The student who memorised the phrase "resistance decreases" wrote a shallow answer. The student who actually understood the non-linear relationship—who knew that "inversely proportional" requires a constant product—wrote a critical, high-level evaluation.
The textbook is a lie. A beautiful, necessary, but ultimately misleading lie. a level physics past papers
The question doesn't mention Gauss’s law. It doesn’t mention potential dividers. It asks you to model a dusty airflow as a fluid. The student who memorised the phrase "resistance decreases"
It is a test of your stamina under ambiguity. It is a test of your ability to remain calm when the circuit diagram looks like a bowl of spaghetti. It is a test of your courage to write something even when you are 70% sure. A beautiful, necessary, but ultimately misleading lie
But the exam boards know this. They are now trained to break your memorised patterns. In 2023, a major board asked: "A student says the resistance of a thermistor is inversely proportional to temperature. Evaluate this statement."
After doing 15 papers, you will start to see the same "model answers." You will memorise that "a thermistor's resistance decreases as temperature increases" or that "a stationary wave stores energy."