Free GCSE PE Questions and Answers

The full-mark answer · 4 marks

Her working muscles are respiring faster, so they need more oxygen and are producing more carbon dioxide. It is the rise in carbon dioxide that is detected, and breathing rate increases to remove it and to deliver the extra oxygen. The rate is still climbing at minute four because at the start of exercise demand rises faster than supply, leaving an oxygen deficit that the body is still making up.

The full-mark answer · 4 marks

Aerobic exercise releases energy using oxygen, at a moderate intensity that oxygen delivery can keep pace with, so it can be sustained for a long time — running a marathon. Anaerobic exercise releases energy without oxygen, at an intensity delivery cannot match, for short periods only, and it produces lactic acid — a 100 m sprint. Intensity is the variable; which system is used follows from it.

The full-mark answer · 4 marks

The elbow operates as a third-class lever: the effort is applied by the triceps brachii close to the joint and the load is at the far end. The racket extends that lever by another two thirds of a metre, so the load arm is far longer than the effort arm and the mechanical advantage is less than 1 . The muscles must therefore produce a large force, and what they buy is speed and range of movement at the cost of effort : a small, rapid contraction at the elbow produces very high racket head speed, which is what determines the speed of the shuttle.

The full-mark answer · 6 marks

All three joints extend. At the hip, extension, agonist the gluteus maximus ; at the knee, extension, agonist the quadriceps ; at the ankle, plantar flexion, agonist the gastrocnemius . All three occur in the sagittal plane about the transverse axis, which is why they combine into a single drive. They occur in sequence from the hip outwards, each acting on a body already accelerating, so the ankle contributes last and fastest. Extending the ankle too early loses the contribution of the joints above it.

The full-mark answer · 3 marks

Health is a state of complete physical, emotional and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease. Fitness is the ability to meet the demands of the environment. They are separate because they come apart in both directions: a performer training through illness is fit and unhealthy, and a person with no illness who cannot climb a flight of stairs is healthy and unfit.

The full-mark answer · 4 marks

Reversibility means adaptations are lost when training stops, and are lost faster than they were gained. For an injured player that asymmetry is the problem: six weeks without training can undo several months of adaptation, so he returns below the level he began the season at. It is also why rehabilitation trains everything the injury allows — a torn hamstring does not prevent upper-body work or aerobic work on a bike.

The full-mark answer · 2 marks

Towards the closed end of the continuum. The ball is stationary, the distance is fixed and the taker is self-paced, so the movement can be pre-planned and reproduced. It is not fully closed, because the goalkeeper is an environmental factor the taker may respond to.

The full-mark answer · 3 marks

An open skill is one in which the environment determines the movement, and in a tackle almost every variable belongs to somebody else: the carrier’s line, their speed, whether they step, and where support is arriving. The tackler is also externally paced, since she cannot choose when the tackle happens. The movement must therefore be adapted as it is executed rather than pre-planned, which is why tackle practice uses varied live situations rather than repetition on a bag.

The full-mark answer · 4 marks

Income allows him to train full time rather than around a job, which is ten or fifteen additional hours a week. Equipment is supplied and is often better than anything on sale, since manufacturers use professional teams to develop it. Sponsorship also funds the support that surrounds the riding — physiotherapy, nutritional advice, travel to races and altitude training camps — which is where much of the difference between an amateur and a professional is made.

The whole answer, at the top level · Level 3

Commercialisation has improved the sport and degraded the experience of following it, and these are one process rather than two. Broadcast and sponsorship income has raised standards, funded facilities and widened coverage. The same income makes the broadcaster decisive: kick-off times follow television markets and prices rise because demand has been demonstrated. It also concentrates, since the clubs with the largest audiences attract the most money, which reduces competitive uncertainty — the thing a spectator sport sells. The judgement therefore depends on which spectator: for the viewer at home the gains outweigh the costs; for the supporter who attends, they may not.

The full-mark answer · 3 marks

It raises self-esteem, and in a team sport from a source individual sport does not provide. Improving at a skill builds confidence, but being depended on by team-mates supplies evidence of value that a personal best does not: a player who knows the team is weaker without her has a reason to think well of herself that does not rest on winning.

The full-mark answer · 2 marks

The application is missing. All three sentences describe muscular endurance in general and none refers to the swimmer, so the answer earns the AO1 marks and cannot reach the AO2 ones. It needs one clause tying the component to her event: so that she can maintain her stroke rate over the full 400 metres rather than shortening it in the last length.