What's going to be in the exam?

Use the following ideas as a final checklist to make sure your revision has covered the most likely topics to come up.

Get the revision sheet from this page.

Rubbish at learning by heart?
    (a) Write facts on opposite sides of a card - get a study buddy to test you until you can answer every one within 1 second
    (b) Write facts on post-its - stick them in your bedroom to a relevant item (e.g. 'digital signals' on the TV) - then picture your room when in the exam
    (c) Make a poem, rhyme, rap the facts to a rhythm - the sounds will connect the facts for you

Panicking on one of these points?  Follow the links () to a revision activity or help page on that point.  Start with BBC Bitesize revision designed for this unit.  

1.  Learn by heart the electromagnetic spectrum in order - RMIVUXG
    Remember "long wave radio" - radio waves are the longest wavelength, so the lowest frequency 
    Know at least two uses for each part of the spectrum 
    Know why the wave is good for the use (the question will say "what property of the waves ...")
        e.g. microwaves, good for cooking, because they are absorbed by water molecules which heats them up
    CAREFUL!  Mobile phones use microwaves (for calls and Bluetooth) and infra-red (to send to nearby devices)

2.  Learn by heart some facts about waves and space
    Waves transfer energy not matter
    Analogue signals - look wiggly
    Digital signals - look 'blocky' and are better because any interference/noise can be corrected
    Optical fibres - can carry infra-red or visible light signals without much loss of signal
    Telescopes - are better in orbit because the atmosphere isn't in the way; but they're harder to maintain/fix
    Telescopes can be made to see all parts of the spectrum - like Jodrell Bank is a radio telescope

3.  Can you use the wave formula:  speed (in m/s) = frequency (in Hz) x wavelength (in m)?
      CAREFUL! about the units - if they give you wavelength in cm or frequency in kHz for example 
    Higher Tier:  can you also find the frequency for example, by turning the formula around? 

4.  Learn by heart all of these properties of the three kinds of nuclear radiation.
      Alpha - most ionising, least penetrating, helium nucleus, 2 protons + 2 neutrons, charge +2, mass 4, deflected a little by fields, used in smoke alarms
      Beta - medium ionising and penetrating, electron from the nucleus, charge -1, mass 0-ish, deflected most by fields (beta bends best) and opposite direction to alpha, used in thickness checking
      Gamma - least ionising, most penetrating, electromagnetic waves, no charge or mass, not deflected by fields, used in radiotherapy and sterilising

5.  Can you work with half-life?  Make sure you can read half-life from a graph and that you can work out how much the radiation level will be in a given time - convert the time into half-lives and then halve the radiation level for each half-life.

6.  Can you understand isotope symbols?  Carbon-13 has 6 protons (like all carbon atoms) and 13-6=7 neutrons
      Learn! Isotopes have the same protons, different neutrons.