A sentence turns a number into an answer. It names the quantity, gives the value with its unit, and says what the number means in the situation.
This page is for students who stop at the circled number. It is one of the help pages for SPM Physics.
What does this sound like?
A student might say, “I circled the answer and it was marked incomplete.” Or, “The question said ‘state’ and I only wrote a number.”
The working was correct, but the answer was not communicated. A number alone does not say what it is a number of.
What usually causes it?
Three academic causes are common.
- Calculation practice rewards the final number, so the closing line is treated as optional.
- Units are written at the end, if at all, and the quantity name is never written.
- The meaning of the result in the situation is never asked for in practice.
A worked example
A car’s speed rises from 12 m s⁻¹ to 30 m s⁻¹ in 6.0 s. A student calculates a = (30 − 12) ÷ 6.0 = 3.0.
Bare answer: “3.0”. The reader does not know whether this is speed, distance or acceleration, or what its unit is.
Full answer: “The acceleration of the car is 3.0 m s⁻² in the direction of motion, so its speed increases by 3.0 m s⁻¹ every second.”
The second version names the quantity, gives the unit, states the direction and says what the number means. It also helps you spot a silly result. A sentence saying the car accelerates at 3000 m s⁻² would read as absurd.
What can you do on your own?
Use a fixed frame: “The [quantity] is [value and unit] [direction or comparison], which means [meaning].”
| Part | Example |
|---|---|
| Quantity | The acceleration of the car |
| Value and unit | 3.0 m s⁻² |
| Direction or comparison | In the direction of motion |
| Meaning | Its speed increases by 3.0 m s⁻¹ each second |
Practise by taking five solved problems and adding the sentence. Read each back aloud. If it sounds wrong, recheck the number, as in checking a Physics answer for meaning. For the grammar side, writing a complete sentence gives a short routine, and the units and significant figure checker checks the unit.
When might one-to-one tuition help?
This habit is easy to build alone, because you can see the result of each sentence. If you write the sentence and still lose marks, the issue may lie in the physics behind it, or in the wording.
A one-to-one teacher can read your sentences and tell you which part is missing, such as the direction or the meaning. That is worth considering if your marks are lost on the last line of every question. See online one-to-one Physics tuition or the one-hour trial class (from RM50).
What to read next
Before you write the sentence, make sure the number is right with checking a Physics answer for meaning.