What Is Isaac Physics? A Complete Guide for A-Level Students
Isaac Physics is a free online problem-solving platform developed by the University of Cambridge, offering physics (and some maths and chemistry) questions designed to build genuine problem-solving skills for A-Level students and those preparing for competitive university courses. It was created to help bridge the gap between school-level physics and the more demanding, multi-step reasoning expected at university, and it has been used by hundreds of thousands of UK students since launching in 2014. If you have searched for "isaac physics" recently, there is one important update worth knowing before you dive in.
A Quick Note: Isaac Physics Has Moved to Isaac Science
Since August 2025, isaacphysics.org has automatically redirected to a new combined platform called Isaac Science (isaacscience.org), which brings together Isaac Physics, Isaac Chemistry, Isaac Biology and Isaac Maths under one login. Your existing account and password work exactly the same way on the new site, and any bookmarked isaacphysics.org links should forward you to the right page automatically. "Gameboards" (the curated sets of questions teachers assign) have simply been renamed "question decks." If your school has a specific IT allow-list, it is worth checking that isaacscience.org is included alongside the old domain.
What Isaac Physics Actually Offers
At its core, Isaac Physics is a large, carefully structured question bank rather than a video course or a revision guide. Each question is built around genuine problem-solving rather than simple recall, and most come with:
- Step-by-step hints you can reveal one at a time if you get stuck, rather than an all-or-nothing answer
- Worked solutions and, for many topics, supporting explanatory content
- Difficulty ratings so you can gauge whether a question is meant to stretch you or consolidate a concept
- Curated "question decks" that teachers or students can assign to target specific topics or skill levels
- Free-to-use content with no paywall, funded through the University of Cambridge and supported by the Ogden Trust
The content spans GCSE through A-Level and into early undergraduate territory, which is part of what makes it distinctive: it does not stop at the boundary of what your exam board specifies.
Who Isaac Physics Is Best Suited For
Isaac Physics tends to get the most value out of two overlapping groups of students. The first is strong A-Level physicists who have a solid grip on core content and want material that genuinely stretches them beyond routine exam-style questions. The second is students aiming at competitive university courses or admissions tests, including those applying for physics, engineering or natural sciences degrees, where problem sets and admissions preparation (such as the Physics Aptitude Test or STEP-style reasoning in maths) reward exactly the kind of multi-step, apply-the-principle thinking Isaac Physics is built around. Cambridge's own research has found that students who engage deeply with the platform, particularly those from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM, are more likely to apply to and receive offers from selective universities and to achieve higher A-Level grades. It is less suited, on its own, as a first port of call for a student who is still shaky on foundational content and needs structured, syllabus-by-syllabus revision — that is a different job, and one worth pairing with other resources.
How Its Problem-Solving Style Differs From Standard Exam Board Practice
Exam board past papers (AQA, OCR, Edexcel and others) are written to sample a fixed specification in predictable formats, with mark schemes tied closely to specific command words and grade boundaries. Isaac Physics questions are written differently: they are designed to test whether you can combine two or three physics principles you already know in a way you have not seen combined before, often without heavily signposting which formula or method to use. This is deliberately closer to how physics is actually done — and to how university-level problem sheets work — than to how exam boards test for reliability and fairness across a whole cohort. The upside is that it builds real transferable reasoning. The downside, especially for students under time pressure ahead of mocks or finals, is that Isaac Physics questions do not map neatly onto "what will be on my exam," and grinding through them exclusively can eat time that might be better spent on exam-board-specific technique and past-paper practice.
How to Get the Most From Isaac Physics Without Feeling Overwhelmed
Isaac Physics is not meant to be worked through cover to cover like a textbook, and trying to do so is the most common way students burn out on it. A more sustainable approach looks like this:
- Use it as a supplement once your core specification content is reasonably secure, not as your first exposure to a topic
- Start at a difficulty level that feels achievable, and use the hint system properly — reveal one hint at a time rather than skipping to the worked solution
- Set yourself a small, specific target (for example, one question deck a week on a topic you find hardest) rather than open-ended browsing
- Treat a stuck question as useful information about a gap, then go back to explanation and exam-board-style practice to close that gap before returning
- If you are aiming at Oxbridge, PAT or STEP, prioritise the sections most relevant to that admissions test rather than working through everything
Used this way, it becomes a genuinely powerful stretch-and-challenge tool rather than a source of frustration.
Where an AI Tutor Like Applaa Fits In
Isaac Physics is excellent for deep problem-solving practice, but it is not built to explain a concept from scratch in the moment you get stuck, and it is not aligned to any single exam board's mark scheme. That is where a day-to-day AI tutor like Applaa is genuinely complementary rather than competing. Applaa's free AI tutor gives instant, patient, exam-board-aligned explanations when a topic has not clicked yet — the kind of "can you explain this differently" conversation that a static hint system cannot have with you. It is useful for building the underlying A-Level physics confidence and specification-accurate technique that then makes Isaac Physics's harder problem sets far less daunting. Many students find a rhythm of using Applaa for core topic revision, quick doubt-clearing and exam-style question practice through the week, then turning to Isaac Physics for weekend stretch sessions once a topic feels solid. Applaa also covers GCSE and A-Level practice more broadly, including subjects outside physics, so it can sit alongside Isaac Physics as part of a wider revision routine rather than replacing it.
Getting Started
If you are new to Isaac Science (formerly Isaac Physics), create a free account, link it to your school if prompted, and start with a question deck at a comfortable difficulty before working upward. And if you want a faster way to shore up the fundamentals first, or you need a patient explanation at eleven o'clock the night before a topic test, try Applaa's free AI tutor for exam-board-aligned A-Level physics support alongside your Isaac Physics problem-solving practice.