Practical Skills

What Practical Skills covers

Practical Skills is specification section 1.2, practical skills assessed mainly through the Practical Endorsement (Component 04), which is reported separately as a pass or fail. The written papers, Components 01, 02 and 03, also draw on it in practical contexts, though some of these skills are assessed only through the endorsement. It covers investigative approaches and solving practical problems, working safely, following instructions and recording observations, presenting data, using software and research, and referencing and the choice of instruments.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Investigative approaches and solving practical problemsRecall questions on what makes an investigation, the stages of an investigative approach, testable hypotheses, measuring a quantity indirectly, finding the specific heat capacity of a metal block, choosing between methods, predicting and estimating from theory, adapting a method, breaking a problem into stages, straight-line techniques, and independent working.Open →
• Working safely with equipment and materialsRecall questions on hazard against risk, risk assessments, lasers, sealed radioactive sources and limiting exposure to ionising radiation, high-voltage supplies, discharging capacitors, wires loaded to breaking, heating water electrically, damaged apparatus, loud sound, minimising risk, and securing loose hair, bags and heavy masses.Open →
• Following instructions and recording observationsRecall questions on reading a method through first, recording raw readings as taken, showing precision, keeping every repeat, what besides numbers belongs in a record, and noting method changes.Open →
• Presenting data and using softwareRecall questions on a well-set-out table, spreadsheet processing, trendlines and unsuitable chart types, building and testing a computer model, and how a final result and report are set out.Open →
• Research, referencing and choice of instrumentsRecall questions on why sources are cited, what a reference must contain, judging reliability, primary against secondary sources, quoting values to the right precision, and manufacturers' data sheets.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Practical Skills further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Hazard vs Risk

  Hazard: something present in the work with the potential to cause harm, such as a laser beam or a charged capacitor. Risk: The chance that harm actually occurs, together with how serious that harm would be.

• Resolution of a display vs Accuracy of the instrument

  Resolution of a display: the smallest change a meter can show, set purely by how many digits it carries. Accuracy of the instrument: How close a meter's readings are guaranteed to lie to the true value, stated by its maker as a tolerance that may be far wider than its last digit.

• Primary source vs Secondary source

  Primary source: an account reporting measurements that its own authors made. Secondary source: An account summarising, reviewing or reinterpreting work that other people reported.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What distinguishes an investigation from simply following a set of instructions?

   Model answer

   In an investigation the student decides what to measure and how, chooses the apparatus and the range, and works out how the data will be analysed, rather than carrying out steps already written for them.

2. 2

   Set out the stages of an investigative approach to a practical problem.

   Model answer

   Frame a testable question, predict from theory, design a method with controlled variables, take and record measurements, process and graph the data, draw a conclusion, then evaluate the procedure.

3. 3

   Give an example of a testable hypothesis in physics and say why it is testable.

   Model answer

   The period of a simple pendulum is proportional to the square root of its length, which is testable because both quantities can be measured and the prediction gives a straight-line graph.

4. 4

   Turn the question “Does resistance depend on temperature?” into a form that can be investigated.

   Model answer

   Investigate how the resistance of a fixed length of a given wire varies as its temperature is raised in measured steps between 20 °C and 100 °C.

5. 5

   A quantity cannot be measured directly. Describe the general strategy for obtaining it.

   Model answer

   Measure quantities that can be read directly and are linked to it by a known equation, then combine them, preferably from the gradient of a graph rather than a single set of values.

6. 6

   Outline how the specific heat capacity of a metal block could be found using an electrical heater, a balance, a thermometer, an ammeter, a voltmeter and a stopwatch.

   Model answer

   Measure the mass of the block, heat it with the immersed heater for a measured time while recording the current and potential difference, record the temperature rise, and use c = VIt/(mΔθ) with the block insulated to limit energy loss.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Practical Skills revision questions

What does Practical Skills cover in OCR A-Level Physics B?

5 subtopics: investigative approaches and solving practical problems, working safely with equipment and materials, following instructions and recording observations, presenting data and using software and research, referencing and choice of instruments. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Practical Skills organised?

By the OCR H557 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.