A-Level Physics

Physics, like all sci­ences, is a prac­ti­cal sub­ject. You will study 14 core prac­ti­cal activ­i­ties including:

• inves­ti­gat­ing inter­fer­ence and dif­frac­tion of laser light
• mea­sur­ing accel­er­a­tion due to grav­i­ty; inves­ti­gat­ing sys­tems that oscillate
• inves­ti­ga­tion of the links between tem­per­a­ture and pressure
• inves­ti­gat­ing mag­net­ic fields
• vol­ume and pres­sure and the safe use of ion­is­ing radi­a­tion; and, inves­ti­gat­ing mag­net­ic fields.

You will study in a vari­ety of ways. In sci­ence these will include: In class activ­i­ties, work­sheets, research, prac­tice exam ques­tions, prac­ti­cals both assessed and not, skills assess­ment, lab book, tests, group work and inde­pen­dent study.

We also organ­ise indus­try vis­its that are rel­e­vant to your sub­jects and, where pos­si­ble, sub­ject spe­cif­ic conferences.

The stan­dard require­ment for A Lev­els at Stam­ford Col­lege is 5 GCSEs at Grade 5/C or above as a min­i­mum for human­i­ties sub­jects and 6/B in maths for all sci­ence subjects.

Each A Lev­el sub­ject has its own addi­tion­al entry require­ments, please see below:

Grade 6/B or above in maths and 66 BB in Dou­ble Award Sci­ence, or a grade 6/B in maths and a grade 6/B in Physics plus 6/B in Biol­o­gy or Chemistry.

We will review each appli­ca­tion on a case-by-case basis to ensure you get a place on the course most suit­able for you. We offer an online inter­view which will explain the A Lev­el pro­gramme and also allow for an infor­mal chat with the tutor for each sub­ject before an offer to study with us can be made to you.

Once enrolled one of the ways we make sure the course is right for you is through a very effec­tive ​‘6 weeks to suc­cess’ pro­gramme that oper­ates from the first day you start your course. This includes sup­port such as (but not lim­it­ed to):

• Allow­ing you to change sub­ject and course if you change your mind or find the course is not right for you in the first 6 weeks ‑sub­ject to availability 
• Mov­ing you between A‑Levels and a Lev­el 3 Diplo­ma if you are find­ing your cur­rent lev­el too hard — sub­ject to availability 
• One-to-one reviews with your aca­d­e­m­ic tutor to ensure you are pro­gress­ing and achiev­ing well

Our course enquiries and admis­sions team can be con­tact­ed at enquiries@​stamford.​ac.​uk should you have any fur­ther questions.

Dur­ing the two years of study, you will be reg­u­lar­ly assessed under test con­di­tions to prac­tise being able to under­stand and respond to the ques­tions asked in the cor­rect time allo­ca­tion so that you are ful­ly pre­pared for the final exams. There is an assess­ment cal­en­dar for A lev­els which includes timed assess­ment every 4 to 5 weeks. Feed­back gained from these assess­ments will help you to devel­op your skills, tar­get your revi­sion and where nec­es­sary enable us to pro­vide addi­tion­al sup­port. In addi­tion, you will be required to under­take a min­i­mum of 12 assessed prac­ti­cals and write up all sup­port­ing infor­ma­tion in a lab book.

It is rec­om­mend­ed that you check the entry require­ments for the degree cours­es / career paths you are con­sid­er­ing. It is com­mon to need maths along­side physics. A lab coat and safe­ty glass­es are required for this course, these can be pur­chased from the col­lege and will cost approx­i­mate­ly £15 or you can use the ones we have. You will also need a sci­en­tif­ic calculator.

You will study 3 A Lev­el sub­jects, plus tuto­r­i­al and career devel­op­ment ses­sions. Each sub­ject has 6 hours per week con­tact time, with approx­i­mate­ly 4 hours of inde­pen­dent study. 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly we can­not accept stu­dents who only want to study a sin­gle A Lev­el sub­ject due to fund­ing limitations.

Exam­ple job roles in:

• Physics
• Mechan­i­cal Engineering
• Teach­ing

Progress to study degrees in:

• Math­e­mat­ics
• Physics
• Teach­ing
• Engi­neer­ing

You will study the fol­low­ing units:

• Mea­sure­ments and their errors
• Par­ti­cles and radiation
• Waves
• Mechan­ics and energy
• Elec­tric­i­ty
• Fur­ther mechan­ics and ther­mal physics
• Fields
• Nuclear Physics
• Astro­physics