OCR Chemistry B (Salters) F334/F335 Exam Thread 2016 (14th/22nd June)

I think f334 boundaries will be

A* - 70/90
A - 64/90
B - 58/90
C - 53/90
D - 47/90
E - 42/90

What does everyone else think

I'm hoping A will b 62/63 as well but I can't judge how OCR will do it
F335 will probably be 80/120 for an A even though it was harder than last year. I can't see them going lower than that

Anyone who got an A/A* please helpNow please could you tell me how you did that well?

I got a B and I worked so hard. I did all past papers properly, read the OCR Book (and did the questions in these books) , read the CGP book too. I knew the content inside out, but still did not do well.

Could you please tell me all your unit scores and tell me exactly how you revised, what you used and what past papers did you do ( old spec too?) because I might be be retaking and I really need advice.

Have you considered getting a copy of your papers back and then if you / your teachers think it's worth it going for remarks? If you're considering a resit I would get your papers back anyway (I resat this year) as it helps you see where you go wrong on the day.

Also, check with the board about resitting as the spec is changing this year - I have no idea which specification you've just done but if it's the old one maybe just double check before committing.

Best of luck!

Anyone who got an A/A* please helpNow please could you tell me how you did that well?

I got a B and I worked so hard. I did all past papers properly, read the OCR Book (and did the questions in these books) , read the CGP book too. I knew the content inside out, but still did not do well.

Could you please tell me all your unit scores and tell me exactly how you revised, what you used and what past papers did you do ( old spec too?) because I might be be retaking and I really need advice.

Hi Kira,

When I was studying I used the Chemical Ideas book for the course like a Bible! I would read one section from the book at a time, relevant to what was being studied in class and then write shortened down notes of that section and store them for reference in a folder.

However, after a while this method got quite tedious so I began to make digital notes with more colour and images to go along with the text (Make them fun!). I printed these notes off and read through them - writing down the date on the notes when I had read through them. Each time I would read through and add extra notes to the digital copy. Eventually I had a set of quite extensive notes for myself! I also ended up making very brief flashcards and doing all of the topical questions from the Chemical Ideas book. Try lots of methods and one will be sure to work effectively!

I think the main thing to remember with this course is that it is quite heavy on factual information so the key is repetition and lots of perseverance! :-)

Thanks! So you just used chemical ideas for content and nothing else right (the big thick black and white page book). Also how many past papers did you do, all of them?

How did you do in each unit? I found F335 in particular hard this year.

No problem - yes I just stuck to that one for content. Sometimes I referred to the revision book for the course to just check some ideas and put them into a simpler context. Sometimes that larger book can explain things in a difficult way!

As regards to past papers, I did all of them.. multiple times haha. I made sure that I kept all copies and compared my scores for the same exam and looked in very close detail at the areas I was losing marks and also if I was losing the same marks as I did in the previous attempt. I would then make detailed notes on the weak areas.

I did briefly look at some legacy papers. Some of the content in them is useful but I found that sometimes the questions asked weren't very relevant to the course today. Mark schemes are much more brief for the older papers too. For improving exam technique I would concentrate on the most recent past papers.

F334 83/90
F335 120/120

I found that the exams this year were very different to anything I have seen before. It seems they are getting tougher on the mathematics within chemistry so maybe that is an area to consider carefully.

Thanks for the advice, how did you do?

Again, thanks Are there any other tips you can give me? I literally did exactly what you did but only ended up with a B. I have a terrible sleeping problem maybe that messed me up, but something is up because I did really well in past papers.

How did you take notes exactly and do you have the digital ones still? And did you do the questions in the chemical ideas book? How did you do in F331 and 2. Did you watch any videos to aid your understanding?

Also what are you doing at uni and at which uni? And how did you di in other subjects. Thanks a lot btw

Anyone who got an A/A* please helpNow please could you tell me how you did that well?

I got a B and I worked so hard. I did all past papers properly, read the OCR Book (and did the questions in these books) , read the CGP book too. I knew the content inside out, but still did not do well.

