SKY Physics Handbook
SKY the 19th · Year 11 Physics

Your Physics handbook

Everything from orientation in one place: what you'll learn, how SKY works each week, and what to do when you're unsure. Come back to it whenever you need it.

HSC class of 2028Lessons: 3 hours, weeklyTeacher: YangSu
Before we start

Four questions. Can you answer them?

Make a guess first, then tap to see the answer. Each one is answered by one focus area of Year 11.

What is Physics?

Everything is either matter or energy.

Physics lives here

Motion, forces and energy

How anything moves, from a ball to a planet, and how energy travels: light, sound, electricity.

Chemistry's focus

Matter

What things are made of, and how substances react.

Physics is the rules behind how everything moves. Three big questions, the three parts of Year 11:

1 · How do things move?

Speed, acceleration, forces and energy.

2 · How does energy travel?

Waves: sound and light, and how they bend and bounce.

3 · How do charges work?

Electricity, circuits and magnets.

Your Year 11 roadmap

Three focus areas, one term ahead of school.

You're the first class on the new Physics syllabus. Tap a focus area to see what it covers and which question it answers.

1 term

ahead of school. You start Year 12 content in Term 3, 2027.

First

class on the new Physics syllabus. Schools start it in Year 11, 2027, and your HSC in 2028 is its first exam.

3

focus areas in Year 11, instead of the old course's 4 modules. Same Physics, new shape.

Why Chemistry is worth the effort

Same rank, bigger reward.

Pick where you finish within each course. The bars show the scaled mark (out of 100) that rank earned in 2025. Scaled marks are what count toward your ATAR. (2025 students sat the old syllabus.)

Source: UAC, Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW HSC, Table A3 (percentiles of HSC and scaled marks, one-unit values doubled). There's no fixed HSC-to-scaled conversion: this compares the same rank across courses.

Homeroom system

One teacher. All the way to your HSC.

Your class teacher looks after you from today until your final HSC exam: like a big brother for your study.

Your progress

QUIZZESEvery week, recorded
NOTESEvery set read, with feedback
TESTSEvery topic and module

Falling behind? We sit down, find out why, and make a day-by-day plan.

Your questions

In classAsk any time. Interrupt.
Before classCome early with last week's questions.
After classYour teacher stays until you understand.
During the weekDiscord, any time.

Your school assessments

  1. Bring your teacher the notification
  2. Plan the content together: what to finish, by when
  3. Extra resources if you need them, printed for you
  4. Finish and send your final draft
  5. Feedback back and forth until it's ready to submit
Every lesson · 3 hours, the length of the HSC exam

What happens in every lesson

Quiz 30 min Q&A 5 to 30 min New content Break 5 to 10 min Recap, last 5 to 10 min
30 min

Weekly quiz

  • Real HSC past-paper questions
  • Previous weeks too, not just last week
  • Catches what you're about to forget
  • Instant feedback: we solve it together straight after
  • Exam skills: how to write answers that earn every mark
5 to 30 min · flexible

Homework Q&A

  • Straight after the quiz, if needed
  • Length depends on how many questions you have, and how hard they were
  • Most questions are already answered on Discord during the week
The rest of the lesson

New content

  • Deep understanding first
  • Worked examples, then practice
  • A 5 to 10 minute break halfway

We don't leave anyone behind.

Last 5 to 10 min

Recap

  • What did we learn today?
  • Your teacher checks that every student understood
  • Still unclear? Stay and ask. The lesson is finished when you understand.
The forgetting curve

Your brain is built to forget.

In 1885 Hermann Ebbinghaus measured how fast memory fades, day by day. Tap a point to see what was kept and lost. Then switch on the reviews.

Day after learningKeptLost

Data: Ebbinghaus, Memory (1885), chapter 7, "savings" scores for Days 1, 2 and 6; Day 14 from his own formula. The review line is a SKY model to show the idea, not measured data.

Try it yourself · review planner

When you review matters more than how long.

Pick a plan, or tap the days yourself. See the hours you spend in week 1, and how much is left when the topic test comes in week 4.

Review on these days:

Hours on this lesson in week 14.8 h
Left at the week-4 testMost of it

SKY model for illustration, not measured: memory fades, and each review makes it fade more slowly. Catching up takes about 4 hours times what you've forgotten. Treat the numbers as a rough guide; the pattern is the point. Everyone still revises before a test. The difference is where you start.

The 1-3-6-7 method

Your week at SKY, day by day

Tap a day to see exactly what to do. With a Thursday class: Day 1 is Friday, Day 3 Sunday, Day 6 Wednesday.

Homework, and how to spend it · starts this week

3 to 5 hours a week. That's it.

About this much per week

4–5 h

Recording to notes · 3–4 h

The most important part. Rewatch the lesson and build your Cornell notes. Upload them to Google Classroom; your teacher reads every set and sends feedback to fix.

Exercise questions · about 1 h

Not every week. Checked in class. Stuck? Ask on Discord during the week, or in the Q&A after the quiz.

Memorise · a little, often

Definitions, formulae and equations from your Memorise boxes, ready for the weekly quiz.

The shortcut

Focus in class. Save time at home.

Slide to see how much of a lesson's homework you'd need, depending on how much you take in during class.

3 h

Day 1 notes1.5 h

Day 3 questions1 h

Day 60.5 h

Rough guide for one lesson, to show the pattern. Your hours will vary.

