Demonstrate understanding of waves
This standard asks you to show you understand how waves behave and interact with each other and with different materials. You'll need to explain wave properties like reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference, and apply physics ideas to real-world situations—not just memorise answers from past papers. You might also study how light behaves when it bounces off curved mirrors or passes through lenses.
You show basic understanding of wave concepts (like identifying whether an image is virtual or real, or recognizing total internal reflection), complete simple calculations with partial working, and draw diagrams that are mostly clear but may have minor errors.
You produce mostly accurate ray diagrams with correct labels, perform multi-step calculations correctly using formulas like Snell's law, and link physics concepts to the context—though you may miss some deeper connections.
You use accurate, ruled diagrams with precise explanations in proper physics language, show comprehensive understanding of how waves behave, complete multi-step calculations with correct units and significant figures, and elaborate on what your diagrams mean and why they matter.
Standards typically taken alongside or after this one. Same subject, grouped by level.