Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017), examined from 2019 to 2027
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.
Past papers on this subject span more than one syllabus. Papers written under an older one still work as practice, but the modules they test have changed — the index labels every paper with the syllabus it was set under.
Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2017) · 2019–2027Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (2002, discontinued) · 2002–2018
The modules, one by one
Each area below lists the concepts named in the syllabus, what the NESA exam asks of them, and the mistake that most often costs marks.
Area 1 of 4
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.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 3 points
- Projectile Motion
- Circular Motion
- Motion in Gravitational Fields
What the exam asks
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.
8 real NESA questions indexed on this area →
Area 2 of 4
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.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 4 points
- Charged Particles, Conductors and Electric and Magnetic Fields
- The Motor Effect
- Electromagnetic Induction
- Applications of the Motor Effect
What the exam asks
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.
10 real NESA questions indexed on this area →
Area 3 of 4
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.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 4 points
- Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Light: Wave Model
- Light: Quantum Model
- Light and Special Relativity
What the exam asks
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.
10 real NESA questions indexed on this area →
Area 4 of 4
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.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 5 points
- Origins of the Elements
- Structure of the Atom
- Quantum Mechanical Nature of the Atom
- Properties of the Nucleus
- Deep Inside the Atom
What the exam asks
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.
12 real NESA questions indexed on this area →
Common questions
Which syllabus does the HSC Physics exam follow?
The Physics Stage 6 Syllabus published in 2017, examined in the HSC from 2019 to 2027. Papers from 2018 and earlier in our index were set on the discontinued 2002 syllabus, which was organised into different modules, so their questions do not map cleanly onto what you are studying now.
What are the four HSC Physics modules?
Module 5 Advanced Mechanics, Module 6 Electromagnetism, Module 7 The Nature of Light and Module 8 From the Universe to the Atom. All four are examined in the HSC paper, and questions regularly cross module boundaries, for example combining circular motion with projectile motion or relativity with particle physics.
Are pre-2019 Physics past papers still worth using?
Only in parts. Projectile motion, gravitational fields, the motor effect and induction questions from the older papers remain good practice. Content unique to the discontinued syllabus, and the older paper's question styles, will waste your time, so prioritise papers from 2019 onwards and use earlier ones for extra drill on shared content.
How much of HSC Physics is calculation versus writing?
Both matter. In the questions we have mapped, multi-mark items frequently pair a calculation with an explanation of what the result means, and the largest questions are extended responses worth eight or nine marks that ask you to analyse or justify using evidence from named experiments. Practising written explanations is not optional.