Your notes

Make them on a tablet, the Cornell way.

What Physics notes needPaperLaptop / PCTablet + pen
Draw diagramsEasySlowEasy
Write equations and formulaeEasySlowEasy
Sketch graphsEasyHardEasy
Find a topic fastFlip pagesSearchSearch
Fix after feedbackMessyEasyEasy
Add practice questionsGlue it inPastePaste
Upload to ClassroomScan firstDirectOne tap
Like the real HSC examHandwrittenTypedHandwritten

Whatever you use: write in your own words, never copy word for word, and turn on Do Not Disturb.

The Cornell method, SKY style

One page, four parts: Cue questions on the left, Notes on the right, a Summary at the bottom, and under it a Memorise box for everything you must learn by heart. Developed by Walter Pauk at Cornell University.

Try it: a real Focus area 1 page

Tap Tape over the notes, answer each question out loud, then tap the tape to peel it and check.

FA1 · Fundamentals of mechanics · Quantities of motionThu 8 Oct
Scalar or vector: what's the difference?
Scalar = size only (distance, speed, time). Vector = size and direction (displacement, velocity, acceleration). e.g. 5 m is a scalar; 5 m north is a vector.TAPE · tap to peel
Distance or displacement?
Distance = the total path travelled. Displacement = the straight line from start to finish, with direction. e.g. one lap of a 400 m track: distance 400 m, displacement 0.TAPE · tap to peel
Speed or velocity?
Average speed = distance ÷ time. Average velocity = displacement ÷ time, with direction. e.g. that lap in 80 s: speed 5 m/s, but average velocity 0.TAPE · tap to peel
Average or instantaneous?
Average = over the whole trip. Instantaneous = at one moment, like a speedometer. e.g. 60 km in 1 h is an average of 60 km/h, even if you stopped at lights.TAPE · tap to peel
Summary · Scalars have size only; vectors have size and direction. Distance and speed are scalars; displacement and velocity are their vector partners.
Memorise · Scalar: size only · Vector: size + direction · average speed = distance ÷ time · average velocity = displacement ÷ time

The tape trick

Cover the Notes column. Paper: masking tape or a sticky note. Tablet: a tape tool or a coloured box. Read the question, answer out loud, then peel and check. Pulling the answer out of your own head is what makes it stick.

The Memorise box

At the bottom of every page, under the summary. Before a quiz or test, flip through only the bottom of every page: a whole module in minutes. Use the tape trick on these too.

Topic tests

80% is the pass mark.

HSC-style tests (multiple choice and written answers) during each module, whenever enough content has built up, and a full exam at the end of every module. Drag to see what happens at each score.

Up to 3 attempts. Still not there? A holiday intensive course closes the gap before we move on. The goal is simple: no gaps left behind.

Where everything lives

Four places. Join all of them.

Google Classroom

Your class noticeboard: announcements, homework, uploading your notes, and feedback. Missed a lesson? The quiz is here.

Class code
2ln3urwl

classroom.google.com → + → Join class

Google Drive

Every lesson recorded, up right after class, yours until you graduate. Check your email for the invitation and accept it.

SKY students only. Never share it.

SKY booklets

Theory and questions, written by SKY. Printed copies only, no PDFs (copyright). Bring them to every lesson.

Discord

Questions, any time. Open 24/7. Post a photo of the question and show where you got stuck. Answered as soon as your teacher sees it.

If you can't come to class

Nothing is lost. Catch up in five steps.

Can't come in, but can join? Every lesson runs live online too.

Missed it completely? Tap each step as you finish it.

  1. 1

    Tell YangSu

    Message YangSu directly, before class if you can, and say why. Or contact the SKY office.

  2. 2

    Do the quiz

    If there was one, download it from Google Classroom and do it first.

  3. 3

    Watch the recording

    It goes up right after class. Check your quiz as you watch.

  4. 4

    Ask your questions

    You missed the chance in class, so ask YangSu or post on Discord.

  5. 5

    Homework as usual

    Notes, questions and memorising, same as everyone.

All year round

We keep going, every week of the year.

One break a year only: 21 December to 3 January

School holidays

Classes run as normal.

The best time to get ahead.

Public holidays

Class runs online.

Same time, from home. No week is lost.

School in a different order?

Tell YangSu straight away.

You'll cover it together.

In the classroom

Three simple rules.

Come early

On time is a given: the quiz starts the lesson. A question from last week? Come early and ask.

Phone away

Full attention for the whole lesson. A 5 to 10 minute break comes halfway.

Ask any time

Interrupt. Every question is welcome. No question is too small.

You come to SKY to understand.

If anything is unclear, ask. That's your one job in every lesson.

A message for one of you

Are you the shy one? We've got a plan for you.

Stay after class. One-on-one, nobody watching, until it makes sense.
Come early. Bring last week's question before anyone else arrives.
Type it. Message YangSu or post on Discord. Your keyboard isn't shy.
YangSu will find you. After class you may be asked to explain it back. Quietly.

Nobody goes home until it makes sense. Your question is usually everyone's question; you're just the brave one who asks it.

Contact

Questions, any time.

Discord · open 24/7

discord.gg/yWTYBzspQ
Open Discord

YangSu · urgent questions, text or KakaoTalk

0424 743 673

SKY office

0433 210 759

Level 5, Suite 7, 11 The Boulevarde, Strathfield NSW 2135