PAT Practice Papers: 200 Questions in the style of the Physics Aptitude Test with Detailed Worked Solutions

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Distance, velocity, speed, acceleration, and the relationships between them, eg velocity as the rate of change of distance with time, acceleration as rate of change of velocity with time. Understand the difference between vector quantities (eg velocity) and scalar quantities (eg speed). Knowledge and use of equations such as speed = distance / time, acceleration = change in velocity / time or the SUVAT equations. A digital scientific calculator will be included as part of the online interface for the PAT from October 2023 onwards. Candidates must use this and may not bring their own calculators, of any description, into the exam. You will be able to try out the online digital calculator when practising the online practise test available below. Please note that the formulae included in this syllabus do not represent an exhaustive list of formulae which may be used within the test. Syllabus for the Mathematics content Elementary mathematics:

Properties of logarithms and exponentials and how to combine logarithms, e.g. log(a) + log(b) = log(ab) . Visit the Department of Physics Youtube channel, and watch their videos about admissions and preparing for the PAT. We do not generally provide solutions to the past papers; when marking the PAT, all suitable methods for solving the questions are allowed and we would not want you to feel only one specific way of solving the problem will gain you marks. We have however published sample solutions to the 2009 and 2010 papers and our Access team has created unofficial sample solutions for the 2019 paper; these can all be found below. The PAT is designed for candidates who have studied the first year of A-level (or equivalent) Maths and Physics, and covers similar material to that of the GCSE and A-level syllabus. Ensure that you’ve used the PAT Syllabus as much as possible when revising, as this document details literally everything you need to know. It’s important to know this by heart so you don’t miss any topics or revise something that won’t be covered in the exam.

We upload past test papers and reports on test outcomes as they become available to help prospective students prepare for the PAT. Note that the PAT has evolved over time and that past papers dated before May 2006 are based on an earlier syllabus and are not relevant to the current test. While the more recent papers will more closely resemble what you are likely to see in terms of format, looking at all past papers will still provide a good steer as to the likely content of future papers. Changes to the PAT Below you will find PAT question and answer documents for all PAT past papers, to help you with your PAT preparation As well as practising PAT questions, you can boost your chances of success with our PAT Tutoring programme. From 2015 onwards, long physics problems worth 20 marks were eliminated in favour of shorter questions worth <10 marks

Don’t rush through all the past papers at once! You’ve got a lot to go through, but you should save most of them for later on in your revision schedule. The ideal strategy is to build up your content knowledge and try some practice questions first. Once you’re more confident in your abilities, you will have a good chance of doing well in the past papers.

Modified past papers

Our admissions tests are an important part of our assessment process so please ensure your school, college or other test centre registers you for your test (or tests) by 29 September. Basic knowledge of bodies in our Solar System, including planets, moons, comets and asteroids. (Name and relative positions of the planets should be known but detailed knowledge of their physical parameters is not required). Springs, including knowledge of Hooke's law (Force = - kx) and stored potential energy ( = 1/2 kx 2).

These past papers are a great way of understanding the PAT format and question types, so you should look through one towards the start of your preparation. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of the actual exam and will have some context to work with when revising. In 2017, the physics and maths sections were mixed up with one another rather than being two distinct sections The WJEC Publication Policy explains when WJEC examination documents such as past papers and mark schemes are made available to registered examination centres and to members of the public. Knowledge of elementary mathematics, in particular topics in arithmetic, geometry including coordinate geometry, and probability, will be assumed. Questions may require the manipulation of mathematical expressions in a physical context.As you may notice when going through past papers, the PAT has undergone various changes in the past few years. Everyone who applies to study physics or physics and philosophy at Oxford, without exception, must take the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT), a two-hour test that evaluates a student’s ability in both physics and maths. Knowledge of circular orbits under gravity including orbital speed, radius, period, centripetal acceleration, and gravitational centripetal force. This may include equating the force between two masses due to gravity (F=GM 1M 2/r 2) to centripetal force of a smaller body orbiting a larger body (F=mω 2r or F=mv 2/r) and use of centripetal acceleration (a=v 2/r or a=ω 2r).