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VCE Physics · Year 12

VCE Physics: what actually gets examined

Every question from 4 official VCAA papers, coded by unit, area of study and marks — so you can decide what to revise from evidence rather than a feeling.

4 VCAA papers, 2024–2026 · 278 questions · 480 marks

Three topics carry 70% of the marks in VCE Physics, How has understanding about the physical world changed?, How do things move without contact? and How do physicists explain motion in two dimensions? are where the paper spends its marks. Start there.

Counted from 4 official VCAA Physics papers (2024–2026). 278 questions, 480 marks. Nothing estimated.

5 of 5areas of study in every paper on file
124marks in the single biggest area of study
20multiple choice marks, every paper
50%indicative share per unit, from teaching time

The command terms that carry the paper

Share of written-response questions by VCAA command term, matched against VCAA's own Glossary of command terms. Revising the content without revising the directive is how marks get lost. The lower / middle / higher grouping is ours — VCAA publishes the list but does not band it. Based on the 28% of written responses that open with a listed command term; the rest open with wording outside it, such as a direct question.

Calculate49% · 27qlower order
Explain24% · 13qmiddle order
Other16% · 9q
Describe11% · 6qlower order

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. The smallest 5 are grouped as Other: Compare 2% · 1q, Evaluate 2% · 1q, Suggest 2% · 1q, Justify 6% · 3q, State 6% · 3q.

Where the marks sit

Each unit with its areas of study underneath. The bar is that area of study's share of its own unit, and the chip says how many of the papers on file examined it.

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity?

305 marks

50% indicative share, inferred from equal teaching time — not a published mark weighting

How do things move without contact? Every paper 112 marks

65 questions · 37% of this unit

How do physicists explain motion in two dimensions? Every paper 101 marks

61 questions · 33% of this unit

How are fields used in electricity generation? Every paper 92 marks

55 questions · 30% of this unit

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics?

175 marks

50% indicative share, inferred from equal teaching time — not a published mark weighting

How has understanding about the physical world changed? Every paper 124 marks

73 questions · 71% of this unit

How is scientific inquiry used to investigate fields, motion or light? Every paper 51 marks

25 questions · 29% of this unit

Across 4 papers the units carried 305, 175 marks — against an indicative 50% share each, inferred from equal teaching time (VCAA: each unit involves at least 50 hours of scheduled classroom instruction). The VCAA VCE Physics Study Design 2023–2027 publishes no mark weighting; the counted share is the only measured figure.

How each area of study gets asked

The 5 biggest areas of study, by the shape of the questions actually set on them. Revising the content without revising the directive is how marks get lost — the command terms below are VCAA's own, counted from the papers.

How has understanding about the physical world changed?

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics? · 124 marks across 73 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×19 · Short answer ×54

VCAA command terms Explain ×7 · Calculate ×6 · Justify ×1

How do things move without contact?

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity? · 112 marks across 65 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×21 · Short answer ×44

VCAA command terms Calculate ×8 · Describe ×3 · Explain ×2 · Evaluate ×1 · State ×1 · Suggest ×1

How do physicists explain motion in two dimensions?

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity? · 101 marks across 61 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×17 · Short answer ×44

VCAA command terms Calculate ×9 · Describe ×2 · Justify ×1 · Compare ×1 · Explain ×1

How are fields used in electricity generation?

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity? · 92 marks across 55 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×15 · Short answer ×40

VCAA command terms Calculate ×4 · Explain ×3 · State ×2 · Justify ×1 · Describe ×1

How is scientific inquiry used to investigate fields, motion or light?

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics? · 51 marks across 25 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×8 · Short answer ×16 · Extended response ×1

VCAA command terms Explain ×1

What the markers wanted

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority publishes examination reports after each paper. This is our reading of the 2024–2025 feedback, in our words, grouped by unit and cited to the year and question it was seen in. It describes what markers rewarded in papers already sat; it does not predict the next one. The originals are linked below.

Across the paper

  • Show each step wherever a part carries more than one mark: the workings printed in the reports are the minimum, a formula on its own earns nothing, and a substitution bent to land on the given answer is noticed.
  • An explanation must add physics the scenario did not give. Repeating a coil's orientation, or that a transformer needs AC, as the reason is a tautology, and A3-sheet material pasted in unfitted to the case scored poorly.

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity?

