HKDSE Physics: five compulsory topics, four electives of which you take two, and free practice questions

Which topics does HKDSE Physics cover?

Nine in total: five compulsory and four electives. The compulsory part runs from heat and molecules through mechanics, waves and electromagnetism to the nucleus. Each elective applies that material to one field, and a school normally enters its candidates for two of the four.

• Heat and Gases (compulsory): temperature, heat and internal energy, the three transfer processes, changes of state, the behaviour of gases
• Force and Motion (compulsory): position and movement, force and motion, projectile motion, work energy and power, momentum, uniform circular motion, gravitation
• Wave Motion (compulsory): the nature and properties of waves, light, sound
• Electricity and Magnetism (compulsory): electrostatics, circuits and domestic electricity, electromagnetism
• Radioactivity and Nuclear Energy (compulsory): radiation and radioactivity, models of the atom, nuclear energy
• Astronomy and Space Science (elective): the universe at different scales, the history of astronomy, orbital motion under gravity, stars and the universe
• Atomic World (elective): Rutherford's model, the photoelectric effect, Bohr's model of hydrogen, particle or wave, probing the nanoscale
• Energy and Use of Energy (elective): domestic electricity, energy efficiency in buildings and transport, renewable and non-renewable sources
• Medical Physics (elective): the eye and the ear, non-ionising and ionising medical imaging

Is the investigative study part of this?

No, and that is a deliberate boundary. The curriculum also carries a school-based investigative study in Physics. That is laboratory and project work assessed at school, not written-paper knowledge, so it is outside what a question bank can honestly help with and outside what our app carries. Your teacher and your school own that part.

Why does this page not state the paper structure, the timings or the marks?

Because we have not verified them against a current official document, and a wrong number here would defeat the purpose of the page. The assessment framework fixes the weighting of Paper 1 Section A but not a question count, so any count quoted online is almost certainly one year's actual paper being reported as a rule. The topic framework is stable and publicly documented, so that is what this page states. For paper structure, timings, marks and the assessment framework, go to the HKEAA and to your school.

How much calculation is there, and what can a multiple-choice question really test?

Less than most candidates fear, and the useful part is the step before the arithmetic. What a four-option question catches well is a concept error or a unit mix-up: reading a distance-time graph as a speed-time graph, treating internal energy as temperature, dropping a factor of two in kinetic energy, writing the wrong unit on a right number. What it cannot do is mark three lines of connected working. So our questions are concept-first, roughly one in four is a calculation, and every calculation is one formula and one substitution with clean numbers, with the explanation writing out the formula, the substitution, the result and the unit. Full written solutions and lab reports still belong to your exercise book and your teacher.

• Distance-time and velocity-time graphs: what a gradient means on each
• Heat and temperature: energy transferred against how hot something is
• Mass and weight: a property of the body against a force on it
• Speed and velocity, distance and displacement: the scalar against the vector
• Units: a right number with a wrong unit is a wrong answer

Where do these questions come from?

They are original. Every question, option, explanation, flashcard and topic note is written by RiverMap Learning to the topic framework in the publicly available Physics Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4 to 6), 2007, updated November 2015. No HKEAA past paper question, marking scheme or textbook content is reproduced. Physical facts are not copyrightable, and the published framework is used only to align coverage. Each item is checked by a second AI model from a different family, which also re-does the arithmetic on every calculation, disagreements are settled by hand, and Chinese terminology is checked against the usage in Hong Kong textbooks.

Is RiverMap Learning connected to the HKEAA or the EDB?

No. RiverMap Learning is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, the Education Bureau, the Curriculum Development Council or any school. These pages and the app are independent revision material. The app reports how well you are doing on its own practice questions; that is not a grade, and HKDSE levels are awarded by standards-referenced reporting each year rather than by a fixed mark.