CSCA Physics Syllabus 2026–27: Official Topics, Format and Prep

What is on the CSCA physics syllabus?

The official CSCA Physics Examination Syllabus (2025 edition) is short. It names five content modules and lists 18 topics under them. Below is the complete list, translated faithfully from the official Chinese version published by the exam organizer. If a topic is not on this list, it should not be the main focus of your preparation, no matter what a prep book or video says.

• Mechanics (6 topics): kinematics (displacement, velocity, acceleration, uniformly accelerated linear motion, free fall); Newton's laws of motion and their applications; momentum and impulse, conservation of momentum; work and energy, conservation of mechanical energy; circular motion and universal gravitation; simple harmonic motion and mechanical waves
• Electromagnetism (4 topics): electrostatic fields (Coulomb's law, electric field strength, electric potential); DC circuits (Ohm's law, series and parallel circuits); magnetic fields (magnetic induction, Ampère force, Lorentz force); electromagnetic induction (Faraday's law, Lenz's law)
• Thermodynamics (3 topics): kinetic molecular theory; the ideal gas equation of state; the first law of thermodynamics
• Optics (2 topics): geometrical optics (laws of reflection and refraction); physical optics (interference and diffraction)
• Modern physics (3 topics): the photoelectric effect; atomic structure; basic nuclear physics

Notice what is not on the list. Some prep websites add topics such as rotational dynamics, torque or alternating current. These are not named in the official 2025 syllabus. You can still read about them if you have time, but give them low priority. Spend your hours on the 18 listed topics first, because that is where the questions are written from.

How is the CSCA physics exam structured?

Every question is single-choice: you pick one correct answer from the options, and you do not write out working. With 48 questions in 60 minutes, you have 75 seconds per question on average. Physics is offered in Chinese or English. You choose the language when you register, and the official notice asks you to choose based on what your target university requires. The physics paper uses the same structure as Mathematics and Chemistry. Our guide to CSCA exam format and scoring covers all four papers in detail.

• Physics: 48 single-choice questions, 60 minutes, Chinese or English, scored 0–100. Required only if your major asks for it.
• Chemistry: 48 single-choice questions, 60 minutes, Chinese or English, scored 0–100. Required only if your major asks for it.
• Mathematics: 48 single-choice questions, 60 minutes, Chinese or English, scored 0–100. Required for all applicants.
• Professional Chinese: 80 single-choice questions, 90 minutes, Chinese only, scored 0–100. Required only for Chinese-taught programs.

Plan to work without a calculator. The official home-based test rules list what may sit on your desk (your ID, admission ticket, computer, keyboard, mouse and scratch materials), and a calculator is not on that list. The syllabus also does not mention a formula sheet, so learn the core equations by heart and practice arithmetic with fractions, square roots and powers of ten until it feels routine. Our CSCA exam day tips explain the scratch-material rules for the home-based test.

Which CSCA physics topics carry the most weight?

The official syllabus gives no weighting, so nobody outside the exam body can tell you the exact split. Here is what we can say honestly. Mechanics has the most listed topics (6 of 18) and electromagnetism is next (4 of 18), so together they make up more than half of the syllabus. Third-party analyses of recalled papers also put these two modules at the center of the exam, although their percentages disagree with each other.

So give mechanics and electromagnetism most of your study time, but do not skip the smaller modules. Thermodynamics, optics and modern physics have only eight topics between them, and their questions are often a direct use of one idea: the ideal gas equation, the first law of thermodynamics, the law of refraction or the photoelectric equation. A few focused hours on each can turn them into reliable marks.

What formulas should you know for CSCA physics?

The list below is our revision checklist, not an official formula sheet. It covers the relationships that most questions on the 18 syllabus topics rely on. If you want lessons that teach each idea from the beginning, our CSCA physics course breaks the subject into units, short lessons and mini tests so you can check each module before moving on.

• Kinematics: v = v₀ + at, x = v₀t + ½at², v² − v₀² = 2ax; read slopes and areas on displacement–time and velocity–time graphs
• Newton's laws: F = ma, friction f = μN, resolving forces on an inclined plane
• Momentum: p = mv, impulse FΔt = Δp, conservation of momentum in collisions and explosions
• Work and energy: W = Fs cos θ, kinetic energy ½mv², gravitational potential energy mgh, power P = W/t
• Circular motion and gravitation: a = v²/r, F = GMm/r², orbital speed of satellites
• Oscillations and waves: T = 2π√(m/k) for a spring, T = 2π√(L/g) for a simple pendulum, v = fλ
• Electrostatics and circuits: F = kq₁q₂/r², E = F/q, V = IR, series and parallel resistors, P = VI
• Magnetism: Ampère force F = BIL, Lorentz force F = qvB, and the hand rules for direction
• Electromagnetic induction: emf = ΔΦ/Δt (times the number of turns), Lenz's law for the direction of induced current
• Thermodynamics: pV = nRT with temperature in kelvin, ΔU = Q + W (W is work done on the gas)
• Optics: angle of incidence equals angle of reflection, n₁ sin θ₁ = n₂ sin θ₂, double-slit fringe spacing Δx = Lλ/d
• Modern physics: E = hν, maximum kinetic energy of photoelectrons Ek = hν − W₀, energy levels, alpha, beta and gamma decay, half-life

How should you prepare for CSCA physics?

If you studied physics in your last two years of school, six weeks of steady work is a realistic plan for most students. If physics is new or weak for you, double each stage. The order below starts with the biggest modules and ends with timed practice, because speed matters as much as knowledge on a 60-minute paper. To fit this plan around your session date, check the reported calendar in our CSCA exam 2026–27 guide.

For weeks five and six, you need questions at the right level. Our CSCA Physics practice questions with eight worked answers show each method and common trap across mechanics, circuits, gases, optics and modern physics. Then use free topic practice to drill the areas you missed before switching to a timed mixed set.

Should you take CSCA physics in English or Chinese?

Choose the language your target university accepts, then the one you read fastest. If you studied science in English, English is usually the better choice, because every second spent translating a question is a second lost. If you plan to join a Chinese-taught program, you will learn Chinese physics terms at university anyway, so there is no need to force yourself into the Chinese paper unless your university asks for it.

What are the most common CSCA physics mistakes?

• Unit errors: grams instead of kilograms, centimeters instead of meters, or km/h instead of m/s (divide km/h by 3.6)
• Celsius in the gas law: pV = nRT needs temperature in kelvin (add 273)
• Ignoring direction: momentum and velocity are vectors, so a ball that bounces back changes sign
• Mixing up forces: the Ampère force acts on a current-carrying wire, the Lorentz force on a single moving charge
• Series and parallel confusion: current is the same in series, voltage is the same in parallel
• Missing a negative word: questions that ask which statement is incorrect are easy to misread under time pressure
• Spending three minutes on one hard question and rushing the last ten easy ones

Most of these are habits, not gaps in knowledge, and they shrink fast with timed practice. If you would rather learn with a teacher who can spot your patterns, our live CSCA classes run online with recordings, so you can rewatch any topic that did not click the first time.

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