Better responses

  • Treating the centripetal force as the resultant of real forces: the horizontal part of a normal force perpendicular to a banked track, tension with gravity on a vertical circle, or gravity alone for a satellite.
  • Arguing airbag-style questions from a fixed change in momentum, applied to both collisions: the same change spread over a longer time means a smaller force on the head.
  • Drawing a free-body diagram or a quick sketch of the altered path; assessors said these made the reasoning easier to follow, and a body at constant speed carries no extra net-force arrow.
  • Working accelerated-charge problems through energy, with the work done by the accelerating voltage equal to the kinetic energy gained; the 2025 report found this route succeeded more often than force-and-time reasoning.
  • Completing both halves of the transmission chain: stepping up cuts the line current and so the I squared R loss, and stepping down at the load returns a voltage the appliances are built for.
  • Explaining induction from the changing flux through the named coil and Faraday's law, tied to the falling magnet or rotating loop in front of you, rather than reciting a definition of Lenz's law.

Where marks were lost — and how to keep them

  • Reversing the slap-rule direction for a negative charge: the most common wrong direction for an electron in a magnetic field was the one a proton would take.
  • Recognising that a wire whose current runs parallel to the field feels no magnetic force, which is why one side of a motor coil or of a balance loop contributes nothing; opposite current directions is not the reason.
  • Reading the axes of a force graph before taking the area: force against time gives impulse, force against displacement gives work done and hence the change in kinetic energy.
  • Describing induction as flux that grows then shrinks, with the EMF set by how fast it changes; that explains opposite-sign peaks and a taller second peak for a falling magnet, which a reversing field does not.
  • Naming slip rings and the split-ring commutator correctly and giving each one's job in a generator: continuous contact for an AC output versus swapping the connections every half-turn for DC. Both recur most years.
  • Converting to SI before substituting, including altitude added to Earth's radius, centimetres and kilometres to metres and milliseconds to seconds, and answering in the unit printed inside the answer box.

Seen in 2025 Q2, 2025 NHT Q6, 2025 Q7, 2025 Q10, 2025 Q11, 2024 Q2, 2024 Q9, 2024 Q10.

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics?

Better responses

  • Reading the stopping-voltage graph as a line: its gradient, shown as rise over run from two points on the line, gives Planck's constant, the x-intercept the threshold frequency and the y-intercept the work function.
  • Picking one frame and one effect for a relativity explanation, either the dilated lifetime as measured in the laboratory or the contracted distance in the particle's frame, and carrying it through without switching.
  • Structuring photoelectric-evidence answers in three moves: what the wave model predicts, what was observed (a threshold frequency, no delay, energy fixed by frequency) and why only the photon model accounts for it.
  • Linking pattern spacing to wavelength in words: identical electron and X-ray diffraction patterns mean identical wavelengths, and a lower frequency widens the fringes because the wavelength is longer.
  • Describing Michelson-Morley by its design: light sent along two perpendicular arms, no difference found at any orientation, backing the postulate that light's speed does not depend on how the observer is moving.
  • Plotting with a scale that fills the grid, ruling a line of best fit that balances every point, then taking the gradient from two well-separated points on that line; table values that lie off the line cost the mark.

Where marks were lost — and how to keep them

  • Ruling a best-fit line that weighs all the data rather than joining the first and last points; the 2024 report notes the middle points sitting above such a line were the visual cue that it was wrong.
  • Separating photon from photoelectron: the stopping voltage measures the photoelectrons' maximum kinetic energy, and a shorter wavelength at fixed power means fewer photons and a smaller photocurrent.
  • Keeping diffraction and interference apart: fringe spacing uses the slit separation d, whereas diffraction is governed by how the wavelength compares with the slit width and is useful when the two are of similar size.
  • Sanity-checking relativistic arithmetic: the Lorentz factor is never below 1, an electron's speed comes from its energy and mass rather than being set to c, and an annihilating pair's rest energy uses both masses.
  • Classifying variables one per box, the single quantity changed, the single quantity measured and one quantity held fixed, drawn from the scenario rather than from the equipment list.
  • Saying that repeats lower the effect of random error, and telling random from systematic error and precision from accuracy in the study design's terms; the intercept of a linearised plot has a physical meaning.

Seen in 2025 Q14, 2025 Q16, 2025 Q17, 2025 NHT Q17, 2025 Q19, 2024 Q13, 2024 Q15, 2024 Q16.

Lowest-scoring questions, by average mark

Read from the VCAA examination reports, which print the mark distribution for every question. Average mark out of the marks available, and the share of students who scored zero.

