MYP Physics: Energy Transfers & Conservation FAQ

MYP Physics doesn't have a separate 'energy' exam — the topic is assessed through the four MYP sciences criteria: Criterion A (Knowing and Understanding), B (Inquiring and Designing), C (Processing and Evaluating) and D (Reflecting on Science). Energy tasks usually target A and C, testing your grasp of conservation laws and your data analysis.

The core content is: kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, work done, power, energy efficiency, and the principle that energy is conserved but can be transferred or transformed between stores. MYP 4 usually stays qualitative; MYP 5 introduces the actual equations and calculations.

MYP 4 usually focuses on qualitative understanding — describing energy transfers, identifying stores, and stating that energy is conserved. MYP 5 adds quantitative work: calculating kinetic and potential energy, working out efficiency percentages, and analysing real experimental data against the theoretical conservation law.

Top marks come from precision, not effort — you need correct terminology (energy is transferred or transformed, never 'lost' or 'used up'), accurate use of the conservation law, and evaluation of experimental limitations, not just a description of what you did. Most students lose marks in Criterion C by describing results instead of analysing them.

A correct number rarely earns full marks on its own — MYP criteria reward the reasoning shown, not just the answer. If a task asks you to 'explain' or 'analyse', a bare calculation with no linking sentence back to the conservation of energy principle will sit in the middle achievement band, not the top one.

The most common command terms are State, Describe, Explain, Calculate, Analyse and Evaluate — each demands a different depth of answer. 'Explain' always needs a reason ('because…'), and mixing up 'describe' with 'explain' is the single most common way students underperform on Criterion A tasks.

It's the single most common misconception in this unit — students see a ball bounce lower each time and say energy is 'lost'. It isn't lost; it's transferred to the surroundings, usually as heat and sound. According to the MYP: Sciences guide, precise use of scientific language is explicitly assessed under Criterion A.

Because real systems always dissipate some energy — through friction, air resistance or sound — that your simple equations don't account for. This gap is expected and, handled well in your evaluation, is actually where you demonstrate the strongest scientific understanding, not a sign you did the experiment wrong.

It's not conceptually harder than forces or electricity, but it catches students out because the vocabulary precision matters more than usual. In fifteen years of marking this unit, the students who slip up almost always do so on language ('lost' vs 'transferred') rather than on the actual maths.

Energy conservation is foundational for DP Physics (Topic 2: Mechanics, and Topic 3: Thermal Energy Transfers under the current 2025 syllabus) and for DP Chemistry's energetics topic. Students who leave MYP shaky on conservation of energy tend to struggle with DP work-energy theorem questions in Year 1.

The most useful thing you can do isn't re-teaching the physics — it's asking your child to explain their answer out loud in full sentences. If they say 'the energy went down', ask 'went down to where?' Getting them to correct their own language does more for the mark than another worksheet.

Past-style Criterion A and C tasks are far more useful than general reading, because the mark loss in this unit is almost always about applying language and analysis correctly under task conditions, not about missing content. Topical worksheets with mark schemes let students see exactly where marks are gained or dropped.