Every topic in the AQA GCSE Physical Education (8582) written exams, one short step at a time. Each step explains the idea in plain English, gives you the exact words to use in the exam, and shows a worked exam answer line by line. Then quick checks test you. Each topic ends with an exam-style question and mark scheme. Your progress is saved on your device.
✏️ Before you start
Have paper and a pen ready
You remember what you write, not what you scroll past. For every step:
- Make short notes: the key words, their exam definitions and one sporting example each.
- Draw and label the diagrams yourself: the skeleton, the heart, levers, the inverted-U graph.
- Write the exam answer in full sentences, then mark it yourself with the mark scheme.
Keep your notes for each topic together. They become your revision cards for the exam.
What is covered? GCSE PE is one tier, so there is no Foundation or Higher. The written exams are two papers, each 1 hour 15 minutes, 78 marks and 30% of the GCSE. The practical performance and the analysis and evaluation coursework (40%) are assessed by your teacher, so they are not covered here.
Paper 1: The human body and movement · Paper 2: Socio-cultural influences and wellbeing
🏃 Paper 1: The human body and movement in physical activity and sport
1 · Paper 1
The Skeletal System
Name and find the bones AQA lists, learn the six functions of the skeleton and the types of bone, and apply them to sport.
2 · Paper 1
Joints and Movement
Learn the parts of a synovial joint, the joint types and their bones, and the movements joints make, then apply them to sport.
3 · Paper 1
The Muscular System
Name and find the muscles AQA lists, learn how antagonistic pairs and the three types of contraction work, and apply them to sport.
4 · Paper 1
The Cardiovascular System
Learn the structure of the heart, the pathway of blood, blood vessels, vascular shunting, the cardiac cycle and cardiac output, and apply them to sport.
5 · Paper 1
The Respiratory System
Follow the pathway of air, see how gas exchange and breathing work at rest and in exercise, and read a spirometer trace.
6 · Paper 1
Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise
Learn the aerobic and anaerobic word equations, which activities use each, EPOC (oxygen debt) and how performers recover after exercise.
7 · Paper 1
Effects of Exercise
Learn the immediate, short-term and long-term effects of exercise on the body, and explain how training adaptations improve performance.
8 · Paper 1
Levers, Planes and Axes
Learn the three classes of lever and mechanical advantage, then the planes and axes of movement, and apply them to sporting actions.
9 · Paper 1
Health, Fitness and Components of Fitness
Learn what health, fitness and exercise mean, how they are linked, and the ten components of fitness, with the sports and positions that need each one.
10 · Paper 1
Fitness Testing
Learn why we test fitness, which test measures each component, how to make tests reliable and valid, and how to use normative data and analyse results.
11 · Paper 1
Principles of Training
Learn SPORT, FITT and overtraining, and calculate maximum heart rate and training zones for a performer.
12 · Paper 1
Types of Training
Learn the types of training AQA lists, what each improves, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to choose and design training for a performer.
13 · Paper 1
Optimising Training and Preventing Injury
Learn how to prevent injury, plan warm ups and cool downs, use high altitude training and train through the seasons, then apply it to sport.
14 · Paper 1
Using Data in PE
Learn quantitative and qualitative data, how data is collected and presented, and how to analyse heart-rate graphs, fitness test results and participation figures.
🧠 Paper 2: Socio-cultural influences and wellbeing in physical activity and sport
15 · Paper 2
Skill, Ability and Goal Setting
Tell skill from ability, classify sports skills on four continua with reasons, and set SMART targets that improve performance.
16 · Paper 2
Information Processing, Guidance and Feedback
Learn the information processing model, selective attention and memory, then the types of guidance and feedback and who each one suits.
17 · Paper 2
Arousal, Stress Management, Aggression, Personality and Motivation
Learn arousal and the inverted-U theory, stress management, direct and indirect aggression, introverts and extroverts, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
18 · Paper 2
Engagement Patterns in Sport
Learn the factors that affect who takes part in sport, how to read participation data, and strategies to get more people active.
19 · Paper 2
Commercialisation of Sport
Learn the golden triangle, the effects of sponsorship and the media, and how technology such as VAR and Hawk-Eye affects sport.
20 · Paper 2
Ethical and Socio-Cultural Issues
Learn sportsmanship, gamesmanship and deviance, the types of PED, blood doping, and their effects, and how spectators and hooliganism affect sport.
21 · Paper 2
Health, Wellbeing and Lifestyle
Learn the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise, the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and obesity, and the three somatotypes.
22 · Paper 2
Energy Use, Diet, Nutrition and Hydration
Learn how much energy you need and why, what a balanced diet contains, carbohydrate loading, and how dehydration affects performance.
More in 10 steps: GCSE Biology (useful for the body systems) · Combined Science · GCSE Maths · study skills · exam timer