IGCSE Physics Paper 6 — the Alternative to Practical.

Every rule, recurring error and examiner pet-peeve for the 0625 written practical paper — drawn from five years of CIE Examiner Reports, in a guide you can revise from, drill against, and check yourself with.

4 questions · Measurement · Electrical · Optics/Thermal · Planning 3 variants · 61 / 62 / 63 Examiner-sourced · five years of reports, 2021–2025

What Cambridge IGCSE Physics Paper 6 (Alternative to Practical) actually tests — and where candidates lose marks

Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0625 Paper 6, the Alternative to Practical, is a 40-mark written paper sat in 1 hour 15 minutes. It assesses the same experimental skills as the laboratory-based Paper 5, but on paper: rather than handling apparatus, candidates are shown experiments described in words and diagrams, read measurements from drawn instruments, complete results tables, plot and interpret graphs, draw evidence-based conclusions, identify experiment-specific sources of error, and plan an investigation. It is the practical-skills route most Cambridge schools enter candidates for, because it needs no supervised laboratory session — which makes it, by some distance, the more widely sat of the two papers.

Paper 5 or Paper 6? Both carry 40 marks and test identical skills — measurement, graph work, analysis, conclusions and planning. The difference is format. Paper 5 (Practical Test) is sat in a laboratory with real apparatus under supervision. Paper 6 (Alternative to Practical) is a written paper: the experiment has already been carried out, and you work from the data, diagrams and descriptions provided. Your school decides which paper you sit — candidates do not choose. Because Paper 6 has you reading instruments from printed diagrams, accuracy in reading scales and recording values to the stated precision earns marks that do not arise in the same form on Paper 5.

This guide is built from CIE Examiner Reports 2021–2025 across all Paper 6 variants (61, 62, 63). The Rules tab is the complete reference, organised by the five skill areas examiners mark: reading and recording measurements, graph work, conclusions, sources of error, and planning. Drill Mode tests the rules examiners apply most often. The Self-Audit is a checklist to run after each practice paper, catching the items most commonly missed. Top Marks Lost ranks the recurring criticisms by how many series they appear in, so when revision time is short you know exactly where it should go.

Start with the Overview to see which areas cost the most marks, then read the relevant Rules sections. Before each practice paper, skim the Self-Audit so the criteria are fresh; after the paper, work through it to find what slipped, then drill those areas in Drill Mode. If your school sits the laboratory paper instead, use the Paper 5 practical guide, and pair either with the IGCSE Physics definitions flashcards to lock in the technical vocabulary examiners expect.

Where to start

One paper. Roughly the same mistakes, every series.

CIE examiners write reports after every series. We read all of them from 2021 to 2025 — every Paper 6 variant — and the same handful of errors come up every single time. Master those, and you've protected most of the marks in the Alternative to Practical.

Use The Rules as a reference. Drill yourself in Drill Mode. After every practice paper, run the Self-Audit to find what slipped.

Your progress

Self-Audit completion

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items ticked

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Best quiz score

Quizzes taken

Top 5 marks lost — across every series, 2021–2025

If you only fix five things…

Ranked by how many series each error appeared in. Each one shows up almost every paper. Click any item to jump to the rule.

Best-fit line drawn dot-to-dot. Graph work
Best-fit line forced through the origin. Graph work
5% / 10% tolerance rule not applied when comparing values. Conclusions
Conclusion method missing — a prediction is written instead. Planning
Generic sources of error: "parallax", "human error". Sources of error

Or jump straight to a section

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The Rules

Every rule, every common error, every examiner quote.

Filter by topic or search for a keyword. Each rule is grounded in actual examiner reports — the wording is theirs, not ours.

Drill Mode

Test yourself on the things examiners actually mark.

15 questions drawn from the most common errors across 5 years of examiner reports. Pick a mode and go.

Ready when you are.

Choose a topic, or attempt them all.

Self-Audit

After every practice paper, tick off what you got right.

For each box you can't tick, jump back to the relevant rule. Your progress is saved in this browser.

0 of 0 items checked

The full list

20 most-criticised mistakes, ranked.

Ordered by how many series each error appeared in across Paper 6 (Alternative to Practical), 2021–2025. The higher up the list, the more marks the average candidate loses to it.

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