Physics Scaling HSC 2026: Does It Scale Up or Down?

What Physics actually asks of you

Physics is examined in one written paper each year, released by NESA alongside marking guidelines. Across the questions mapped in our bank, one-mark multiple-choice items occupy the first twenty questions, and the written-response questions that follow have carried from three to nine marks. Many are multi-part, escalating from a definition or a single calculation to an unfamiliar scenario, and the largest items are extended responses that ask you to analyse or justify a claim using evidence from named experiments.

The Physics exam is Thu 5 Nov 2026, 9:25 am (3 hours 5 minutes (9.25 am – 12.30 pm)). Source: HSC timetable.

The 4 areas of study you are examined on

From the Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017), examined from 2019 to 2027.

• Module 5: Advanced Mechanics
  Module 5 takes the motion you already know and removes the simplifying assumptions. Projectile motion is analysed by resolving velocity into independent horizontal and vertical components, then deriving range, maximum height and time of flight rather than quoting them, including launches from a height and at an angle. Circular motion introduces centripetal acceleration and the net force that produces it, applied to objects on strings, vehicles on banked and unbanked curves, conical pendulums and rotating cylinders, along with torque and the work done by a rotating system. Motion in gravitational fields treats gravity as a radial field rather than a constant: gravitational field strength varying with distance, gravitational potential energy defined as negative and approaching zero at infinity, orbital velocity and period, Kepler's laws, total orbital energy, escape velocity and the slingshot effect.
  In the exam: Questions combine strands, for instance launching a projectile from a rotating disc and asking where it lands. Others derive Kepler's third law from the gravitational force and then use a period-radius graph to find a planet's mass, or set a 'show that' kinetic energy calculation inside a longer orbital question that also asks you to explain a trajectory change after an engine burn.
  Where marks go missing: Using mgh and a constant g in an orbital or high-altitude question. Once the radial field applies, potential energy must come from the negative inverse-distance expression, and distances are measured from the centre of the body, not from its surface.
• Module 6: Electromagnetism
  Module 6 builds from static fields to working machines. You start with charged particles in electric fields: field strength between parallel plates, the work done accelerating a charge, and the parabolic path of an electron deflected between plates, then the circular path a charged particle follows in a magnetic field. The motor effect gives the force on a current-carrying conductor, the force between parallel conductors, and the torque on a current loop, which is the basis of the DC motor with its split-ring commutator. Electromagnetic induction covers magnetic flux, Faraday's law, Lenz's law as a consequence of energy conservation, back emf, eddy currents and their use in braking, and transformers including the reasons for real energy losses. Applications tie the theory to generators, AC induction motors and magnetic braking.
  In the exam: Expect a calculation and an explanation inside the same question: a transformer voltage followed by why the primary current changes when a load is switched in; a torque calculation followed by two ways to increase it. Longer parts analyse eddy currents in a complete versus a split ring, compare braking graphs at two entry speeds, or trace an electron's deflection to a screen.
  Where marks go missing: Answering a Lenz's law question by saying the induced current 'opposes the motion' and stopping. The marks are in the chain: which way the flux is changing, the direction of the induced field that opposes that change, the resulting current direction, then the force.
• Module 7: The Nature of Light
  Module 7 asks what light is, and answers it three times. The electromagnetic spectrum strand uses spectra to determine the composition, temperature, density, rotational and translational velocity of stars, with Wien's law linking peak wavelength to surface temperature and the black-body curve underpinning it. The wave model accounts for diffraction, interference in Young's double-slit experiment, and polarisation, including why intensity falls through a polarising filter. The quantum model brings the black-body problem, Planck's quantisation, Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect, threshold frequency and work function, and de Broglie's matter waves. Special relativity then follows from the constancy of the speed of light: the Michelson-Morley result, simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction, relativistic momentum and the mass-energy relationship.
  In the exam: Relativity parts range from a three-mark time dilation calculation for a fast spacecraft to a qualitative explanation of why cosmic-ray muons reach the ground, argued from both reference frames. Spectra questions ask for a surface temperature and an absorption line frequency, then for the physical process producing absorption. Extended responses assess evidence across several light-matter experiments.
  Where marks go missing: Mixing up which observer measures the proper time or proper length. Proper time is measured in the frame where the two events happen at the same place, and the proper length is measured in the frame where the object is at rest; swapping them inverts the whole calculation.
• Module 8: From the Universe to the Atom
  Module 8 runs from the largest scale to the smallest. It opens with the origins of the elements: Big Bang nucleosynthesis, evidence for an expanding universe, fusion reactions inside stars, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and what a star's position on it reveals about luminosity, temperature and stage of life. The structure of the atom strand follows the experimental line from cathode rays and Thomson to Millikan, Rutherford's scattering and Chadwick's neutron. The quantum mechanical nature of the atom covers Bohr's model and its successes and limits, hydrogen spectral series, de Broglie's contribution and the Schrodinger model. Properties of the nucleus adds nuclear stability, binding energy and mass defect, half-life and decay, fission and fusion. Deep inside the atom introduces the Standard Model, quarks and leptons, and particle accelerators.
  In the exam: Astrophysics parts ask you to interpret a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram or a recessional velocity graph, or to explain and sketch how a spectral line broadens under stellar rotation. Nuclear parts run mass-defect calculations. Extended responses ask you to justify how particle interactions and named experiments advanced understanding of matter, which needs evidence, not narrative.
  Where marks go missing: Botching the mass defect conversion. Masses must be handled consistently in unified mass units or kilograms, and using atomic rather than nuclear masses quietly adds the electrons, so a calculation with correct physics still lands on the wrong energy.

Full Physics study-design guide →

How scaling works in New South Wales

In New South Wales, NESA reports an HSC mark for each course, but the ATAR is not built from those marks. UAC takes the raw examination and assessment marks and scales each course separately, so that a mark means the same thing no matter which course it came from. A course whose students perform strongly across everything else they study is scaled up; a course whose students perform less strongly elsewhere is scaled down. UAC then adds your best 10 units of scaled marks: the best two units of English, which are compulsory, plus the best eight remaining units. That aggregate is ranked statewide and reported as an ATAR. Scaled marks are usually lower than HSC marks, and the statewide average scaled mark is close to 25 out of 50.

Source: official UAC scaling report (PDF). Last checked 2026-08-18.

What scaling is not

Scaling is not a difficulty rating and it is not a bonus. It compares how the students in one subject performed across every other subject they took, so a subject scales up because of its cohort, not because of the paper. The consequence is practical: you cannot scale your way out of a weak result. The only lever you control is the raw mark, and the fastest way to move that is full-length timed practice against the real exam format.

Questions

Keep going

• HSC Physics hub — practice exams, notes and flashcards
• HSC Physics practice exams with worked solutions
• HSC Physics Year 12 revision notes
• HSC Physics practice questions with worked solutions
• HSC Physics flashcards
• Get the HSC Physics Mastery Pack
• UAC ATAR calculator — name your subjects and it builds your dashboard
• HSC Physics past papers by year and topic
• HSC Physics syllabus explained
• HSC exam timetable 2026
• Every HSC subject we cover
• Scaling for every subject, state by state