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Self taught A-level: Practical help desperately needed!

Dear all,

I am hoping someone may have experience or advice to help me with my prep for the Edexcel Chemistry practical exams. I have not actually been inside a Chemistry lab for about 10 years and am entirely self-tutored... so I don't know what to expect! ANY ADVICE WELCOME!!!!

I am completing both my AS and A2 exams with a private college over a period of 4 days; which I am told by the college that it includes practical teaching on the topics (I think the exams are all on the last day); but trying to get any more info from them on the structure of the course is like trying to get blood out of a stone. Despite the large fee I have had to pay :frown:.

The thing I am mostly uncertain on: the exam book says you get a choice of FOUR experiments for each section--> Does this mean that for the AS quantitative there will be ONE Acid/base; ONE Iodine/Thiosulfate; ONE Enthalpy change experiment and ONE Hess law? Because if this is the case then can I get away with only knowing my way around for example, Acid/Base and Iodine/Thiosulfate?! In other words, do I have to know every single possible experiment or not?!

I think I'll be "fine" with the AS unit; somehow I did really well with both the AS theory exams in January (:colondollar:); I'm much more nervous about the A2 as I haven;t covered much of the content at all yet....

Any thoughts or advice hugely welcomed.

Many thanks in advance.... Xx
Don't really understand what you mean, but in AS (yesterday) we had to do observations, add A to C and write down what happens... the follow up was the interpretation of the reactions, it was basically Alcohols and their different types and functional groups, Exams are testing you on the entire module/s the practicals can test out of different areas (per practical) so skill one maybe titration's the theory of it may be Hydrochloric acid... in school were told what the write up will be about so we can re revise and be best prepared for the test... anything like that?
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carla_lj
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Thank you :smile:

I think I'm just unsure on the range of things I might get asked... I don't know how much actual choice I have over what experiments to do. It says in one of the student unit guides that "only one experiment will count but you are allowed to do two, three, or all four- only the best will score".

I assumed from this that there will be a range of different experiments that I could do on the day: i.e. for the qualitative, an Organic observations one like yours; (OR) an Inorganic observations one? Or is it a case of on the day you might just get given the organic observations? Sorry I don't know if it's making sense or not!?!

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