Thanks to Mr Dawson from Wallace Hall Academy in D&G for these great resources. Use them well!
Category: Revision
Find revision ideas, example questions, past papers etc.
Notes for exams
Here are some documents for setting exam papers which should be of use for teachers and also give students practise at answering questions from the command words.
My thanks to Mr S Farmer and Mr A Bailey for these.

Revision Past Papers
Mr Dawson has sorted the SQA papers by topic to save time when revising. Don’t rush to the answers until after you’ve completed a whole section.
Thanks to Mr Dawson from Wallace Hall Academy (D&G) for this excellent resource. All your SQA Higher past papers sorted by unit and topic.
February 2020
Summary Notes
I’ll be posting the SUMMARY NOTES from the COURSE NOTES here.
With thanks to Mr J Frazer, who took his razor- to my notes!

Motivation
- Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
- Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
- You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
- It always seems impossible until it’s done.
- You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
- You don’t always get what you wish for; you get what you work for.
- It’s not about how bad you want it. It’s about how hard you’re willing to work for it.
- Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
- The pain you feel today is the strength you will feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth.
Open Ended Questions
I can’t find this on the SQA site any more and it was a great document so I hope you find it as useful.

Standard Model Review
Here is the power point and answer from the Friday review. for more details see the Particle Adventure, as we are only touching the surface of this topic.
Revision Review 1
Revision Reviews 1 word
Covering Units Prefixes and Scientific Notation and Uncertainties. Also scalars and vectors.
Review Answers, don’t cheat, it wont do anyone any good, especially you!
Review answers1_2 word
The above answers are only corrected to the first two review!
Quantity, Symbol, Unit, Unit Symbol
Comments from the Workshop
Clicking on the link above will take you to the You Must Justify Questions that we didn’t have time for! Please look over this.
Flashcards
Quantity, Symbol, Unit, Unit Symbol
I’ve put together, with Mrs Mac’s help, a document with quantity, symbol, unit and unit symbol so that you know the meaning of the terms in the Relationships Sheet. It is in EXCEL so that you can sort it by course, quantity or symbol.
Quantity, Symbol, Units the excel sheet
Quantity, Symbol, Units a pdf sheet sorted by course and then alphabetical by quantity.
This is the same information in readily available Tablepress form. If you click on the Higher tab at the top it should sort by terms that you need in alphabetical order, or search for a term. Let me know if I’ve missed any.
Quantity, Symbol, Unit, Unit Symbol Table for N5-AH
N | H | A | Physical Quantity | sym | Unit | Unit Abb. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | absorbed dose | D | gray | Gy | ||
5 | absorbed dose rate | H (dot) | gray per second gray per hour gray per year | Gys-1 Gyh -1 Gyy-1 | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | acceleration | a | metre per second per second | m s-2 |
5 | 6 | 7 | acceleration due to gravity | g | metre per second per second | m s -2 |
5 | activity | A | becquerel | Bq | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | amplitude | A | metre | m |
5 | 6 | 7 | angle | θ | degree | ° |
5 | 6 | 7 | area | A | square metre | m 2 |
5 | 6 | 7 | average speed | v (bar) | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | average velocity | v (bar) | metre per second | m s -1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | change of speed | ∆v | metre per second | m s -1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | change of velocity | ∆v | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | count rate | - | counts per second (counts per minute) | - | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | current | I | ampere | A |
