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Help

SAI

ok hi all, ive recently discovered this forum and yeah it looks real helpful :smile:

well im doing Chemsitry, biology, physcology and business studies

I find everything easy, except Chemistry :frown:

in GCSE chesmitry was too easy and i got double A* for science but now :frown:

.

Well, ive looked through a variety of books and i dont know which one to study from, ive also seen the topics about books

My Exam board is edexcel, ive looked through the CGP books for chemsitry, and i dunno, u think if i revise just the CGP book in AS chemistry i can obtain my Grade A for Chemistry? or what? please i really need advice, if i dont get that A this may im screwed :redface:

Reply 1

Ourkid

First of all, if you don't achieve the A in may it's CERTAINLY NOT the end of the world and you won't be screwed. I got a D first time round at AS (like 157/300) - big time screw up, but retook in january, and got an A (263/300) and now ended up with an A overall at A2 (507/600). It can definitely be done.

As long as you can secure an A prediction for whatever you want to apply for you'll be fine. Getting an A at AS will help for sure, as A2 is harder, so push for it :biggrin:

For me (I did nuffield) it was all about repitition of questions. Do as many as you can. I know it's cliched but it's SO true. At the end of the day if you figure the exam out and find out what examiners want you to write, then you're sorted. Jump through the hoops.

I'm not sure how the edexcel board works, but our nuffueld book had questions at the end of each chatpter, and as long as you could answer them, you understood the content.

So in summary - if you don't get the A - you're not screwed by any stretch of the imagination. Do as many questions as you can, covering all possibilities of what you could be asked.

Best of luck :biggrin:

w00tt

Reply 2

SAI

yeh thx for the info, but the problem is ill get kicked out if i dont get an A, so theres no retakes :s-smilie:

my parents aren't understanding, also u didnt answer my question what books did u use? and when did you take it? when did you start revising? And when applying for a University, the predicted grades sent by the school counts? wtf,

Reply 3

Ourkid

Your parents will kick you out if you don't get an A? Wow I don't envy you!

As for what books - well it's a different specification, so covers different content. I used my main text books and exam papers exclusively. That worked for me. The CGP books are quite good, but they didn't work as well for my as my combination. You still have a lot of time so experiment with different books and see what works.

I took the AS in may 05, then retook jan 06, then did my A2 in may 06.

I started revising for my AS like the night before - hence the D. For the retake I started in something like october. For the final I started in feb-march.

As for university - You get whatever grades you get at AS - eg ABBB, and your teachers will probably predict you AAAA. Now as long as you don't accept the grades you got (ABBB) then your unis will only see AAAA - which is what you want. However, this means retaking to improve the grade in jan - which I'd suggest to anyone anyway, as itll help for A2.

I seriously doubt your parents will kick you out unless you get an A. They just won't and are probably using this as a threat into getting you working.

w00tt

Reply 4

SAI

thx alot Woot :biggrin:

, but i dont understand by the term u say "exclusively", what do u mean by you "exclusively" used your main test books and past papers? and also are mock tests in most schools a real past edexcel past paper? cause like for Chemistry my school does Unit 1 and Unit 2, two different teachers, and obvously we have't covered much due to 3 lessons a weak 1 from Unit 2 and 2 from Unit 1. so do you think its unlikely to be a real edexcel paper? and also is notes the best way to learn?

Reply 5

Ourkid

By exclusively I mean I literally didn't use any other books. If there was a certain topic I didn't understand I looked elsewhere, but my textbook was fabulous - covered everything and was great to learn from.

For your mocks they will probably go down 2 routes:
a) give you a full mock paper becuase:
i)you should have been working independantly
ii)just to see how you cope with new topics
iii)tell you to only answer the questions from topics you've covered

or

b) give you a different paper which only has questions on the topics you've covered.

As for notes - try them and if they work for you - stick to it. It's definitely a case of find what works for you, as what may have worked for me may not work for someone else.

I'd think starting notes is a good way of doing things, by getting notes written up in lessons, then rewriting them neatly, underlining/highlighting the key points then summarising into shorter paras until you get it.

Another few ways to try is trying to get a topic understood, then doing a sort of lesson on it for a mate - don't need a white board for it or whatever - just trying to explain it over phone/msn or something will do. That way, if you've missed something out your friend can correct you or add things in. This makes it more interactive and it may stick better.

One thing that used to work for me was staying back after school on a friday for an hour with a mate and just going through questions on the whiteboard at school. That was fun :p:

and was good because teachers would walk through or sit at the back and mark and there was the added pressure of trying to get it right...

Believe me I'm not a geek lol

Good luck, any more questions feel free to shoot em my way :wink:

w00tt

Reply 6

Doji

Nuffield
Advanced Chemistry
Student's Book

your referring to that book? ...thats what we got, it ahs review Q's but i dont like it too much. Any more tips w00t?