus.
Put this guide into practice
Everything above — topic-filtered practice questions, spaced-repetition flashcards, and a syllabus checklist for Physics — is free on Baccly.
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