11 Plus Exams Forum

Has anyone any experience with the physics aptitude test which my son needs to do as he is wanting to apply to oxford for engineering,he has checked out the website and found some other resources and is working on the topics quoted a combination of maths and physics , there are past papers but no official solutions we have found some online but some of them are wrong, some of the questions are wierd!! (eg what problems would there be with a satelite orbiting the earth at sea level !!!!) um waves?? mountains ?? some seem very hard for someone not having done c3/c4/m2/m3 or half a physics a level as yet, any advice greatly welcome.

I've helped with prep for this for a friend's child as her school did not help them at all. I would expect most schools to be willing to offer support, even if it's only marking the past papers ...

If you are brave you could look on TSR for their threads.

Tree wrote:what problems would their be with a satelite orbiting the earth at sea level

Ignoring mountains or molehills or the coefficient of friction due to air resistant-assuming the earth a perfect sphere(idealised model)

All satellites including the moon are falling towards the earth dependent only on g,y-axis

What force is counter balancing this falling to keep a body at a constant distance from the centre of this sphere?

Resolving horizontally ie-x-axis what velocity(momentum) is required to clear the curvature of the earth?

Always start from the idealised-model, it's simpler-then, give specialised circumstances.

you have already got 50% of the marks without any advanced maths.

Courtesy of Catseye Junior.

yep school not much help really don't seem interested DS has emailed a some questions he struggled with before the end of term to his physics teachers without any response , i guess independent learning is a good experience but i can't help thinking that private schools will have special classes for this, he is trying TSR but is all a bit random and Troll infested, there are some courses for it in london but +++++ ££££. I guess it all depends a little on his upcoming maths AS results as he needs to be predicted A*A*A which will depend on these, he is a pretty laid back kid i think he just wants to prove to his sister he can get into oxford as well rather than any great love although he likes the general nature of the course that includes electrical and civil and mechanical, but i think would be just as happy somewhere else he really liked leeds and southampton.

I'll try and help by PM - most schools I know will help Oxbridge applicants.

wow thanks catseye junior, nice one! yep i think he has the satelite orbiting theory ok just a weird quetion to ask.

i think we'll wait for his maths unit grades and then push it with the school if he gets mostly 90+ and they are happy to predict the a*'s, it maybe that they are waiting on these before helping to focus on the boys most likely to get interviews, my DD's boyfriend is studying engineering there so may ask him but could get a bit complicated!

May I be so bold to ask what kind of marks are you getting mate?
I'm only getting 40ish% in MAT and even worse in STEP!
My teacher marks them online-I getting worried.

One thing she has taught me is to start with a ideal-simple scenario then build your argument from there.

Best of luck.

Catseye Junior.

There is a great STEP thread on TSR Catseye junior ...

He hasn't done a paper in anger yet just working through the questions trying to work out what he needs to cover he isn't doing MAT or STEP just the PAT, i think the maths is ok just a bit more calculus that is in c1/c2, its the physics questions that are just a bit odd, but as he is doing them they seem a bit easier working out what they want, looking at them they are mostly fairly standard m1/physics question but just more general so you end up with lots of algebra to do.