Could you please tell me all your unit scores and tell me exactly how you revised, what you used and what past papers did you do ( old spec too?) because I might be be retaking and I really need advice.

Sorry to hear about your B, I managed to get an A* despite my coursework being a B grade.
I got 90/90 in F334 and 120/120 F335.

I'm not sure my tips are gonna be the most helpful since I find I'm the sort of person that can remember things well so spend more time revising by answering questions than by actually reading through text books. I hate chemical ideas. It is possibly one of the worst organised books I've ever seen. I read through the Heinemann revision guides and often underline key bits. But I find my most important bits of revision is doing past papers, you should be doing every past paper available (I didn't bother with the old spec but of course that'd help too). When you mark it though and get something wrong, look at the correct answer and then also google or look up in chemical ideas that bit of chemistry to refresh yourself and ingrain that piece of information.

If there is a particular area you struggle with the test bank things are invaluable as you can easily find multiple questions from a certain topic.

I'm not too sure what other advice I can offer, but if you have any questions or anything then feel free to ask me and I'll try my best to help out.

Thanks so much, and congrats, how did you do that well, like WOW? Did you think you did that well after the exams? how did you do in the other units?

Also did you do the questions in the books that you used too? And just to clarify, for revision you just used the thin heinmenns book and the thick chemical ideas right. This year i actually retook and I still could not get an A but you got full ums in the hardest exams... like how? Please give me any other tips you can, also how did you master all the calculations and stuff.

what did you get in your other subjects and what are you doing at uni and at what uni?

Please help, I really appreciate, I work so hard and do so well at past papers but can't do that in the real exam, it is so frustrating.

Thanks so much, and congrats, how did you do that well, like WOW? Did you think you did that well after the exams? how did you do in the other units?

Also did you do the questions in the books that you used too? And just to clarify, for revision you just used the thin heinmenns book and the thick chemical ideas right. This year i actually retook and I still could not get an A but you got full ums in the hardest exams... like how? Please give me any other tips you can, also how did you master all the calculations and stuff.

what did you get in your other subjects and what are you doing at uni and at what uni?

Please help, I really appreciate, I work so hard and do so well at past papers but can't do that in the real exam, it is so frustrating.

Anyone who got an A/A* please helpNow please could you tell me how you did that well?

I got a B and I worked so hard. I did all past papers properly, read the OCR Book (and did the questions in these books) , read the CGP book too. I knew the content inside out, but still did not do well.

Could you please tell me all your unit scores and tell me exactly how you revised, what you used and what past papers did you do ( old spec too?) because I might be be retaking and I really need advice.

I may be late but hopefully I can still chip in.
90/90 F334
108/120 F335
90/90 F336

I had a thorough understanding of the content seeing as I actually enjoyed chemistry, which was probably aided by the extra reading I did for my oxford interviews (didn't get through), using other courses' textbooks and stuff.

Throughout the 2 years, all questions in the chemical ideas book were answered, as well as the end of topic tests. Gave very little shits about chemical storylines.

My teacher also compiled every past paper question from each topic (Steel story, What's in a medicine etc.) from old and new spec into targeted question packs. These probably helped in being so familiar with how they ask questions and what the mark schemes want for the marks.

Did every past paper in the months leading up to the exams, doing 1 a week from the new spec, and more as exams got closer. I wouldn't bother making loads of revision cards as they didn't help me. Instead I made revision cards on the questions which came up almost every year of their standard answers in bullet points so they were easy to remember.

I did make proper revision cards on functional group tests, reaction conditions and colours and whatnot.

In the end doing so many questions and understanding mark schemes helped in realising the key words for every question so the marks were easy to obtain. As my teacher said, once you get bored of answering questions for a topic, you finally know it.

Also helps that I found the maths really easy with being good at maths itself, even though this year's questions were difficult. Even then, the calculations happen to have a very similar structure anyway.

With regards to the individual investigation, I only slightly understood what I was talking about and used previous examples from my school to help me, and I talked **** for 10,000 words and managed to make it seem like I knew it all.