Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0625
Edunest matches learners in Qatar, from Year 10 through Year 11, with an online tutor for Cambridge IGCSE Physics (0625). Lessons are live and one to one, in English or Arabic. The tutor covers the six syllabus topics and gives the practical paper the planning time its share of the grade deserves: one fifth.
Physics marks usually slip away in three places: equations without units, graphs read in a hurry and experiments described vaguely. Lessons tackle all three from the first week.
What we cover
Cambridge divides the 0625 syllabus into six topics. Extended learners study all the Core statements plus the Supplement, so each topic is planned at the depth of your child's entry.
Speed and acceleration read from distance-time and speed-time graphs, then mass, weight, density, moments and centre of gravity. The usual slip is taking a gradient when the question wanted the area under the line.
Speed-time graphs · Resultant force and F = ma · Momentum and impulse
Energy stores and transfers, work, power, efficiency and the resources that generate electricity, then pressure in solids and liquids. Multi-stage energy chains and Sankey diagrams are where Extended answers most often slip.
Energy stores and transfers · Efficiency and Sankey diagrams · Pressure beneath a liquid surface
The particle model, gas pressure, the kelvin scale, specific heat capacity, and conduction, convection and radiation. Learners often treat evaporation and boiling as one process, or leave particles out of an explanation.
Particle model and absolute zero · Specific heat capacity · Conduction, convection and radiation
Wave features and v = fλ, reflection, refraction, lenses, total internal reflection, the electromagnetic spectrum and sound. Freehand ray diagrams without a ruler or arrows lose marks that careful drawing keeps.
Refraction and critical angle · Converging lens ray diagrams · Electromagnetic spectrum uses and hazards
Magnetism, current, potential difference and resistance, series and parallel circuits, electrical safety, and electromagnetic effects from generators to transformers. How current and voltage share out in parallel branches is the classic stumbling point.
Series and parallel circuits · Potential dividers · Motors, generators and transformers
The nuclear atom, isotopes, alpha, beta and gamma emission, decay equations, half-life and safe handling of sources. Half-life questions reward a tidy step-by-step table; guessing from the decay curve loses marks.
Alpha, beta and gamma · Balancing decay equations · Half-life from decay curves
Day, night, seasons and the Moon's phases, orbital speed, the life cycle of stars, redshift and the expanding Universe. The topic joined the syllabus in 2023, so older past papers skip it.
Orbital speed · Life cycle of a star · Redshift and the Big Bang
Calculators are allowed in every 0625 paper, yet every equation has to come from memory, so the tutor drills each one with its units.
How lessons run
Physics builds in layers: a shaky grip on graphs or rearranging shows up again in circuits and half-life. So lessons open with a diagnosis, then follow your child's school scheme of work.
The tutor sets a short mix of Core and Supplement questions, one graph and one practical write-up. The answers show whether a gap lies in the physics, the mathematics or the English of the question.
Each lesson follows the topic your child meets in class that week, and weaker earlier topics return in short revision blocks. Before mock exams, the plan moves to mixed questions against the clock.
Every equation is learnt with its units and a sketch of what it describes. Your child rearranges it aloud, substitutes values and asks whether the answer is sensible, a habit Papers 3 and 4 reward.
From photographs of apparatus and real data, your child practises scale readings to half a division, spots zero errors, plots best-fit lines and suggests improvements. Safe measurements at home, like timing 20 pendulum swings, add hands-on practice.
Evening slots after a school day (Sunday to Thursday) and weekend slots on Friday or Saturday are all arranged by Qatar time (UTC+3). In the month of Ramadan, lesson times move to the officially announced hours for that year.
Families are welcome to watch any lesson, and short written notes keep them up to date on progress.
The exam
Every entrant takes three papers: a multiple-choice paper, a theory paper and one practical option. Core and Extended have separate multiple-choice and theory papers, and share the same two practical routes.
Exam board
Cambridge International · 0625
The 2026-2028 edition applies; its version 2, dated December 2025, changed nothing that affects teaching.
40 items with four options each, set on Core statements only.
How a tutor helps
Your child learns to solve each item on scrap paper first, then match the answer to an option, because a wrong option often mirrors a common slip, such as a missed unit conversion.
40 items with four options each, spanning Core and Supplement.
How a tutor helps
With 45 minutes for 40 questions, pace is part of the skill. Lessons build a routine: recall items first, calculations flagged and revisited, and a final minute for any blank answer.
Structured and short-answer items, Core statements only.
How a tutor helps
Core answers earn marks through clear, complete sentences using the right physics word. The tutor unpacks command words such as state, describe and explain, showing how much each one asks for.
Structured and short-answer items across Core and Supplement.
How a tutor helps
This paper carries half an Extended candidate's grade. Lessons rehearse multi-step calculations with every step written down, so the examiner can follow the method, and explanations built on clear cause and effect.
Real experiments, done at a school lab bench during the exam.
How a tutor helps
The laboratory work happens at school. The tutor prepares everything around it: planning a fair test, recording readings in a table with units, plotting graphs and writing a conclusion backed by the data.
Written questions about experiments, with no laboratory work during the exam.
How a tutor helps
This paper suits online lessons, since it is built from diagrams, readings and tables. Your child rehearses reading instruments from pictures, spotting anomalous results and judging whether two values agree within 10%.
Cambridge sets a separate timetable for each administrative zone, and schools in Qatar fall under zone 3. The exams officer at your child's school holds the final dates.
Physics 0625 is graded A* to G: a Core entry can reach grade C at most, and an Extended entry spans the full range. The 9 to 1 version has its own code, 0972.
What we look for in a tutor
Standards every tutor we match for 0625 meets before teaching your child.
A secure grasp of mechanics, electricity and waves, so the tutor can answer the “why” questions a textbook leaves open.
Knows which statements are Core and which are Supplement, the equations to recall, the practical contexts and how the six topics are examined.
Has taught learners through Cambridge-style multiple-choice, theory and practical questions, and uses published mark schemes to show where marks are won.
Explains each idea with a sketch, a real example and the exact exam wording, switching language whenever that helps your child understand.
Applies child safeguarding rules throughout each video lesson: a parent may join at any time, and conduct on camera and in messages stays appropriate.
Sends short progress notes on topics taught, recurring errors and the next target, and replies to the questions parents raise.
Common difficulties
Five hurdles we see often in physics, each paired with a concrete fix.
Why it happens
Rearranging is algebra, and physics asks for it under time pressure with units attached.
How a tutor helps
The tutor uses formula triangles as a temporary bridge, then moves to rearranging step by step, with a quick unit check at the end of each calculation.
Why it happens
Distance-time and speed-time graphs look alike, yet each quantity comes from a different reading.
How a tutor helps
Your child labels every graph with what its gradient and its area mean before answering, then checks that the unit of the answer matches the quantity asked for.
Why it happens
Practical papers test method, precision and evaluation, skills that need their own regular practice.
How a tutor helps
Short tasks built from real data: complete a results table, choose sensible axis scales, draw a best-fit line and name one realistic improvement to the method.
Why it happens
An answer such as “the heat moves” misses the particle and energy language the mark scheme looks for.
How a tutor helps
The tutor models answers in syllabus language, for example “thermal energy is transferred by conduction”, and your child rewrites weak answers until each point is precise.
Why it happens
When Arabic is a learner's first language, command words like suggest or deduce are easy to misread.
How a tutor helps
Lessons can run in Arabic while the tutor builds an English glossary of physics terms and command words, so the exam paper reads as clearly as the lesson.
Questions learners and parents ask
Tell us your child's year group, school and Core or Extended entry, and we will reply with a tutor who knows 0625 well.