QCE Physics: gravity, electromagnetism and modern physics, and how the external exam is built

QCE Physics assessment at a glance

Checked on 11 November 2026 against the QCAA Physics syllabus (2025 version 1.3, January 2026). Units 1 and 2 are reported only as satisfactory or unsatisfactory; the grade comes from Units 3 and 4.

Science and mathematics are the General subjects where the external exam counts for half. The QCAA adds your internal and external marks to give a result out of 100, then subject experts set the A to E cut-offs. The exam does not rescale your internal marks.

The external exam

The exam is two papers, each made of different question types on Units 3 and 4: multiple choice, single words, sentences or paragraphs, calculations, and unseen stimulus such as graphs, tables and diagrams. Both papers come with the QCAA Physics formula and data book. For 2026 the QCAA shortened perusal time from 10 to 5 minutes, clarified the calculator conditions, updated the formula and data book, and made the conservation of lepton and baryon numbers explicitly assessable in Unit 4.

The 2026 external assessments run from Monday 26 October to Tuesday 17 November 2026. The 2027 timetable was not on the QCAA site when this page was checked. Every past exam since 2020, with its marking guide, is on the Physics syllabus page, and they are the best full-length practice you can get.

What Units 3 and 4 test

Thermal, nuclear and electrical physics (Unit 1) and motion and waves (Unit 2) are not assessed directly, but you still use their ideas, such as vectors and energy.

Worked examples

Projectile motion, with no drag

A ball is kicked from level ground at 18 m s⁻¹, 40° above the horizontal. Take g as 9.8 m s⁻². The vertical component is 18 sin 40° ≈ 11.6 m s⁻¹, so the ball is back at ground level when:

Horizontal speed stays at 18 cos 40° ≈ 13.8 m s⁻¹, so the range is 13.8 × 2.36 ≈ 32.6 m. Keep the two directions separate and join them only through time.

Circular motion

A 1200 kg car rounds a bend of radius 50 m at 15 m s⁻¹. Its centripetal acceleration is 15² ÷ 50 = 4.5 m s⁻², and the net force towards the centre is 1200 × 4.5 = 5400 N. On a flat road, friction supplies it. Check other speeds and radii in the Circular Motion Calculator.

Orbits and the photoelectric effect

For a satellite, the constant T² ÷ r³ equals 4π² ÷ GM. A 90 minute orbit (T = 5400 s) around Earth with GM from G = 6.67 × 10⁻¹¹ and M = 5.97 × 10²⁴ kg gives r ≈ 6.65 × 10⁶ m, about 280 km above the surface with Earth's radius at 6.37 × 10⁶ m. For light of wavelength 400 nm, a photon carries E = hc ÷ λ ≈ 3.10 eV, so a metal with work function 2.3 eV releases electrons with maximum kinetic energy about 0.80 eV.

Practise a projectile question from the course, then press Mark:

Using the daily papers as a practice exam

Each daily paper has 8 original questions and 25 to 35 marks. That makes it a short timed paper, not a QCAA external exam, so sit it in 35 to 45 minutes. Queensland has no state trials; the QCAA's past exams are the full-length option.

• On the Year 12 Physics paper, the circular motion, gravitational fields and orbits, electric fields, magnetic fields and electromagnetic induction questions match Unit 3.
• On the Year 11 paper, kinematics and projectiles, the photoelectric effect and particles and antiparticles match Units 3 and 4.
• Skip capacitors, simple harmonic motion, thermal physics, Young modulus and mass-energy binding questions: they are not in the Units 3 and 4 subject matter.

Grades, results and ATAR

Results are reported as A to E with the mark out of 100. The 2026 results are released from 9:00 am on Wednesday 16 December 2026. QTAC builds the ATAR from your five best scaled results, with scaling so subject choice does not help or hurt; ATARs for 2026 are released on 18 December 2026.

Exam answers

Answers and a worked mark scheme for the daily paper come with today's paper once it's marked. They are ours, not the QCAA's: the QCAA publishes marking guides for its own past exams.

Common mistakes in QCE Physics

• Mixing the components. Horizontal and vertical motion are independent in a projectile; only time is shared.
• Treating circular motion as a force. Centripetal force is the net force towards the centre, supplied by friction, tension or gravity. It is not an extra force on the free-body diagram.
• Forgetting units in IA1 and the exam. Data test marks come from correct quantities, so keep unit prefixes straight, such as nm to m.
• Using relativity formulas without naming the frame. Say which observer measures the proper time.

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