BPhO Round 0
- Round 0 format and process: Round 0 will be a one hour paper and consist of 25 multiple choice questions, a mix of knowledge, calculation, elimination, and problem solving. The paper will include few questions at middling A level of the AQA/OCR, etc. type, a few at harder A level extension, and leading on to more challenging examples. We will put up a set of sample questions on the BPhO website in early September on a Round 0 page. Round 0 will be printed and students will mark their answers on a multiple choice answer sheet, which will be scanned in school and uploaded to the BPhO platform. We shall look at the distribution of marks carefully to ensure that we can make some reasonable cut for Round 1 entry. We reserve the right to make individual decisions at the borderline for a variety of educational reasons.
- Topics Year 12 (England) topics, including photoelectric effect, circular motion, capacitors (not time dependent charging, but a knowledge that Q ∝ V with Q=CV). Topics will not include electric, magnetic or gravitational fields, particle physics, etc.
- Cost: This will be £14 for a whole school entry. The entry fee details for Round 1 remain exactly the same as in previous years.
- Who is it for: We expect many questions to be accessible to most good A level students who have practised multiple-choice questions: a type of question that does have its own skill set. The marks will be simply done as one mark for each correct answer and no negative marking. We want Round 0 to be inclusive, broadening, and encourage more students to have a go. Of course it will be used as a selection criteria for entry in to Round 1, but we hope that Round 0 will be accessible to more students and encourage more of them to take part. This will enable us to invite a manageable number of students to move on to Round 1. We hope that Round 0 will be accessible to more students so please encourage your students to consider this extension to the previously well oversubscribed Round 1 problem challenge paper. It is also accessible to Year 12 students and we would encourage you to enter some, as a trial run perhaps, to give them a taste. We do have the occasional Year 12 student on the team.
- How to prepare: Students interested in entering should gain practice on physics multiple choice questions, which can be found, for example, in “Tests” that students can practise on in Isaac Science at https//isaacscience.org (the new name for Isaac Physics).
BPhO Round 1 & 2
BPhO Round 1 and BPhO Round 2: The entry to Round 1 will be reduced to between 1500 and 2000 entries, which means we can get them marked before the end of the year. Then Round 2 is back to its original slot in January and the Astro Round 1 and Round 2 Papers fit in with this. Astro Round 1 will now take place in December. Note that Round 1 is being shortened to a 2-hour paper, of the same format, with approximately an hour expected on Section 1 (max of 50 marks) and an hour on Section 2 (two questions of 25 marks each, out of four). This may make it easier to sit as a single two hour paper rather than in two separate sections. But the old format will still be possible. We are not proposing any alternative entry route to Round 1 (which the UK Maths Olympiad equivalent does offer). Practice on past Round 1 questions is advised and the database at https://papers.bpho.org.uk/ for Round 1 practice is extremely useful for both Teachers and stu