[IWantSomeMushu]

I am going to be self-teaching myself A-Levels, including Chemistry on the AQA board.

Any ideas of which textbooks are best for this?

Edit: I know AQA has official ones, but the reviews for them tend to be mixed. I just want to look at my options.

[lsaul95]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
I am going to be self-teaching myself A-Levels, including Chemistry on the AQA board.

Any ideas of which textbooks are best for this?

I've been teaching myself since January using this - AQA Chemistry AS-level: Student's Book
I've found it very easy to grasp the concepts and the questions at the end of each section are useful for applying the knowledge you should be learning.
I'm sure there are other books which are just as good, or if not better, but my personal preference is this one, having tried others.
I have just finished unit 1 and I am very comfortable with the information, going to be doing past papers soon to test myself!

[thegodofgod]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
I am going to be self-teaching myself A-Levels, including Chemistry on the AQA board.

Any ideas of which textbooks are best for this?

AQA AS Chemistry (Nelson Thornes), this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Chemistry-AS-Students-Book/dp/074878280X

AQA A2 Chemistry (Nelson Thornes), this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Chemistr...ref=pd_sim_b_1.

Have you considered where you're going to sit your ISA/EMPA (Units 3 and 6)?

Best of luck!

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by thegodofgod)
AQA AS Chemistry (Nelson Thornes), this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Chemistry-AS-Students-Book/dp/074878280X

AQA A2 Chemistry (Nelson Thornes), this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Chemistr...ref=pd_sim_b_1.

Have you considered where you're going to sit your ISA/EMPA (Units 3 and 6)?

Best of luck!

Cheers for the reply

There are a couple of centres near me that offer the ISAs, with prices ranging from £150-£250 per unit so far.

I am still in the process of phoning schools and colleges in my area to see if they offer practicals, but it has been pretty barren so far

We'll see what happens.

[thegodofgod]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
Cheers for the reply

There are a couple of centres near me that offer the ISAs, with prices ranging from £150-£250 per unit so far.

I am still in the process of phoning schools and colleges in my area to see if they offer practicals, but it has been pretty barren so far

We'll see what happens.

Can I ask what other subjects you're doing too? If you're doing AQA subjects, e.g. Biology / Physics too, you may be able to get a good discount on Amazon

Also, the Nelson Thornes books have exam-style questions at the end of each chapter, the answers for which I can give to you (they're pdf documents) if you want them

Have you asked about EMPAs too, and good luck with finding a centre

Also, ask if they could do you a good deal if you did all of your Unit 1-6 exams there (Watching 'The Apprentice' rubs off on you )

[Lorenzo.]

I haven't used a single textbook all year... (We'll see how that will pan out)
But, I've been using this website http://www.a-levelchemistry.co.uk/.
So helpful, perhaps you can use it alongside a textbook.

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by thegodofgod)
Can I ask what other subjects you're doing too? If you're doing AQA subjects, e.g. Biology / Physics too, you may be able to get a good discount on Amazon

Also, the Nelson Thornes books have exam-style questions at the end of each chapter, the answers for which I can give to you (they're pdf documents) if you want them

Have you asked about EMPAs too, and good luck with finding a centre

Also, ask if they could do you a good deal if you did all of your Unit 1-6 exams there (Watching 'The Apprentice' rubs off on you )

I'm going to also be sitting AQA Physics 'A' and Edexcel Maths (Mechanics). I'm looking on Amazon at the different books available and they seem to be pretty affordable. I'll probably get the Maths ones from WHSmith though, as they are the same price and I don't have to wait for them to be delivered lol.

Yeah it would be great if you could give me the answers, cheers

The prices I was quoted include everything in units 3 and 6 for both Physics and Chemistry.

I'm sitting my written exams at a local school because they are offering them quite cheap (£14 per Maths exam and around £20 for the Physics and Chem ones). I sat my IGCSE Science papers at the same place and it is very close, so naturally I want to continue there. They don't offer practicals though
Luckily the exams officer told me you can take different units at different centres, so I will take units 3 and 6 for both sciences at one centre and then all the other ones at the school.

Probably going to start teaching myself soon, a 3 month head start should do me well

[thegodofgod]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
I'm going to also be sitting AQA Physics 'A' and Edexcel Maths (Mechanics). I'm looking on Amazon at the different books available and they seem to be pretty affordable. I'll probably get the Maths ones from WHSmith though, as they are the same price and I don't have to wait for them to be delivered lol.

Yeah it would be great if you could give me the answers, cheers

The prices I was quoted include everything in units 3 and 6 for both Physics and Chemistry.

I'm sitting my written exams at a local school because they are offering them quite cheap (£14 per Maths exam and around £20 for the Physics and Chem ones). I sat my IGCSE Science papers at the same place and it is very close, so naturally I want to continue there. They don't offer practicals though
Luckily the exams officer told me you can take different units at different centres, so I will take units 3 and 6 for both sciences at one centre and then all the other ones at the school.

Probably going to start teaching myself soon, a 3 month head start should do me well

Uploading the answers in two parts: AS Ch1-10 in this part, AS Ch11-17 in the next part.

[thegodofgod]

AS Ch11-17 here.

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by thegodofgod)
AS Ch11-17 here.

Thanks a lot

[thegodofgod]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
Thanks a lot

No problem, I've also got answers to the A2 exam-style questions, Ch1-16, but am missing Ch7 answers.

Would you like those too?

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by thegodofgod)
No problem, I've also got answers to the A2 exam-style questions, Ch1-16, but am missing Ch7 answers.

Would you like those too?

Yeah, that would also be great. I'm sure I can scour the internet to find Ch7 lol.

[thegodofgod]

(Original post by IWantSomeMushu)
Yeah, that would also be great. I'm sure I can scour the internet to find Ch7 lol.

A2 Ch1-11 here. A2 Ch12-16 in next post.

[thegodofgod]

A2 Ch12-16 here.

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by thegodofgod)
A2 Ch12-16 here.

Thanks a lot

[salad_fingers]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Student-Supp...8557111&sr=1-1

These books are brilliant, they are small, thin revision guides and there is a specific one for each unit but they can be extremely useful when the textbooks throw too much information at you. You will still need to use a textbook as well but I find these to be very handy.

Having to buy them all separately at a tenner each is a bit of a drag, maybe you can find them cheaper online.

I used the big Collins textbooks, they aren't too bad but having looked at the Nelson Thornes ones in the library recently I would say that they are laid out a lot better so I'd go for them personally.

Hope all goes well! Make sure you look at the mark schemes, in may ways they are more helpful than the actual books!

[IWantSomeMushu]

(Original post by salad_fingers)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Student-Supp...8557111&sr=1-1

These books are brilliant, they are small, thin revision guides and there is a specific one for each unit but they can be extremely useful when the textbooks throw too much information at you. You will still need to use a textbook as well but I find these to be very handy.

Having to buy them all separately at a tenner each is a bit of a drag, maybe you can find them cheaper online.

I used the big Collins textbooks, they aren't too bad but having looked at the Nelson Thornes ones in the library recently I would say that they are laid out a lot better so I'd go for them personally.

Hope all goes well! Make sure you look at the mark schemes, in may ways they are more helpful than the actual books!

I'll probably have a look at the Nelson Thornes ones then, they seem to be held in high regard on here.

And yeah, I plan on studying the past papers and mark schemes inside out for all my subjects lol.

Thanks a lot