The 8-Week IGCSE Physics Revision Plan

Most revision timetables fail because they list topics without tasks. This plan tells you, for each of the eight weeks before your IGCSE Physics 0625 exam, exactly which topics to cover, which past-paper work to do, and which self-check questions prove the week worked. Print it, stick it above your desk, and tick boxes. Budget 6-8 hours per week: five study days of about an hour, one longer paper session, one rest day.

Two rules before week 1. First, every “past-paper task” means marked work, so use the real mark scheme and score yourself harshly. Second, the self-check questions are closed-book. If you cannot answer them from memory on Sunday, the week is not finished.

Weeks 1-6: covering the content

Week 1: Motion, forces and energy (part 1)

• Topics: physical quantities and measurement, speed, velocity and acceleration, distance-time and speed-time graphs, mass and weight, density, forces and Hooke’s law, moments.
• Past-paper tasks: 20 topical MCQs on motion and forces; one full Paper 4 motion/graphs question; one Paper 6 question involving a measurement of length or time.
• Self-check: Can you find acceleration and distance from a speed-time graph? State the difference between mass and weight with units. Calculate density from mass and volume in mixed units. State the principle of moments and apply it to a balanced beam.

Week 2: Motion, forces and energy (part 2)

• Topics: energy stores and transfers, work, power, efficiency, kinetic and potential energy equations, energy resources, pressure (including $p = \rho g h$), momentum and circular motion (Extended).
• Past-paper tasks: 20 topical MCQs; two Paper 4 energy calculations done with full working; redo anything dropped in week 1’s marking.
• Self-check: Write $E_k = \dfrac{1}{2}mv^2$ and $\Delta E_p = mg\Delta h$ from memory and use them in one linked question. Calculate efficiency as a percentage. Use $p = \dfrac{F}{A}$ and $p = \rho g h$ with correct units. Extended: apply conservation of momentum to a collision.

Week 3: Thermal physics

• Topics: kinetic particle model, gas pressure and temperature, specific heat capacity, melting, boiling and latent heat (Extended), thermal expansion, conduction, convection and radiation.
• Past-paper tasks: 15 topical MCQs; one 6-mark extended response on thermal energy transfer, planned in the margin first; one Paper 6 question on a heating or cooling experiment.
• Self-check: Explain gas pressure using particle collisions in three linked sentences. Calculate energy from $E = mc\Delta\theta$. Describe convection using the words density, rises and replaced. Name one good and one bad emitter and absorber of infrared radiation.

Week 4: Waves, light and sound

• Topics: general wave properties and $v = f\lambda$, transverse vs longitudinal, reflection, refraction and diffraction, the electromagnetic spectrum in order, light (ray diagrams, total internal reflection, lenses), sound and echoes.
• Past-paper tasks: 15 topical MCQs; two ray-diagram questions drawn with a sharp pencil and ruler; one echo or speed-of-sound calculation.
• Self-check: Use $v = f\lambda$ with kHz and cm conversions. List the EM spectrum in order both ways with one use and one danger each. Draw the refracted ray entering glass. State the conditions for total internal reflection and the critical angle relationship (Extended).

Week 5: Electricity and magnetism

• Topics: magnetism, electric charge, current, p.d., e.m.f. and resistance, series and parallel circuits, circuit calculations, electrical power and safety, electromagnetic effects: induction, the motor effect and transformers.
• Past-paper tasks: 20 topical MCQs (this topic dominates MCQ papers); two full Paper 4 circuit questions; one Paper 6 question with an ammeter-voltmeter circuit.
• Self-check: Calculate combined resistance in series and parallel. State how current and p.d. behave in each circuit type. Use $P = IV$ and $E = Pt$. Explain how a transformer works in four scheme-worthy sentences and use $\dfrac{V_p}{V_s} = \dfrac{N_p}{N_s}$.

Week 6: Nuclear and space physics

• Topics: the nuclear atom, isotopes and nuclide notation, alpha, beta and gamma properties, detection and safety, half-life calculations, the Solar System, orbits, life cycle of stars and redshift (Extended).
• Past-paper tasks: 15 topical MCQs; one half-life graph question; one structured space physics question; this week is lighter, so use spare time to rebuild your equation sheet from memory.
• Self-check: Complete a decay equation balancing nucleon and proton numbers. Rank α, β, γ by penetration and ionising power. Solve a half-life problem from a table and from a graph. Describe the life cycle of a Sun-like star in order.

Weeks 7-8: exam rehearsal and repair

Week 7: full papers under exam conditions

Content coverage stops. This week you sit one complete set, timed and closed-book: Paper 2 (45 min), Paper 4 (1 h 15 min) and Paper 6 (1 h), each on a different day, each marked the same day with the official scheme.

• After each paper: sort every dropped mark into knowledge, technique or carelessness. Log the tally.
• Mid-week task: for every knowledge gap, write one flashcard and re-learn the subtopic from notes, not the whole topic.
• End of week: retry every failed question cold, 48 hours after first marking it.
• Self-check: Did your weighted total reach your target grade’s typical boundary with a margin? Which mistake bin is largest? That answer decides week 8.

If your score sits more than one grade below target at this point, get help fast rather than grinding alone. This is the exact situation our free 1-hour trial lesson is built for: a specialist tutor teaches you through a real paper, and you can see whether you are comfortable working with them before committing.

Week 8: weak-spot repair and the final 72 hours

No new topics. Week 8 converts week 7’s log into marks.

• Days 1-3: attack your three weakest subtopics, one per day. For each: re-learn from notes (30 min), then do every question on that subtopic from two past sessions (45 min), marked immediately.
• Day 4: sit your held-back unseen paper set, the most recent variant 2 set you have never opened. Mark it. This is your honest predictor.
• Day 5: technique day. Re-read your error log, rewrite your final-five-minutes checking routine, and rehearse the Paper 6 graph checklist and your five error-and-improvement pairs.
• Days 6-7: light review only. Recite the equation list from memory twice. Read examiner-report comments for the papers you sat. Sleep normally. Cramming past midnight before a physics paper reliably costs more marks than it gains.

How do you keep the plan on track?

Three habits protect the whole system. Track it visibly: tick each task line on the printed plan, because an unticked Thursday on paper is harder to ignore than a vague feeling of being behind. Protect the marking time: a paper sat but never marked teaches nothing, so never start a paper without 40 minutes left to mark it. And cut correctly when life intervenes: drop extra MCQ sets first, topical questions second, but never the timed papers or the Sunday self-checks.

Students working with our tutors run this same skeleton, with the 1.5-hour weekly class placed after each week’s marking so the tutor re-teaches exactly what the mark scheme exposed. Self-studying students can replicate most of that loop with discipline and the official examiner reports.

Eight weeks, six topics, three full timed sets, one held-back predictor paper. Print it, start Monday, and let the tick boxes do the motivating.