Since this science course was first examined in 2006 graph questions have become quite common. If you know how to answer them they can be a source of very easy marks but if you’re not familiar with them you can similarly lose a lot of marks just by not knowing some simple rules. And remember there is no choice on the paper!
There are different types of graph questions and you have probably covered many of them in maths anyway. It’s just that the science textbooks don’t seem to do a very good job of telling us why we have them in the first place, or why there are different types.
The graphs you need to be familiar with:
- Distance-time graphs
- Velocity-time graphs
- Voltage-current graphs
- Force-extension graphs
- Cooling curves
- Solubility curves
As you can see these are almost all from the Physics section of the course, and unless you have practiced answering exam-questions they can seem rather intimidating. The link below is to a document which contains all recent exam questions on graphs at Higher Level and Ordinary Level and also includes the solutions. The nice thing is that once you’ve done one or two questions on a given graph they all tend to repeat after that.
There is lots of other advice on answering the graph question, but it’s all in the document itself.
Hope it’s useful!
Think for Yourself 