Erin did a very good job noticing efforts for speed up, and seems to relatively comfortable with the underlying concepts. We had a good discussion about the formulae involved, which she wasn't familiar with initially.

Erin didn't know any of the formulae in the exam, and wrote them in red pen before the session. She also didn't know the meaning of them. This was addressed in the session, but means that more practice is needed in this area.

We went through 2 multiple component questions. The first covering gravitational potential energy and forces. The problem had a bad graph in it (that was fixed during the exam) and that made things difficult for Erin. She picked up on an arithmetic error based on a missing factor of 10^7, but due to the lack of clarity on the graph assumed it was a question error. We also looked at a projectile motion question where Erin did very well on the the majority of the question, including using a creative approach to avoid a significant amount of mathematical busywork.

Erin made some minor and major errors, a minor one (forgetting a squared term in an equation) which was partially picked up but not fixed (see other section) and a more of a major one, when she tried to avoid re-using information from a previous question, making the question impossible to answer correctly. Erin can become inconsistent when she needs to improvise, which is reasonable. In this session she showed a very good use of problem solving and one question later was completely stumped by a similar style of problem.

Erin and I had a really good discussion about exam technique and mindset. Of key importance was the difference between multiple choice and long answer and how to use reading time to identify easy and hard problems. We also discussed problems that were difficult to tackle using newtonian methods (i.e. force balancing) that have been taught, the example we looked at was the pully with elastic rope. I am always happy when Erin's curiosity and excitement for learning come through in a session.

Erin's practice exam showed that she faces a big challenge when it comes to speed. Even with her special consideration for time, she is still below the expected pace. The exam also showed her occasional lack of attention to detail.

We went through 1 and a half questions from the book. The first was about diffraction peaks from crystallography. Erin went well, but needed some prodding when it came to E=hf, the de Broglie wavelength equation and C=f lambda. She took ~15-25 minutes for 5 marks, which puts her well behind the time she needs but a lot of that was due to her not having a formula sheet on hand and having to scroll. We also did a written response question about doppler, Erin really struggled to concisely describe the concept.

Erin is struggling with speed, and ideally would double her response rate. Admittedly this was far from an ideal environment and a lot of time was wasted with the formula sheet or the book. I also think Erin has a specific weakness when it comes to written questions as she can struggle to distil concepts down to their key components. I recommended Erin try working with interim study sheets that she writes herself, just to speed herself up