5 | 6 | 7 | displacement | s | metre | m |
5 | 6 | 7 | distance | d | metre, light year | m , ly |
5 | 6 | 7 | distance, depth, height | d or h | metre | m |
5 | effective dose | H | sievert | Sv | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | electric charge | Q | coulomb | C |
5 | 6 | 7 | electric charge | Q or q | coulomb | C |
5 | 6 | 7 | electric current | I | ampere | A |
5 | 6 | 7 | energy | E | joule | J |
5 | equivalent dose | H | sievert | Sv | ||
5 | equivalent dose rate | H (dot) | sievert per second sievert per hour sievert per year | Svs-1 Svh-1 Svy -1 | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | final velocity | v | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | force | F | newton | N |
5 | 6 | 7 | force, tension, upthrust, thrust | F | newton | N |
5 | 6 | 7 | frequency | f | hertz | Hz |
5 | 6 | 7 | gravitational field strength | g | newton per kilogram | N kg-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | gravitational potential energy | Ep | joule | J |
5 | half-life | t1/2 | second (minute, hour, day, year) | s | ||
5 | 6 | heat energy | Eh | joule | J | |
5 | 6 | 7 | height, depth | h | metre | m |
5 | 6 | 7 | initial speed | u | metre per second | m/s |
5 | 6 | 7 | initial velocity | u | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | kinetic energy | Ek | joule | J |
5 | 6 | 7 | length | l | metre | m |
5 | 6 | 7 | mass | m | kilogram | kg |
5 | number of nuclei decaying | N | - | - | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | period | T | second | s |
5 | 6 | 7 | potential difference | V | volt | V |
5 | 6 | 7 | potential energy | Ep | joule | J |
5 | 6 | 7 | power | P | watt | W |
5 | 6 | 7 | pressure | P or p | pascal | Pa |
5 | radiation weighting factor | wR | - | - | ||
5 | 6 | 7 | radius | r | metre | m |
5 | 6 | 7 | resistance | R | ohm | Ω |
5 | 6 | 7 | specific heat capacity | c | joule per kilogram per degree Celsius | Jkg-1°C -1 |
5 | 6 | specific latent heat | l | joule per kilogram | Jkg-1 | |
5 | 6 | 7 | speed of light in a vacuum | c | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | speed, final speed | v | metre per second | ms -1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | speed, velocity, final velocity | v | metre per second | m s-1 |
5 | 6 | 7 | supply voltage | Vs | volt | V |
5 | 6 | 7 | temperature | T | degree Celsius | °C |
5 | 6 | 7 | temperature | T | kelvin | K |
5 | 6 | 7 | time | t | second | s |
5 | 6 | 7 | total resistance | R | ohm | Ω |
5 | 6 | 7 | voltage | V | volt | V |
5 | 6 | 7 | voltage, potential difference | V | volt | V |
5 | 6 | 7 | volume | V | cubic metre | m3 |
5 | 6 | 7 | weight | W | newton | N |
5 | 6 | 7 | work done | W or E W | joule | J |
7 | angle | θ | radian | rad | ||
7 | angular acceleration | a | radian per second per second | rad s-2 | ||
7 | angular displacement | θ | radian | rad | ||
7 | angular frequency | ω | radian per second | rad s-1 | ||
7 | angular momentum | L | kilogram metre squared per second | kg m2s -1 | ||
7 | angular velocity, final angular velocity | ω | radian per second | rad s-1 | ||
7 | apparent brightness | b | Watts per square metre | Wm-2 | ||
7 | back emf | e | volt | V | ||
6 | 7 | capacitance | C | farad | F | |
7 | capacitive reactance | Xc | ohm | W | ||
6 | critical angle | θc | degree | ° | ||
density | ρ | kilogram per cubic metre | kg m-3 | |||
7 | displacement | s or x or y | metre | m | ||
efficiency | η | - | - | |||
6 | 7 | electric field strength | E | newton per coulomb volts per metre | N C-1 Vm-1 |
|
7 | electrical potential | V | volt | V | ||
6 | 7 | electromotive force (e.m.f) | E or ε | volt | V | |
6 | energy level | E1 , E2 , etc | joule | J | ||
feedback resistance | Rf | ohm | Ω | |||
focal length of a lens | f | metre | m | |||
