High school physics practice test: 8 free questions with worked answers

The daily High School Physics paper has 8 original questions worth 25 to 35 marks. It covers Newton's laws and momentum, stopping distances, energy and specific heat, pressure, circuits, household electricity, electromagnetism, waves and the electromagnetic spectrum, radioactivity and space. That lines up well with an algebra-based high school physics course.

What's on a high school physics test

Courses vary by state. In states that use the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), high school physical science asks you to use Newton's second law, show that momentum is conserved, describe gravitational and electric forces with equations, track energy as it transfers, and relate a wave's frequency, wavelength and speed. Most courses add electric circuits and radioactivity.

Free physics practice test: 8 questions

We wrote these questions for this page. Give yourself 30 minutes with a calculator, and use g = 9.8 m/s².

1. A car speeds up from rest to 24 m/s in 8.0 s at a steady rate. Find its acceleration and how far it travels.
2. A net force of 3,600 N acts on a 1,200 kg car. What is its acceleration?
3. A 2.5 kg cart rolling at 4.0 m/s runs into a stationary 1.5 kg cart, and the two lock together. How fast do they move afterward?
4. A 0.50 kg ball is dropped from 5.0 m. Ignoring air resistance, how fast is it moving just before it lands?
5. A 9.0 V battery is connected to a 3.0 Ω resistor and a 6.0 Ω resistor in series. Find the current and the voltage across the 6.0 Ω resistor.
6. A 1,500 W heater runs for 2 hours. How much energy does it use in kilowatt-hours, and what does it cost at 15 cents per kWh?
7. A radio station broadcasts at 100 MHz. Radio waves travel at 3.0 × 10⁸ m/s. What is the wavelength?
8. A radioactive sample has a mass of 80 g and a half-life of 5 days. How much of it is left after 15 days?

Physics practice test answers

Motion, forces and momentum (questions 1 to 3)

1. 3.0 m/s² and 96 m. Acceleration = change in velocity ÷ time = 24 ÷ 8.0 = 3.0 m/s². Starting from rest, d = ½at² = ½ × 3.0 × 8.0² = 96 m. Check with average speed: 12 m/s for 8.0 s is also 96 m. The kinematics (SUVAT) calculator solves these.

2. 3.0 m/s². Rearrange F = ma to get a = F ÷ m = 3,600 ÷ 1,200 = 3.0 m/s². Use the net force: if friction were acting, you would subtract it first.

3. 2.5 m/s. Momentum is conserved because no net outside force acts during the collision. The total beforehand is 2.5 × 4.0 = 10 kg m/s. Afterward the joined carts have a mass of 4.0 kg, so v = 10 ÷ 4.0 = 2.5 m/s. The Momentum Calculator checks collisions like this.

Energy and electricity (questions 4 to 6)

4. 9.9 m/s. Gravitational potential energy turns into kinetic energy: mgh = ½mv². The mass cancels, so v = √(2gh) = √(2 × 9.8 × 5.0) = 9.9 m/s. A heavier ball would land at the same speed.

5. 1.0 A and 6.0 V. Series resistances add: 3.0 + 6.0 = 9.0 Ω, so I = V ÷ R = 9.0 ÷ 9.0 = 1.0 A. The same current flows through both, so the 6.0 Ω resistor takes V = IR = 6.0 V, and the 3.0 Ω one takes the other 3.0 V. Build it in the Circuit Builder.

6. 3.0 kWh, costing 45 cents. Energy = power × time = 1.5 kW × 2 h = 3.0 kWh, and 3.0 × 15 = 45 cents. Converting the watts to kilowatts first is the step people miss.

Waves and radioactivity (questions 7 and 8)

7. 3.0 m. Wave speed = frequency × wavelength, so λ = v ÷ f = 3.0 × 10⁸ ÷ 1.00 × 10⁸ = 3.0 m. 100 MHz means 100 million hertz, so write it as 1.00 × 10⁸ Hz before dividing.

8. 10 g. 15 days is three half-lives, so the mass halves three times: 80 → 40 → 20 → 10 g. It never reaches zero by halving. Try a half-life question from our Nuclear Energy course, then press Mark.

Physics Regents and other state tests

Whether you sit an end-of-course physics exam depends on your state. New York has two Regents exams in physics. The newer Physical Science: Physics (NYSP12SLS) exam has one past paper so far, from Wednesday, June 10, 2026, which ran from 1:15 to 4:15 p.m. Students needed a scientific or graphing calculator, a centimeter ruler, a protractor and the 2025 Edition Reference Tables for Physical Science: Physics. NYSED also keeps past papers for the older Physical Setting/Physics exam, and both are on its June 2027 schedule. Each past paper comes with a scoring key, rating guide and conversion chart, so you can mark a real paper yourself.

Use the daily paper as a short timed practice test

1. Open today's High School Physics paper and work to the suggested time, 35 to 40 minutes.
2. Write the equation, then the numbers with units, then the answer with its unit.
3. Mark it with the mark scheme and note the topic behind each lost mark.
4. Fill gaps with the Laws of Motion, Electricity and Light and Energy courses.

Common physics mistakes

• Using the total force instead of the net force in F = ma.
• Forgetting that kinetic energy uses v², so doubling speed quadruples it.
• Not converting prefixes: mega is 10⁶, kilo is 10³, milli is 10⁻³.
• Adding resistances in parallel as if they were in series.
• Thinking a sample is gone after two half-lives: a quarter is still left.

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