[Xiomara]

xxx

[LifeIsGood]

I'm assuming you're doing AQA? As you're in AS year, you can resit the ISAs next year. Nearly every single person did in my year for A2 and got from U's to B's & A's.

[y gorau]

You just need to re-do them and focus like hell, if your teachers are helpful that shouldn't be a problem.

[meow444]

When I saw this thread I thought it was about bank accounts.

I feel stupid

[simpsonnn]

I got 2 E's in my AS ISA and I've just resit it now and have got A/B (depending on how marks are scaled) with virtually no effort, it's really nothing to worry about, it's just a bit of a pain resitting it.

[m1a1tank]

Im doing AQA. In unit 3 i got a D, for unit 6 i've gotten apparently a B.
The grade boundaries for both Unit 3 and 6 are also very high for ISA's. So don't focus on the grade that you've been given. Focus on the UMS that you've gotten instead.

In AS its either going to be titrations or observation exercises right? I'll give you some tips.

For Titrations:
1) First thing you should always do is to rinse your equipment out.
2) Always do a practice run with the experiment so you can see when the colour changes. For example, during your practice run go quite fast and see when the colour changes. If the colour changes say after 17cm^3 is added. Then you know when you do it properly afterwards you can go fast up to around 13/14. Then go slowly after that to make sure you get accurate readings.
3) ALWAYS make sure you have no air bubbles in your burette. If you do and you do the experiment with that. You're pretty much asking for a U.
4) To do well in this use both of your hands. One hand to open and close the burette, the other hand to swirl the contents of your beaker. This is very helpful.
5) Whenever you add something to your burette do it at eye level. If this means moving the clampstand onto a chair or whatever, do it anyway. Always read from eye level and read at the meniscus.

Observational Exercise:
These are usually easier, you get stuff like A, B, C, D and say 3/4 known reagents. You add A to all of them. and do the same with the rest. So that is pretty straight forward right. So whats the hard bit. I'll tell you.
1) When recording observations into your table. You will lose marks if you do not use words that they like. If in the observation something went misty or cloudy. Do NOT say that. You say a precipitate (or ppt.) was formed. If it went clear, say it turned into a transparent solution.
2) Some marks are often lost from colour changes. If something was green. and it went orange. Don't say that it went orange. Say "The colour changed from green to orange"
3) Always use a separate pipette for every reagent you use. That way you don't risk contaminating any reagents or mixing anything up, this will result in incorrect observations.
4) If you are given three things that you know and something unknown to test. You are 99% likely to be asked to identify what that unknown thing could be in the paper out of a number of things they give you. So whatever observations you got for the thing that is unknown. Research possible things that it could be.

I think that should be able to help you out. PM me if you have any questions.

[rainbowsxyz]

If you're an AS student don't worry cos you'll have opportunity to retake them =]
Even if not, think of it that way - you're doing really well on other units so you can still get an A.
ISAs are only 20% of total A level ( if I remember right), plenty of opportunity left don't worry! Keep working hard for other units though. Good luck!!

[Dalek1099]

(Original post by Xiomara)
ISAs have always been my weakest point, but my Unit 3 Chemistry ISA marks have really let me down, one is (estimated) a U and the most recent a D I didn't think the most recent exam went that badly but apparantly so! Can anyone tell me how far they think this will drag my overall marks down by? I got an A in the Unit 1 exams if that helps? Thank you!

To be Moderated I assume and if so then you should be able to resit it after college if you can't in the college timetable and submit it,without the exam board even knowing that you resat-I'm not entirely sure you can do this for A-Level but you can do this at GCSE.

[wasting-time]

for AQA I believe you only get 2 attempts at the ISA and your best mark is submitted, however you can still redo it next year or sit the EMPA next year.

It shouldn't hurt your grades too much as it's only worth 60/300, but if it pulls you down a level or soemthing do it again next year.

[sidra111]

(Original post by m1a1tank)
Im doing AQA. In unit 3 i got a D, for unit 6 i've gotten apparently a B.
The grade boundaries for both Unit 3 and 6 are also very high for ISA's. So don't focus on the grade that you've been given. Focus on the UMS that you've gotten instead.

In AS its either going to be titrations or observation exercises right? I'll give you some tips.

