HSC Physics · Year 12
HSC Physics: what actually gets examined
Every question from 4 official NESA papers, counted by marks, format and key word, with its module estimated — so you can decide what to revise from evidence rather than a feeling.
4 NESA papers, 2022–2025 · 176 questions · 400 marks
HSC Physics spreads its 400 marks across 4 modules, the biggest carrying 35%, and the 4 modules carry uneven weight. There is nothing here you can safely skip — the question is what order you revise in.
Counted from 4 official NESA Physics papers (2022–2025). 176 questions, 400 marks. Which module each question belongs to is estimated — see the note at the foot of the page.
The key words that carry the paper
Share of written-response questions by NESA key word. Revising the content without revising the directive is how marks get lost. The lower / middle / higher grouping is ours — NESA publishes the glossary but does not band it. Based on the 31% of written responses that open with a glossary key word; the rest open with wording outside it, such as “State” or a direct question.
Lower orderMiddle orderHigher order
Each tile is one key word; its size is that key word's share of written-response questions that open with one.
Where the marks sit
Each module with its topics underneath. The bar is that topic's share of its own module.
Module 5: Advanced Mechanics
138 marks25% indicative weighting, quoted from the syllabus
These 61 questions were placed in this module by an automatic estimate, not read from the paper — so there is no topic breakdown here and the consistency chips are withheld. See the note at the foot of the page.
Concept pages in this module:
Module 6: Electromagnetism
78 marks25% indicative weighting, quoted from the syllabus
These 38 questions were placed in this module by an automatic estimate, not read from the paper — so there is no topic breakdown here and the consistency chips are withheld. See the note at the foot of the page.
Concept pages in this module:
Module 7: The Nature of Light
104 marks25% indicative weighting, quoted from the syllabus
These 41 questions were placed in this module by an automatic estimate, not read from the paper — so there is no topic breakdown here and the consistency chips are withheld. See the note at the foot of the page.
Concept pages in this module:
Module 8: From the Universe to the Atom
80 marks25% indicative weighting, quoted from the syllabus
These 36 questions were placed in this module by an automatic estimate, not read from the paper — so there is no topic breakdown here and the consistency chips are withheld. See the note at the foot of the page.
Across 4 papers the modules carried 138, 78, 104, 80 marks — against a 25% indicative weighting each, quoted from the NESA Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017). The counted share and the published weighting are two different measures.
How the paper is built
Marks by question format across the same 4 papers.
Multiple choice is exactly 20 marks in every paper. The rest moves around: short answer ran 59, 59, 65, 53 marks and extended response ran 21, 21, 15, 27 marks. 4 papers is not enough to call that a trend.
The papers this is counted from
NSW Education Standards Authority publishes every paper and its marking guidelines. These links go to NESA's own copies — read the questions there.
These are the external examination papers. They are not the whole subject: Physics is also assessed by school-based assessment set and marked by your school, which NESA does not publish — so nothing on this page covers that part of your result.
Study Physics on Revizi
How these module figures were produced
176 of the 176 questions on this page (100%) were assigned to a module by an automatic estimate, not read from the paper. NESA does not print a module on each question, so the estimate compares every question against Revizi's own Physics decks for each module.
Checked against two subjects where every question HAS been coded by hand, the same method agreed with the human 74% of the time in Biology and 64% in Chemistry. Read the module totals as a good indication of where the marks sit, not as an exact count — some questions are in the wrong module.
Nothing else here is estimated. The question counts, the mark totals, the format split, the key words and the papers themselves are all read straight from NESA's papers. Consistency chips are withheld entirely, because a topic-level claim cannot survive that error rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which HSC Physics topics come up every year?
Not published for every module yet. 176 questions in the papers on file were set across a whole module rather than on one topic. Because they do not say which topics they examined, a topic that WAS examined could look absent — so the chips are withheld in the affected modules rather than guessed.
Which HSC Physics module is worth the most marks?
Module 5: Advanced Mechanics 138, Module 7: The Nature of Light 104, Module 8: From the Universe to the Atom 80, Module 6: Electromagnetism 78 marks across the 4 papers analysed. The syllabus publishes an indicative weighting for each; the counted share and the published weighting are two different measures.
How was this analysed?
Every question in 4 official NESA HSC Physics papers (2022–2025) was counted against the NESA Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017): its mark value, its format and its key word, and the module it assesses, estimated rather than read from the paper. Marks are reconciled against each paper's own stated total.
Are the exam questions reproduced here?
No. NSW Education Standards Authority owns the papers. This page publishes counts and links to NESA's own copy of each paper so you can read the questions at the source. The analysis is ours; the papers stay with NESA.
Does this predict what will be in my exam?
No, and it is not meant to. It describes what has been set. Examiners write each paper fresh and can weight a neglected topic heavily, which is why this page shows where the marks sat without singling any module out as skippable.
Coded against the NESA Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017). Where a question is coded to more than one topic its marks are split evenly, so topic totals within a module can round a mark or two above the module total. Last updated 2026-08-30 · Exam papers © NSW Education Standards Authority, linked at source.