UK School Physics Exam from 1967

[Steve4Physics]

For anyone interested in ‘what it used to be like’…

Sifting through some old paperwork, I found one of my 1967 A-level physics exam’ papers.

For those unfamiliar with UK ‘A-levels’ in 1967, they were national examinations generally taken in school at about age 18. Students typically studied 3 or 4 different subjects at A-level. Back then, entry to university required getting adequate grades at A-level.

Things have changed a lot since 1967 but A-levels (though looking very different) still exist.

As you see from the attached paper, the old questions were diagram-free and the candidate needed pretty good reading and writing skills! And of course calculators didn't exist - we used log tables (or sometimes a slide rule)!

 

[Ibix]

My school (in the mid 90s) used to give us what were then ten-to-fifteen year old A level papers for practice. Partly I think it was just to supply the volume of questions needed, but there was definitely an element of "training should be tougher than reality" to it.

One classmate finished his maths exam early, but we weren't allowed to leave. Reading the blurb on the front he discovered he was allowed to request log tables, which he did. In the mid 1990s. Cue panicked maths teachers searching the backs of their cupboards for something they hadn't used in many years but the exam board technically required them to supply on request...

 

[kuruman]

Cue panicked maths teachers searching the backs of their cupboards for something they hadn't used in many years but the exam board technically required them to supply on request...

It's a good thing that he didn't request an abacus . . .

 

[Vanadium 50]

I remember a test from the late 1970's where slide rules were not allowed. Graph paper, however was - including semi-log paper. Problem solved!