For Titrations:
1) First thing you should always do is to rinse your equipment out.
2) Always do a practice run with the experiment so you can see when the colour changes. For example, during your practice run go quite fast and see when the colour changes. If the colour changes say after 17cm^3 is added. Then you know when you do it properly afterwards you can go fast up to around 13/14. Then go slowly after that to make sure you get accurate readings.
3) ALWAYS make sure you have no air bubbles in your burette. If you do and you do the experiment with that. You're pretty much asking for a U.
4) To do well in this use both of your hands. One hand to open and close the burette, the other hand to swirl the contents of your beaker. This is very helpful.
5) Whenever you add something to your burette do it at eye level. If this means moving the clampstand onto a chair or whatever, do it anyway. Always read from eye level and read at the meniscus.

Observational Exercise:
These are usually easier, you get stuff like A, B, C, D and say 3/4 known reagents. You add A to all of them. and do the same with the rest. So that is pretty straight forward right. So whats the hard bit. I'll tell you.
1) When recording observations into your table. You will lose marks if you do not use words that they like. If in the observation something went misty or cloudy. Do NOT say that. You say a precipitate (or ppt.) was formed. If it went clear, say it turned into a transparent solution.
2) Some marks are often lost from colour changes. If something was green. and it went orange. Don't say that it went orange. Say "The colour changed from green to orange"
3) Always use a separate pipette for every reagent you use. That way you don't risk contaminating any reagents or mixing anything up, this will result in incorrect observations.
4) If you are given three things that you know and something unknown to test. You are 99% likely to be asked to identify what that unknown thing could be in the paper out of a number of things they give you. So whatever observations you got for the thing that is unknown. Research possible things that it could be.

I think that should be able to help you out. PM me if you have any questions.

thanks for useful information. I'm not good at math, is it possible for you to give a kind of indication about the tyoe of calculation that could appear. my practical is on titration and enthalpy change. thanks

[Xiomara]

(Original post by m1a1tank)
Im doing AQA. In unit 3 i got a D, for unit 6 i've gotten apparently a B.
The grade boundaries for both Unit 3 and 6 are also very high for ISA's. So don't focus on the grade that you've been given. Focus on the UMS that you've gotten instead.

In AS its either going to be titrations or observation exercises right? I'll give you some tips.

For Titrations:
1) First thing you should always do is to rinse your equipment out.
2) Always do a practice run with the experiment so you can see when the colour changes. For example, during your practice run go quite fast and see when the colour changes. If the colour changes say after 17cm^3 is added. Then you know when you do it properly afterwards you can go fast up to around 13/14. Then go slowly after that to make sure you get accurate readings.
3) ALWAYS make sure you have no air bubbles in your burette. If you do and you do the experiment with that. You're pretty much asking for a U.
4) To do well in this use both of your hands. One hand to open and close the burette, the other hand to swirl the contents of your beaker. This is very helpful.
5) Whenever you add something to your burette do it at eye level. If this means moving the clampstand onto a chair or whatever, do it anyway. Always read from eye level and read at the meniscus.

Observational Exercise:
These are usually easier, you get stuff like A, B, C, D and say 3/4 known reagents. You add A to all of them. and do the same with the rest. So that is pretty straight forward right. So whats the hard bit. I'll tell you.
1) When recording observations into your table. You will lose marks if you do not use words that they like. If in the observation something went misty or cloudy. Do NOT say that. You say a precipitate (or ppt.) was formed. If it went clear, say it turned into a transparent solution.
2) Some marks are often lost from colour changes. If something was green. and it went orange. Don't say that it went orange. Say "The colour changed from green to orange"
3) Always use a separate pipette for every reagent you use. That way you don't risk contaminating any reagents or mixing anything up, this will result in incorrect observations.
4) If you are given three things that you know and something unknown to test. You are 99% likely to be asked to identify what that unknown thing could be in the paper out of a number of things they give you. So whatever observations you got for the thing that is unknown. Research possible things that it could be.

I think that should be able to help you out. PM me if you have any questions.

Thank you!

The U was in the titration one, this identifying (metal halides) was the D. I didn't think it went that badly, I didn't use any weasel words and labelled everything correctly with the ppt. etc, and the exam wasn't hideous so I'm not sure why my mark was so low but clearly I went wrong somewhere.

[m1a1tank]

(Original post by sidra111)
thanks for useful information. I'm not good at math, is it possible for you to give a kind of indication about the tyoe of calculation that could appear. my practical is on titration and enthalpy change. thanks

well you should learn the equations. Especially, these two which are very likely to come up.

moles / volume (in dm^3) = concentration

and also

moles= mass (in grams) / RFM (which is also RAM, or Mr etc..)

Those two do come up a lot. Emperical formulas might come up in section B.
I can't remember much about the questions though. Look at past papers though

[maxwell_richie]

Would I need to know the enthalpy calculations for the ISA? i.e. q=mc(delta)T and then (delta)H=q/moles?