GCSE Physical Education - Frequently asked Exam Revision Questions
The following questions have been asked by PE students who have found the answers difficult to find elsewhere in the build up to their exams. They have been answered by Rob Walden who is Director of Learning and Assistant Headteacher in a UK Sports College. He has produced material for Sky Sports, the Times Educational and the BBC GCSE Bitesize "Ask a Teacher" Scheme (now called SOS teacher).
- What is the movement called when you move your arm away from your body, abduction or adduction?
- What happens to the body during endurance training?
- Who decides whether you are a professional or amateur and how?
- What are eating disorders? What causes them? Why do people with eating
disorders exercise a lot? - Please could you tell me what bio mechanical efficiency is?
- What are the risks of doing body building when you are still growing?
- Bowling a ball in cricket is more co-ordination than power and no bowler can bowl over 100mph can they?
- What is JSLA and which age group is it aimed at? What are the 2 objectives of the CCPR? How was the CCPR funded? What is the WSF and what is its purpose?
- What is circumduction and what joint allows this to happen?
- In the BBC GCSE Bitesize PE programme it states that Golf is an open skill. My notes from class and from the "Lonsdale" Revision Books clearly state that golf is a closed skill. Can you explain?
- Why is competition good for physical activity?
- Do you have to know the definitions from the glossary word for word?
- What is the difference between Aerobic and Anaerobic fitness? Is there an
easy way to remember the difference? - How does an alternate hand wall toss work when testing agility or endurance?
- What does fartlek training do to improve your performance?
- What are the four principles of feedback?
- I see that there is nothing on the names of Tests e.g. Harvard Step test
on bitesize-do we need to know the test for fitness? - What is the difference between a strain and a sprain?
- Please could you explain to me what is meant by the word HYPOKINETIC.
and what are HYPOKINETIC DISEASES? - In football, what are the different types of legal and illegal tackling?
- How is either a knockout or league competition organised and
administered? - Are the bones in the hand and feet long or short because in the gcse p.e
program it says they are long but my teacher told me that they are short? - What are Golf and Tennis Elbow?
- What is a motor skill? an example of a motor skill is?
- What is the part of the bone called which allows the bone to grow? Is
it osteosite? - What do athletes do in out of season training? For example what
exercises and why? - Where is the pacemaker in the heart and what does it do?
- What is personal development?
- I was wondering because I have seen it in a past exam paper, where the
main pulse points are and what the proper names for them are. - What does the term resilience mean when referring to a gymnastic
movement? - Can you give me two main areas of development currently targeted by the sports council of the U.K?
- Is the patella an irregular bone or a flat bone because the text book
and my teacher have given contradicting answers? - What is the definition of muscular strength?
- What different kinds of stretching are there?
- Could you explain the shapes of the body if you have a mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph shaped body.
- What does the term 'oxygen debt mean?
- What is the criteria for netball. ie, out of 10 , to achieve 10 points? What would be the perfect chest pass etc... shoulder pass, footwork,
shooting, dodging,.... - Could You please help me with the techniques in front crawl swimming?
- On a question, it says that technology has not affected women in sport,
now I have been thought at school other wise. So if I stressed this point in
the exam what would happen? - What is VO2 maximum? Why is it important in sport and physical activity?
- I have not found any information on 'tedium' on principles of training. Do you know where i can find this information online and is it relevant?
- What is, and how do you work out your "Target Zone"?

