Practise › Past papers
Past papers
Past papers are the best revision there is, and they belong to AQA rather than to us. This page points you at the official copies and shows which parts of the library each paper draws on.
Where to get them
AQA publishes its own past papers and mark schemes on the A-level Physics (7408) assessment resources page. A series appears there about a year after it was sat, and stays up for roughly three years; your teacher can reach the most recent ones sooner through Centre Services. Always take a paper from AQA rather than from a revision site, so that you get the right version with its insert and its mark scheme.
InkPhysics hosts no past-paper material and no mark schemes. AQA’s copyright policy does not permit its materials to be reproduced on third-party websites in any format, and we would rather send you to the source than serve you a stale copy of it.
What each paper covers
The A-level is three papers of two hours each. Papers 1 and 2 are 85 marks and carry 34 per cent apiece; Paper 3 is 80 marks and the remaining 32 per cent, split between practical skills and data analysis and the optional topic your school chose. AQA’s assessment resources and the specification itself are the place to confirm the detail. Below is how the library maps onto them.
Paper 1sections 1 to 5, plus periodic motion8 units
- Measurements3 topics
- Particles7 topics
- Quantum phenomena4 topics
- Waves7 topics
- Mechanics10 topics
- Materials2 topics
- Electricity6 topics
- Periodic motion4 topics
Paper 2thermal physics, fields and nuclear, assuming the rest6 units
- Thermal physics3 topics
- Gravitational fields4 topics
- Electric fields3 topics
- Capacitance3 topics
- Magnetic fields6 topics
- Nuclear physics6 topics
Paper 3practical skills and data analysis, then your optional topic2 units
- Astrophysics7 topics
- Turning points6 topics
Practising without a paper in front of you
If you have run out of past papers, or want to drill one topic rather than sit a whole paper, the question practice page will build you a timed paper of any length from the library’s own questions, and the workbooks cover every topic in print. Those are original InkPhysics questions, written to examine the same things in the same style, rather than past-paper material.
Links to AQA are provided for convenience. InkPhysics is not affiliated with or endorsed by AQA, and AQA is not responsible for the content of this site.