The sign convention that physics keeps and chemistry reverses, work as the area under a P–V curve, and the isothermal, isobaric, isochoric and adiabatic processes set side by side.
Unit 2 carries 7 of the 50 physics marks; with six chapters sharing them, this one averages a little over one (MEC publishes weights by unit, not by chapter). It has a single scope line and one table at its centre, and if that table is learnt properly the chapter is close to free marks.
The MEC scope line is: Thermodynamic systems and processes: adiabatic, isothermal, isochoric and isobaric. The heading below is that point; the subheadings inside it are the order the ideas have to be built in.
Three ways it is asked: recall (the statement of the first law, what stays constant in each process, the adiabatic relations); understanding (why ΔU = 0 in an isothermal change, why an adiabatic curve is steeper than an isotherm, why a gas cools when it expands adiabatically, why Q and W are path-dependent but ΔU is not); application (a ΔU from Q and W, isothermal work nRT ln(V₂/V₁), a final temperature from TV^(γ−1) = constant, the net work round a cycle).
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See the plansHeat, Temperature and Thermometers: What Each One Can Read
Heat against temperature against internal energy, the scales and the −40 coincidence, the zeroth law, conduction, convection and radiation, and the three thermometers MEC names side by side.
Heat and Thermodynamics: Unit Map and Reading Order
What the Heat and thermodynamics unit covers, how many of the 50 Physics questions it carries, and the order to read its six chapter notes in.
Thermal Expansion: One Coefficient, Three Dimensions
Why α : β : γ is 1 : 2 : 3, how a hole and a bimetallic strip behave, why a pendulum clock loses time in summer, and the real-against-apparent expansion of a liquid in its vessel.
Quantity of Heat: Mixtures, Latent Heat and the Triple Point
Heat capacity against specific heat capacity, the method of mixtures done cleanly, latent heats and the heating curve read properly, evaporation against boiling, and the triple point of water.