QCE Units 3 & 4 · Queensland

Physics Scaling QCE 2026: Raw to Scaled

QCE Physics scales up in Queensland. Physics scales up strongly. In QTAC's 2024 ATAR report the median raw result of 84 scaled to 89.64 out of 100.

What the 2024 QTAC report shows

Median raw 84 → median scaled 89.64

Subject results run 0–100. This is the median raw result and the median scaled result for the subject, not a fixed conversion — your own result is scaled by where it sits in the distribution. It describes the 2024 cohort. Scaling is recalculated every year, so it is not a prediction of what your result will do.

You can't change the scaling. You can change the raw mark.

Scaling is decided by your cohort, after the exam, and nothing you do moves it. The raw mark is the only part of this you control — and the Physics hub is 20 full-length model exams with mark-by-mark answer guides, revision notes, practice questions and flashcards, built for exactly that.

Preview Physics free →QTAC ATAR calculator

The hub shows a sample revision note extract, one full exam question with its worked answer and the complete list of every exam and note title — no account needed to look around. Unlocking Physics for life is $20 once, or $50 for any three subjects. See what's included →

What Physics actually asks of you

Physics is assessed through internal assessments completed at school and a QCAA external assessment built on Unit 3 and Unit 4 subject matter. The external assessment comprises two papers. Paper 1 is issued as a multiple choice question book alongside a question and response book, while Paper 2 is a question and response book of longer items requiring worked calculation and written justification. QCAA has also released sample external assessment papers produced as a pre-implementation trial, which are useful for format familiarity.

The Physics exam is Mon 9 Nov 2026 (90 minutes writing + 5 minutes reading time). Source: QCE timetable.

The 4 areas of study you are examined on

From the QCAA Physics 2025 General Senior Syllabus (applies from the 2026 cohort; the 2019 syllabus was examined 2020-2025).

