OCR chemistry vs. Edexcel chemistry

Which exam board content seems easier for AS level chemistry? Edexcel or OCR?

I know that no one has probably done both exam boards/experience of both and they are probably pretty similar but in my opinion, the edexcel content seems slightly harder than OCR A level for chemistry. I did OCR GCSE chemistry last year and so would it probably be easier for me to get a grade A in OCR chem rather than edexcel because I did it for GCSE so it's kinda a better follow on and the content seems to ease you in better to A level rather than edexcel due to the topics in the first module?

So sorry if you think this is a silly question because some of you will probably think that no one has experience of both exam boards, both boards are very similar or that it depends on the person but please help. :smile:

Thanks x

bumppp

Ocr By Far!

Thanks Master.K for posting :smile:

Any more posts will be very welcome :smile:

Avoid Ocr Chem

completely

This may not be relevant but I did edexcel biology + physics and OCR chemistry. I found chemistry to be the hardest. I dont think there is much difference in difficulty between edexcel and OCR chem as chemistry is considered to be one of the hardest A-levels if not the hardest in general. I know of quite a few people that were a couple of UMS of As and Bs, but I dont know what exam board they were on. There is also a thread on the A-level section about OCR AS chemistry practical marks, it appears some people had weird UMS for their practical.
It sounds like you should do OCR A chem, its really fun (i have no life btw :cool:

Reply 7

Princestia

Thanks for the posts so far, everyone

Reply 8

mattsmith43

I did edexcel chemistry and went on a revision course where people who did OCR were surprised when we hadn't done some very complex things. I remember my first day of AS chem and the teacher said forget everything you were taught at GCSE as it was pretty much all lies!

So yeah the OCR people did some additional complicated calculations which to be honest went straight over my head and I was pretty happy I didn't have to do it. I would recommend edexcel chemistry and if you live anywhere near Harrow do the Harrow revision course for it as my AS year had the Vice president of edexcel teaching it, obviously this best thing that ever happened to my chemistry life!

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 9

infernalcradle

do edexcel, as OCR are known for making exams as difficult as humanly possible....I am doing OCR biology and I am dreading it!

Reply 10

BrownEyedGirl62

I'm currently a direct entry MChem student at St Andrews. I did OCR chemistry and got an A*. The textbook was fantastic and I really liked the layout of the course. However, since starting University this year (directly into second year because it's Scotland etc) I have come to change my mind a bit. There was a huge jump from A level to university teaching and while this may be because university level content is harder, and because I went straight into the deep end with direct entry, I still feel like I was at a slight disadvantage to my other direct entrant peers. The majority of them did Edexcel or CCEA and were taught at A level several of the 'basic' things that I struggled with during my first semester. This obviously made things very hard for me as I was spending a lot of time trying to learn things on my own that everyone else had been previously taught instead of focussing on the completely new content.
Personally, if you are considering doing chemistry at a higher level, I'd recommend not doing OCR (or just not being an idiot and deciding to do direct entry) and doing Edexcel instead. If you are planning on quitting Chemistry after A/AS-level then OCR was a great board and I really did enjoy the course. Hope this helps!