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How difficult did you find AS/A Level Chemistry and what grade did you get?

As it says in the title - how difficult did you find AS/A Level Chemistry and what grade did you end up getting (at AS or overall)? As someone who finds chemistry rather challenging, I'm interested to hear your responses!

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Reply 1

CherryCherryBoomBoom

I found AS Chemistry crazily difficult, and even with extra tutoring and revision, I only got an E :colondollar:

. Don't let that put you off trying though, I think A Levels just weren't for me personally.

Reply 2

la95

Original post by CherryCherryBoomBoom

I found AS Chemistry crazily difficult, and even with extra tutoring and revision, I only got an E :colondollar:

. Don't let that put you off trying though, I think A Levels just weren't for me personally.

It could have been worse! :tongue:

How much revision did you do?

Reply 3

Haque95

Found it really hard at the start. About 6 months into AS I got used to it - I ended up with a B

Reply 4

somethingunique

I tried really pretty hard and I (dare I say only) got a C! I was quite disappointed. This year I'm finding it easier though. In my GCSEs I got A*s and one A for my chem exams, it was actually my 'best' science. The tables turned when I got to A2, my biology got better.

Reply 5

IceKidd

I only did AS chemistry. found it fairly easy overall to learn, but there was a lot of content to remember when it came to the exams at the end of the year and some stuff just had to be memorised (different types of reaction mechanisms, reaction conditions etc), but properly understanding the explanations and stuff rather than just memorising it makes it a lot easier to manage. i got an A

Reply 6

Munrot07

I personally found chemistry my easiest subject (out of bio, chem, physics and maths) at AS (got an A), especially the first exam, since it was all very similar to GCSE. Don't know why I found chemistry so easy at AS (bit harder at A2 haha). It's definitely the subject I put the least amount of work into (and i'm a very hard worker haha, spend loads of times on biology just cause there is so much to learn and lots of time practicing maths as it needs lots of practice)

Reply 7

SophieHW

I'm doing OCR B (Salters) and currently in my A2 year. The first term of AS was really difficult for me and I had to do a lot of extra study to keep up. After that, I either got used to it or it got easier x) I finished with a very good grade A.

A2 is going okay - challenging but enjoyable.

Reply 8

DoctorInTraining

Got an A (before A*)

The jump from GCSE took a few months....but 6 months in I got the swing of it.

By 18 months in it all just seemed to make sense - the final paper (synoptic overview) was my best mark!

I got a high A in AS which I found super easy.

Then A2 came along... I ended up with a D in Unit 3 and a B in Unit 4 (if I remember correctly), B overall. I hated it, didn't understand half of it and the other half I just found dull.

Reply 11

Changing Skies

I found the content fine to understand, but I hated it and couldn't do the exams as I just didn't try, I got an E. Wish I could go back in time :tongue:

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Reply 12

la95

Some interesting answers thus far! Those of you who managed to get As - how much revision did you do? I already have A Levels (A*AA) in largely non-science subjects, but I'm finding AS Chemistry very difficult even with lots of revision.

Reply 13

CherryCherryBoomBoom

Original post by la95

It could have been worse! :tongue:

How much revision did you do?

Honestly, I did loads! I regularly saw my two school chemistry teachers after lessons for one-on-one help, I saw another tutor outside school for extra tutoring, and I did lots of practising and extra reading up in my spare time. But I guess I'm no natural at it, and hey, at least I didn't get a U, though that may have even been preferable in a way as you don't have to count a U as a real qualification. I was also suffering from depression throughout sixth form, so that can't have helped much either, though I don't want to use that too much as an excuse cos I know plenty of people manage to get good grades despite going through things like that.

Reply 14

FlavaFavourFruit

AS chem B
A2 chem A

Final grade: A

I struggled with the jump from gcse to AS and my revision method wasn't great. I tweaked a few things and A2 chem was far much easier and enjoyable.

Reply 15

Secret.

Original post by la95

At the start I found it super difficult, all class tests I did I got E's to C's and no higher, then during revision break I tried to understand and memorise the basics and did A LOT of questions from my textbook and the bank of questions available online. Ended up with an A which both me and my teacher were surprised by, I'm 100% certain it was due to the large amount of questions I did

Reply 16

Liquid Swordsman

I scraped an A at A-level but I found it pretty tough, did quite a lot of revision (more than I usually do anyway)

Reply 17

ShelinaAyesha

I am currently in Year 11 and doing my college application form. I am in a triple science set, which is the top in my yeargroup. However, even though my science knowledge is A/A* standard, im a C in maths and am already struggling with the maths involved in my GCSE chemistry lessons. I was thinking about taking Chemistry at AS and was wondering how much maths was involved? If you took AS level Chemistry, please let me know how much maths and what kind of skills it involved. Thanks!