6 | frequency of source | fs | hertz | Hz | ||
6 | 7 | fringe separation | ∆x | metre | m | |
6 | 7 | grating to screen distance | D | metre | m | |
7 | gravitational potential | U or V | joule per kilogram | J kg-1 | ||
half-value thickness | T1/2 | metre | m | |||
6 | 7 | impulse | (∆p) | newton second kilogram metre per second | Ns kgms-1 |
|
7 | induced e.m.f. | E or ε | volt | V | ||
7 | inductor reactance | XL | ohm | W | ||
7 | initial angular velocity | ω o | radian per second | rad s-1 | ||
input energy | E i | joule | J | |||
input power | Pi | watt | W | |||
input voltage | V1 or V2 | volt | V | |||
input voltage | V i | volt | V | |||
6 | internal resistance | r | ohm | Ω | ||
6 | 7 | irradiance | I | watt per square metre | W m-1 | |
7 | luminoscity | L | Watt | W | ||
7 | magnetic induction | B | tesla | T | ||
7 | moment of inertia | I | kilogram metre squared | kg m2 | ||
6 | 7 | momentum | p | kilogram metre per second | kg m s-1 | |
6 | number of photons per second per cross sectional area | N | - | - | ||
number of turns on primary coil | np | - | - | |||
number of turns on secondary coil | ns | - | - | |||
6 | observed wavelength | λobserved | metre | m | ||
output energy | Eo | joule | J | |||
output power | Po | watt | W | |||
output voltage | Vo | volt | V | |||
6 | peak current | Ipeak | ampere | A | ||
6 | peak voltage | V peak | volt | V | ||
7 | phase angle | Φ | radian | rad | ||
6 | 7 | Planck’s constant | h | joule second | Js | |
7 | polarising angle (Brewster’s angle) | ip | degree | ̊ | ||
power (of a lens) | P | dioptre | D | |||
power gain | Pgain | - | - | |||
7 | Power per unit area | Watts per square metre | Wm-2 | |||
primary current | Ip | ampere | A | |||
primary voltage | Vp | volt | V | |||
7 | radial acceleration | ar | metre per second per second | m s-2 | ||
6 | redshift | z | - | - | ||
6 | 7 | refractive index | n | - | - | |
6 | relativistic length | l' | metre | m | ||
6 | relativistic time | t' | second | s | ||
rest mass | mo | kilogram | kg | |||
6 | rest wavelength | λrest | metre | m | ||
6 | root mean square current | I rms | ampere | A | ||
6 | root mean square voltage | Vrms | volt | V | ||
7 | rotational kinetic energy | Erot | joule | J | ||
7 | schwarzchild radius | rSchwarzchild | metre | m | ||
secondary current | Is | ampere | A | |||
secondary voltage | Vs | volt | V | |||
7 | self-inductance | L | henry | H | ||
6 | 7 | slit separation | d | metre | m | |
7 | tangential acceleration | at | metre per second per second | m s-2 | ||
6 | threshold frequency | fo | hertz | Hz | ||
7 | time constant | t | second | s | ||
7 | torque | Τ | newton metre | Nm | ||
7 | uncertainty in Energy | ∆E | joule | J | ||
7 | uncertainty in momentum | ∆px | kilogram metre per second | kgms-1 | ||
7 | uncertainty in position | ∆x | metre | m | ||
7 | uncertainty in time | ∆t | second | s | ||
6 | velocity of observer | vo | metre per second | m s-1 | ||
6 | velocity of source | vs | metre per second | m s-1 | ||
voltage gain | - | - | - | |||
voltage gain | Ao or V gain | - | - | |||
5 | 6 | 7 | wavelength | λ | metre | m |
6 | work function | W | joule | J |
Revision Plan
28/02/18. If you’re stuck inside- DON’T go on your X-boxes, PS4 or whatever the latest number try doing some timed papers.
To the student’s sister who needs the Quantity, Units, Symbols etc .I’ve uploaded the old pre-CfE version and you can just add the additional few. Check out Int1-AH many are relevant. Missing would be t’, l’ etc.
If there is a snow day tomorrow, use the time to look at the EMF material and the test will be as soon as we get back.
__________________________________
This is a ten week revision plan, put together by Mr A Riddell from “up North”. It will give you some ideas on how to break up the daunting task of revision. You don’t have to complete this in the same order, but it does give an indication of how much you need to cover in one week.
Study Plan Higher Physics word