01
Diagnose
Wrong options are mapped to specific misconception models. The report places students in misconception clusters, not on a bare score.
Physics misconception diagnostics
Marks tell you which topics are weak. We show the wrong ideas behind them.
Your test shows which students lost marks, and on which topics. A mark cannot show the thinking behind an answer — or whether one wrong idea runs through the whole class or only part of it. You share one link to our diagnostic; your students answer; we do the setup, the marking and the analysis. Within 48 hours: a heatmap of every item, overall and by performance band; a cohort summary of what to reteach first; and worksheets that address the misconceptions it shows. Alongside your assessment, not instead of it.
IB DP · AP · A-Level · GCSE / IGCSE
The wrong ideas are not ours. Physics education research has documented them since 1979 — Viennot · Trowbridge & McDermott · Hestenes · Maloney. Every diagnostic is built on them.
9
Diagnostics Live
48h
Report Turnaround
No
Student Logins Required
7 · 7 · 3
Schools · Countries · Continents
The mark
What a mark misses.
Kinematics · Trowbridge & McDermott 1980
“Two balls on parallel tracks, side by side at one instant. Same speed?”
Most students say yes — position at an instant read as speed.
On a test, the student who says yes loses a mark. The diagnostic records the idea behind the answer — position read as speed — and how many in the class share it.
Newton’s laws · the ghost force
“You throw a ball upward. At the very top, what forces act on it?”
Most students add an upward “force of the throw”. Only gravity acts at the top.
On a test, the extra force costs a mark. The diagnostic records the idea behind it — motion needs a force in its direction — and shows how many in the class hold it.
Diagnostics
Nine instruments, one framework.
Run one, or a full set — each stands on its own. Shared link, no accounts, no installs.
DiagnosticTopicFormsQuestionsMinutesBands
MotionKinematics & graphs
254~25 + 30–3518 + bridge
2 · 54 q · ~25 + 30–35 min · 18 + bridge
Run →
Newton’s LawsForces, FBDs, N3
6 modules14 / module~15 / module29 clusters
6 modules · 14 / module q · ~15 / module min · 29 clusters
Run →
EnergyWork, conservation, heat
12425–3011
1 · 24 q · 25–30 min · 11
Run →
MomentumImpulse & collisions
12425–309 + lens
1 · 24 q · 25–30 min · 9 + lens
Run →
Projectile & CircularMotion in 2D
13032–3611 + lens
1 · 30 q · 32–36 min · 11 + lens
Run →
Oscillations & WavesSHM, sound, Doppler
2 (12 + 25)3712–15 + 28–3219 + lens
2 (12 + 25) · 37 q · 12–15 + 28–32 min · 19 + lens
Run →
Static ElectricityCharge & Coulomb
130~3016 + 3 lenses
1 · 30 q · ~30 min · 16 + 3 lenses
Run →
Electric FieldsSuperposition & Gauss
130~3016 + 3 lenses
1 · 30 q · ~30 min · 16 + 3 lenses
Run →
Electric PotentialPotential & reference
122~2512 + 3 lenses
1 · 22 q · ~25 min · 12 + 3 lenses
Run →
Free classroom pilots · no student logins · shared link
Deliverables
Both use illustrative, anonymised data; your own reports are generated from your students’ responses.
One package, 48 hours after your class finishes. No charge, no obligation.
01
Class misconception heatmap
Every item, overall and by performance band, with misconceptions labelled — so you can see how widespread each wrong idea is and whether it persists among your higher-scoring students.
02
Cohort summary
Band distribution, prevalent clusters, sharpest gaps, and the students to watch — written to brief a head of department in two minutes.
03
Mistake museum
Each trap your class fell into, in plain language: what it is, why it persists, what correct understanding looks like.
04
Words that hurt
The teaching shortcuts that quietly reinforce the misconception, and the wording to use instead. Shareable with the department.
05
Targeted worksheets, with solutions
Trap-first practice matched to what your class actually holds — not generic revision sheets.
Method
Trap-first. We start from the wrong answers, because that is where the learning is.
Your assessment
Who scored what, and which topics were weak.
FundaFirst HS
Which misconception patterns are present, how widespread they are, how they vary by performance band, and what to address next.
02
Confront
Scenarios make the wrong model produce an absurd prediction. The conflict is what creates readiness for the correct concept.
03
Reconstruct
Only then come operational definitions and worksheets, rebuilding from first principles rather than from remembered formulas.
Grounded in
FCI · Hestenes, Wells & Swackhamer 1992TUG-K · Beichner 1994Trowbridge & McDermott 1980Viennot 1979CSEM · Maloney et al. 2001AronsKnightChabay & SherwoodZuzaGalili
From a pilot
“The tests were all set up by FundaFirst - all I had to do was point the students to web links. The students found the questions easy to access and to carry out. The information that came back from FundaFirst was incredibly useful, identifying areas where the class and/or individuals were weaker. These areas would have been much harder to identify without the tests. FundaFirst then provided concrete examples of how to address the misconceptions, with work sheets targeting these areas.
I will not hesitate to use FundaFirst’s diagnostic testing with future cohorts!”
Dr Tim Short — Physics Teacher, ACS International School Egham
Grade 11 IB · Motion Foundations, Forces & Free-Body Diagrams
Coverage
Each diagnostic builds on the one before, and each can also be run on its own — across IB, AP, A-Level and GCSE.
A sequence, not a catalogue.
LiveMotion & kinematics
LiveLaws of motion
LiveMomentum
LiveEnergy
LiveProjectile & circular motion
LiveOscillations, waves & sound
LiveStatic electricity
LiveElectric fields
LiveElectric potential
UpcomingCurrent electricity
UpcomingMagnetism
UpcomingThermal physics
UpcomingQuantum & nuclear physics
Also from FundaFirst
The Lab
Found the misconception. Now confront it in class.
A diagnostic tells you which wrong idea your class is carrying. The Lab is what you do next: browser-based classroom activities built on the same misconception bands, free for teachers.
Open the Lab
Field guide
The Mistake Museum
89 entries across six mechanics topics — each one misconception, the wording to drop, and the wording to use instead. 187 pages.
View the book
Public companion
FundaFirst
The same physics taken somewhere different: long-form playable essays on the ideas behind the equations, plus Standpoint.
Visit FundaFirst
Guides
Not ready to run a pilot? Start here.
Nine field guides and five teacher-facing essays. Free to read, no sign-up.
About
Built on research, not guesswork.
FundaFirst HS is a ConceptArc Education initiative. Its diagnostics show teachers the wrong ideas behind their students’ answers — across the class and by performance band — and return matched remediation within 48 hours, with setup, marking and analysis handled for them. The misconceptions it maps are not its own: they are the ones nearly fifty years of published physics education research has documented, from Viennot (1979) to the CSEM (2001), named above and in every guide.
Free pilot
Tell us what your class is studying. We handle the setup.
Students need no accounts — you share a link, and they enter the name or code your school sets. Writing this yourself, with responses mapped to specific misconception models, would take weeks; you do none of it. Within 48 hours of completion you get the heatmap, the cohort summary and ready-to-use remediation.
No installs · no student logins · no charge
Reply within 24 hours
Founding-department programme opens January 2027
Pilot request received
Thank you. We’ll email you next steps within 24 hours.
Or email admin@fundafirsths.com