Saturday 7 November 2015

Comments: Physics paper of 6 November

As you know, we try to help our chief markers and internal moderators with information they can take along to enhance the scope and quality of national memo discussions.

Would you please be so to send any comments about the physics paper of yesterday you consider necessary for the above-mentioned purpose? Learners are also welcome to comment.

Don’t think your view is not important. Anything that can add value to the marking process and overall situation with question papers, is welcome. Don’t wait too long to send them; we have to have them before the national memo discussions commence and that is usually a few days after a paper is written.

You can post your physics comments below or you can email them. See email address on the left - almost at the top.

10 comments:

  1. I think paper1 was fair enough to learners,12 marks was on definitions and laws,7 marks on free body diagram,multiple choice as well was fair,weak learners can score at least 8/20 on it,calculation of tension in and electrostatics question might be tricky to learners more especially if gr11 vectors were not revised(tail to head method).Weak learners can also collect marks on identifying the relevant formula and substitutions like in the Newton 2nd law formula/coulomb's law/universal law of gravitation etc.Doppler effect might be tricky for most learners since there are more than one velocities of a source and detected frequencies.I think they are going to choose any set of trial (Vs & Frequency of a listener)to substitute in their Doppler equation.Am not sure but I think averages of speed and frequency should be calculated first,and some might not be aware that frequency if the source = detected frequency if there is no relative motion between the two objects

    Electric circuit was not difficult as well even though it is the most challenging topic for a number of learners and according to the diagnostic report.I was hoping that there will be an investigative type of question on Ohms' law or internal resistance as a trend before the circuit diagram where learners can interpret the given data/ graph or to draw a graph based on the given data(learners normally collect marks on plotting points and labeling of axes.As for photoelectric effect,I think most learners will collect marks on plotting the graph even if they can fail to interpret it to calculate threshold frequency and Planck's constant.So I strongly believe that weak and average learners will manage to score at least 45/150.

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  2. Generally the paper had a fair standard for these learners. Question 1 was a good build up and a boost of their confidence. Question 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 were a bit challenging due to the block with the unknown mass. Question 4 was familiar,straight forward and more or almost the same as the one that was in the June Examination. Other than that the paper was great.

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  3. The paper was well set. Challenging questions were Doppler effect, electrostatics, photoelectric effect and electric circuits; however, some questions of those chapters were easy. Challenging questions could only make 30% of the paper and that puts a lot of learners in a position to do well. I think the question paper accomodated all level learners.

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  4. I worked through the paper yesterday with a Gr.11-learner ... 37% of the Physics paper Gr.11 work (pure gr.11). Quite insightful ... I think the paper was very "fine tuned". Met ander woorde die vrae het eintlik die definisies en wette implisiet bevat - as ek myself reg uitdruk? Learners are not used to that - they are more used to direct type of questions.

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  5. Michelle van den Nieuwenhof12 November 2015 at 11:27

    I felt that this paper did not test the learners knowledge. A great deal of emphasis was placed on application. I have been involved with working many progressed learners and under achievers this year. The low order questions that they would have been able to answer were very few. If they get all the lower order questions correct it is possible to just just get 28%.

    On the flip side of the coin the higher order questions were very high. The last two questions 11.3.1 and 11.3.2 were exceptionally difficult. Even if an energy vs frequency graph were given it would have been challenging but it would have been more realistic.

    I really got the impression that the examiners wanted to see what the learners did not know instead of what they knew.

    I really believe that the only way we can improve the Science in our country is to realise that learners are at school and that they are not students at university. Why should a learner who has worked through 10 old physics papers not get a distinction - they will be able to do well at university as they have the work ethic.

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  6. Thanks for the comments Michelle.

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