Prelims Day 9: Physics Paper 2

I left the exam hall with a sigh of relief. :)

It was an afternoon paper, so I took my own sweet time to get ready for it. Woke up at 9+am, had a good time doing last minute revision, then  had two bacang, or 肉粽 (rouzong) for lunch! Yummm, I love bacang… The fragrance of the fatty and oily meat is so enticing… ahhhh. Hahahaha. A good lunch before an (ahem, easy) paper! :D

Same as Chem Paper 2, the experimental planning component is put together with Paper 2 from this year onwards. The component is also worth 12 marks, thus the total score for Paper 2 is 72. Similarly, the duration is extended from 1h15min to 1h45min.

In the 1h45min paper, we had to finish short structured questions worth 42 marks, one 18-mark data analysis question and one 12-mark experimental planning question. So I thought, 1h 45min is definitely not sufficient! Thus I planned beforehand to finish the 42 marks in 45min, and spent around 30min each for the remaining two big questions.

The fact is, Physics experimental planning, unlike Chem’s, really requires the full 30 minutes… Because every experimental planning question is very open-ended, and involves a fixed format to be closely followed. The format includes objectives, experimental set-up diagram, procedure, safety precautions and steps taken to ensure reliable results.

For today’s paper, I think I spent about 25 minutes on experimental planning, and also another 25 minutes on data analysis. Strangely, I finished the first 42 marks in exactly 45 minutes, which I was really glad I did. :) I was left with only mere 10 minutes to check through my answers. But despite the time constraint, I found the paper much more manageable than Paper 3. Phew. Cool.

And oh, the experimental planning is about investigating how intensity of illumination on a light-dependent resistor affects its resistance. It seems much easier than the practices we have done in class. Phew! :) I did it without much trouble! But argh, no matter what, they should seriously give us a full 2 hours instead. Both data analysis and experimental planning require so so much time. It is really hard to do the paper without rushing in 1h 45 min. :\

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By the way, when I went home, I had another bacang. 3 bacang in one day, how unhealthy, lolol.