Required Practicals

There are a whole range of things that could be asked about a required practical. (These are practicals that you might be tested on compared to all the others that you do).

However, the main things that you can prepare for are:

  • A typical method - for an investigation use the MR SCAM Approach (Measure, Repeat, Same, Change, Apparatus and Mean). For a procedure, list the small details and the apparatus.

  • Typical results - drawing a rough graph can help you remember these.

  • Explanation - what science is causing the pattern in the results

  • Special pieces of apparatus - be ready to name particular pieces of kit like Newton meters, gas syringes, quadrats

There are some things that are harder to prepare for because they are general skills that you will need to apply, e.g. spot anomalies in data, plot a line of best fit.

Use one or all of the activities below to improve your knowledge in this area.

Watch a video about your chosen required practical

To access these, head to your chosen paper, e.g. Biology paper 1.

On each page there are videos and resources to each required practical

Use the experiment on a page sheet to summarize this

Try a virtual experiment

Follow the link and click Biology, chemistry or Physics required practicals.

Then click AQA and pick your practical.

Read the instructions carefully and use a knowledge organiser to summarize the practical