YearQuestionAverageScored 0What it asked for
2024Q16(g)0.1 / 293%Same power at a shorter wavelength means fewer photons, so photocurrent falls; most reused an old no-change answer
2025Q11(b)0.3 / 385%Chain: voltage drop from the two end voltages, then line current, then power at the shed; most made no start at all
2025Q2(c)0.5 / 371%Area under a force-displacement graph is work, not impulse; many equated it to the impulse value or misread the axis
2024Q14(b)0.2 / 185%Opposite gamma-ray directions follow from conserving momentum, not from the pair carrying opposite charges
2024Q16(d)0.5 / 272%The stopping voltage tells you the photoelectrons' maximum kinetic energy; answers talked about photons or plain energy
2025Q6(b)0.6 / 268%Kinetic energy gained depends only on the voltage; longer time or smaller force were noted but never tied to the same KE
2025Q19(g)(i)0.9 / 367%Using the gradient from the previous part in the force equation as told; substituting table data instead scored zero
2024Q10(c)0.9 / 348%Doubling peak EMF at fixed frequency means doubling turns, field or area via Faraday's law; saying increase fell short
2025 NHT VCAA examination report →2025 VCAA examination report →2024 VCAA examination report →

How the paper is built

Marks by question format across the same 4 papers.

Multiple choice 8020 / 20 / 20 / 20 per paper
Short answer 395100 / 95 / 100 / 100 per paper
Extended response 50 / 5 / 0 / 0 per paper

Multiple choice is exactly 20 marks in every paper. The rest moves around: short answer ran 100, 95, 100, 100 marks and extended response ran 0, 5, 0, 0 marks. 4 papers is not enough to call that a trend.

Every question, by area of study

All 278 questions from the 4 papers, listed under the area of study each was coded to — year, question number, marks as printed on the paper, command term and format — with VCAA's own copy of the paper linked on every row. The questions themselves are read there, not here. Marks here are as printed and every question is listed once, so these totals sit a little apart from “Where the marks sit” above, by design: there, a question coded to more than one area of study has its marks split evenly. Open a unit to see its list.

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity?181 questions · 305 marks · show

How do things move without contact? · 65 questions, 112 marks

How do physicists explain motion in two dimensions? · 61 questions, 101 marks

How are fields used in electricity generation? · 55 questions, 92 marks

Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics?97 questions · 175 marks · show

How has understanding about the physical world changed? · 73 questions, 125 marks

How is scientific inquiry used to investigate fields, motion or light? · 24 questions, 50 marks

The papers this is counted from

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority publishes every paper and its marking guidelines. These links go to VCAA's own copies — read the questions there.

2024 VCAA paper · 120 marks →2025 VCAA paper · 120 marks →2025 NHT VCAA paper · 120 marks →2026 NHT VCAA paper · 120 marks →

These are the external examination papers. They are not the whole subject: Physics is also assessed by School-assessed Coursework set and marked by your school, which VCAA does not publish — so nothing on this page covers that part of your result.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which VCE Physics areas of study come up every year?

5 of the 5. Every area of study marked "Every paper" above was examined in all 4 papers on file. That describes the papers analysed, not a prediction — examiners set each paper fresh.

Which VCE Physics unit is worth the most marks?

Unit 3: How do fields explain motion and electricity? 305, Unit 4: How have creative ideas and investigation revolutionised thinking in physics? 175 marks across the 4 papers analysed. The syllabus publishes no mark weighting for them; the indicative share on this page is inferred from equal teaching time (VCAA: each unit involves at least 50 hours of scheduled classroom instruction), and the counted share is a different measure.

What is the biggest single area of study in VCE Physics?

How has understanding about the physical world changed?, with 124 of the 480 marks counted across 4 papers.

How was this analysed?

Every question in 4 official VCAA VCE Physics papers (2024–2026) was counted against the VCAA VCE Physics Study Design 2023–2027: its mark value, its format and its key word, and the unit and area of study it assesses. Marks are reconciled against each paper's own stated total.

Are the exam questions reproduced here?

No. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority owns the papers. This page publishes counts and links to VCAA's own copy of each paper so you can read the questions at the source. The analysis is ours; the papers stay with VCAA.

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 area of study heavily, which is why every area of study is listed here, including the ones examined least.

Can I see which VCE Physics questions were set on each area of study?

Yes. Every question from the 4 papers is listed above under the area of study it was coded to, with its year, question number, marks and command term, and a link to VCAA's copy of that paper. The question itself is read there, not here.

What did the VCAA markers say about VCE Physics?

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority publishes marker feedback after each paper. The "What the markers wanted" section above is our reading of it across 2 years, in our words, grouped by unit and cited to the year and question it was seen in, with the originals linked.

Coded against the VCAA VCE Physics Study Design 2023–2027. Where a question is coded to more than one area of study its marks are split evenly, so area of study totals within a unit can round a mark or two above the unit total. A area of study is marked "Every paper" when it appears in all 4, "Most papers" when it is missing from one, and "Comes and goes" when it is missing from more — the one-paper tolerance absorbs a single coding miss rather than publishing it. Last updated 2026-09-01 · Exam papers © Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, linked at source.