Thermal, nuclear and electrical physics (Unit 1)
Unit 1 sets up three separate models that all reappear later. Heating processes use the kinetic particle model to explain temperature as average particle kinetic energy, then quantify energy transfer with specific heat capacity and latent heat, distinguishing conduction, convection and radiation and applying conservation of energy to mixing and calorimetry problems. Nuclear physics covers the nuclear model of the atom, isotopes, and alpha, beta and gamma decay, including writing and balancing nuclear equations so that both mass number and atomic number are conserved, along with half-life, fission and fusion, and the biological effects and uses of ionising radiation. Electrical circuits cover charge, current as rate of charge flow, potential difference, resistance and Ohm's law, series and parallel arrangements, power dissipation, and the behaviour of moving charges that later becomes the basis for electromagnetism.
In the exam: Unit 1 is assessed through school-based assessment rather than the external papers, which examine Units 3 and 4. The habits built here carry directly into the exam, since energy conservation reasoning, correct handling of decay and conservation equations, and confident circuit analysis all reappear inside electromagnetism and nuclear-related questions in the senior units.
Where marks go missing: Using the specific heat capacity relationship straight through a phase change. While a substance is melting or boiling the temperature does not change, so that stage needs the latent heat relationship instead, and a single-equation answer silently omits the largest part of the energy transferred.
Linear motion and waves (Unit 2)
Unit 2 builds the vector and wave toolkit. Linear motion distinguishes distance from displacement and speed from velocity, defines acceleration, and works through the constant-acceleration equations while reading displacement-time and velocity-time graphs for gradient and area. Waves are classified as longitudinal or transverse, described by wavelength, frequency, period, amplitude and speed, and examined through reflection, refraction, superposition, standing waves and the Doppler effect. Optics applies the wave model of light to reflection and refraction using Snell's law, critical angle and total internal reflection, dispersion, diffraction through slits and interference patterns, which is the evidence base later set against the particle model in Unit 4. Thermodynamics and further electricity extend Unit 1 where the school's course covers them. Nothing here is assessed externally, but every senior calculation assumes this fluency.
In the exam: This unit is covered by internal assessment, not the external assessment, which is restricted to Units 3 and 4. Its skills are examined constantly in disguise, because projectile and circular motion questions are vector kinematics problems, and the wave behaviour of light studied here is the exact evidence that quantum questions in Unit 4 ask you to weigh.
Where marks go missing: Mixing sign conventions partway through a motion problem. If upward is positive then acceleration due to gravity must be entered as negative for the whole calculation, and switching midway produces a plausible-looking number with the wrong direction or magnitude.
Gravity and electromagnetism (Unit 3)
Unit 3 is the heaviest calculation unit in the external assessment. Gravity and motion starts by resolving vectors into components, then applies that to projectile motion, treating horizontal and vertical motion as independent, and to uniform circular motion with centripetal acceleration and force. Newton's law of universal gravitation introduces gravitational field strength and orbital motion, and Kepler's laws relate orbital period to radius for satellites and planets. Electromagnetism begins with electrostatics and Coulomb's law, electric fields and field diagrams, then magnetic fields around current-carrying conductors and solenoids, the force on a current-carrying conductor and on a moving charge. Electromagnetic induction ties the two halves together through magnetic flux and flux density, Faraday's law relating induced electromotive force to rate of change of flux, and Lenz's law giving the direction of the induced effect.
In the exam: Expect multi-step numerical items with a diagram: a projectile launched at an angle, a satellite orbit, a charge moving through a field, or a coil moving relative to a magnet. You are asked to calculate and then justify direction using a stated law. Explanation marks require the physical reasoning, not only the substituted formula.
Where marks go missing: Stating that the induced current opposes the magnetic field. Lenz's law says it opposes the change in flux, so a coil experiencing a decreasing field produces a current that maintains it. Answers phrased as opposition to the field get the direction backwards half the time.
Revolutions in modern physics (Unit 4)
Unit 4 replaces classical assumptions with modern ones. Special relativity starts from the two postulates, the invariance of physical laws in inertial frames and the constancy of the speed of light, and derives time dilation, length contraction and the distinction between proper and relative measurements, extending to relativistic momentum and mass-energy equivalence. Quantum theory covers black-body radiation and the failure of classical prediction, the photoelectric effect with threshold frequency, work function and stopping voltage, the photon model, wave-particle duality and de Broglie wavelength, and atomic energy levels producing discrete emission and absorption spectra. The Standard Model then classifies matter into quarks and leptons and their generations, distinguishes baryons from mesons within the hadrons, and describes the four fundamental forces with their exchange particles, applying conservation rules to particle interactions.
In the exam: Relativity items give a scenario with a stated velocity and ask which observer measures the proper time or length before calculating. Photoelectric questions supply a graph or data set to extract threshold frequency, work function or Planck's constant. Standard Model items ask you to classify a particle from its quark composition or check an interaction against conservation rules.
Where marks go missing: Assuming brighter light gives photoelectrons more energy. Intensity changes how many electrons are emitted, while their maximum kinetic energy depends only on the frequency of the incident light and the work function of the metal, which is precisely what the classical wave model failed to predict.

Full Physics study-design guide →

How scaling works in Queensland

In Queensland, QCAA reports a subject result out of 100 for each General subject. QTAC then applies inter-subject scaling before any ATAR is calculated. The method is equipercentile: QTAC compares how each subject's students performed across all their subjects, works out which results sit at the same position in each distribution, and maps subject results onto a common scale. The calculation runs iteratively, recomputing each student's average and each subject's scaled results until the numbers settle. QTAC then adds your best five scaled results to form a tertiary entrance aggregate, which is ranked statewide and reported as an ATAR. You must satisfactorily complete a QCAA English subject to be eligible, though it need not be one of your five.

Source: official QTAC 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.

QCE Physics practice exams QTAC ATAR calculator

Questions

Does QCE Physics scale up or down?

Physics scales up strongly. In QTAC's 2024 ATAR report the median raw result of 84 scaled to 89.64 out of 100.

How does subject scaling work in Queensland?

Should I choose Physics because of how it scales?

Scaling adjusts a whole cohort, not one student, so choosing a subject you will struggle in because it scales up is usually a worse trade than doing well in one that scales down. Check the prerequisites for the course you want first, then your interest and workload, and treat scaling as a tie-breaker. Scaling is also recalculated every year, so the figures in any report describe a past cohort rather than the year you are sitting.