CIE chemistry A level paper 4 variant 2

hello did anyone sit CIE chemistry paper 42 today?! how'd you guys find it, with the new format and all?

fingers crossed grade boundaries are low..

Reply 1

Dohaeris

3

Very difficult, for me at least. Literally everyone in my class found it hard, some of the questions were downright ridiculous.

What about you?

Reply 2

glitterlitter

OP

I think it was slightly more difficult than the specimen paper but still manageable...

some of the complex ion formation questions threw me off abit though, but those were part of the new syllabus so I guess everyone was unfamiliar with those unseen ones.

all the best for your remaining papers!

Reply 3

Dohaeris

3

Original post by glitterlitter

I think it was slightly more difficult than the specimen paper but still manageable...

some of the complex ion formation questions threw me off abit though, but those were part of the new syllabus so I guess everyone was unfamiliar with those unseen ones.

all the best for your remaining papers!

Really? I got 90 on the specimen paper, but I feel like my mark on the actual paper will drop to about 70

Reply 4

SamihaTahsin

3

this paper was hard, really hard. never came across one like it before. after no. 4 all of them were challenging, I am positive I lost lots of marks from no. 5 to 10 straight.

Reply 5

glitterlitter

OP

i thought the organic chem question was ok but they didn't test alot of it sadly.....

how'd you all find the organic for this paper??

Reply 6

andysalad

1

lol wtf was this paper honestly...normally I'd just flick to the standard questions to score 4 marks on the explanations but the explanations were 2 marks this time...

Reply 7

Dohaeris

3

Same for me. I usually breeze through most of the questions, focus on the harder ones for about ten minutes each, and still have half an hour to left to check it over. Today I could barely finish the damn thing, no time to revise it.

What do you guys reckon the thresholds will be?

Reply 8

andysalad

1

Like 70/100 for an A, 80 for A* that seems to be the pattern they're aiming for...hope it isn't true but afraid it will be

Reply 9

Dohaeris

3

Original post by andysalad

Like 70/100 for an A, 80 for A* that seems to be the pattern they're aiming for...hope it isn't true but afraid it will be

No chance of that happening. Have you not seen any grade threshold tables?

70 to 75 has only been the grade boundary for extremely easy papers. The average over the past few years has been low 60s for an A.

Check this out, if you haven't seen it before:

http://www.chemguideforcie.co.uk/teachersinfo.html

Reply 10

mingomango

Dont listen to andysalad, he's trying to put you off.

I did some statistics for the grade thresholds, based on the fact that an A* mark is the difference between the raw marks of an A and B grade, added to the A mark: A* = A + (A-B)

For a sample size of 18 through 6 years (3 variants each), the average raw mark for an A* was roughly 72.5 +- 4.

Seeing that people unanimously thought that this was one of the more difficult papers, or even the most difficult paper they've done, and also in addition to the fact that many questions on the new syllabus were tested, i'd say an A* raw mark is in the range of 65-68.

Reply 11

mingomango

Original post by andysalad

Like 70/100 for an A, 80 for A* that seems to be the pattern they're aiming for...hope it isn't true but afraid it will be

Fite me joeey salad

Reply 12

Dohaeris

3

Original post by mingomango

Dont listen to andysalad, he's trying to put you off.

I did some statistics for the grade thresholds, based on the fact that an A* mark is the difference between the raw marks of an A and B grade, added to the A mark: A* = A + (A-B)

For a sample size of 18 through 6 years (3 variants each), the average raw mark for an A* was roughly 72.5 +- 4.

Seeing that people unanimously thought that this was one of the more difficult papers, or even the most difficult paper they've done, and also in addition to the fact that many questions on the new syllabus were tested, i'd say an A* raw mark is in the range of 65-68.

That seems about right to me, though maybe I'm just being optimistic. There have actually been a couple years where the threshold for the A dropped to the 50s, S2010, W2010, S2011, S2012, so I'm kinda hopeful it'll drop quite low.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 13

Mike007_

The paper was very tough and hopefully the grade threshold will drop to a maximum of 50 for an A.like People the paper was extremely difficult

Reply 14

Lexie2812

1

I didn't even have time to finish the paper. :banghead:

I found all the questions hard.

Reply 15

SecondChances

I don't know what it was about that paper, but it took a lot more brain power than usual. Barely finished the thing, also didn't revise, and where, WHERE were all the definitions/explanations? I recall a couple.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 16

Wallflower73

2

You're not alone. I honestly didn't know what I was doing 75% of the time

Original post by SamihaTahsin

this paper was hard, really hard. never came across one like it before. after no. 4 all of them were challenging, I am positive I lost lots of marks from no. 5 to 10 straight.

Reply 17

Wallflower73

2

where were the organic synthesis quesions?
or reaction kinetics?
why did they bring Kp??? I almost cried in there haha

Original post by SecondChances

I don't know what it was about that paper, but it took a lot more brain power than usual. Barely finished the thing, also didn't revise, and where, WHERE were all the definitions/explanations? I recall a couple.