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Finding Chemistry hard?

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yosy

anyone who did seperate award gcse should find this a walk thorugh the park, with (with birds singing, the sun beaming its glourious sunshine onto you, encouraging you to reach the end ot the park etc..)

what im saying is that {unit 1 chemistry} edexcel is all memory work. for example if you can remember the simple definitions of electron affinity/ ionisation energies (successive) and silly stuff like the simple tests for a Cl- ion..... and the five key points to mention when describing the thermal stability of compounds.

even at this early stage in this subject, alll the questions are as a broken record player. seriously, this subject (for As at least) is simply memorising. if u want to stand a chance of getting at least a B for the first unit the simplest way is to memorise. to the best of my knowledge most people struggle to grasp the simple concept of subtracting 2 from 0 i.e ionic equations

physics and biology require more understanding

anyone who has done seperate award science and is struggling should be ashamed of themselves

the reason why most people think this subject is hard is because it looks scary. Most people think that you are a "genius" for being great at this subject.

:wtf?: Biology is one huge memory game!

Reply 21

Pollypeptide

Excalibur

:wtf?: Biology is one huge memory game!

True say.

Reply 22

sophierw

Definitely learn as much as you can in the first year of chemisty because once you get onto second year NMR and infra-red spectroscopy, most people who only just got the AS stuff run away to live in caves. At least if you know the first year stuff you have a good chance of passing most the second year content.

Reply 23

digitalis

Ah Chemistry, bane of my life...took me four attempts to resit Chem 1 to get above 67 UMS. Just take it slow and cram before exams, way forward. And pastpapers.

Your not alone, its very difficult, boring and tedious. Was a good saying amongst the two chemistry classes of our year, you either study chem at A level for your future career, or your delusional! Held true!

Reply 24

Mos Def

Try doing Nuffield Chemistry ... the paper is a bastard, the examiners are even bigger basterds, they will only give you a mark if your asnwer matches the MS, and they update MS answers every year, so literally it sucks. Got a C with lots of revision... :angry:

, hoping top turn things around come Jan.

Reply 25

M.A.H

^^ i feel you man. Idiots at nuffield changing their MS yearly

Reply 26

i'm no superman

Yeah that doesn't sound promising - especially if you've worked hard and you get a C. Out of the five topics for Edexcel (Nuffield) Unit 1, I'd say I am confident in only one of them - the stuff on enthalpy changes, hess cycles...etc.

I hate the organic side - alcohols especially. I've started a bit of revision with them but tbh, it's really just me trying to understand what everyone else seemed to at the start of the term. I feel I'm totally ****ed in January and I really do not want to do any retakes.

The only good thing about Nuffield's board is that there is no Unit 3 so we only have one exam in January and one in June. Unit 3 is based on 4 internally assessed practicals on designing an experiment, carrying out and observing two experiments, and processing the results of one experiment.

Reply 27

gruffyddd

Now I'm doing a chemistry degree I tend to look back at the A level with rose tinted spectacles. Most of the reactions are 100% yield, you're always given perfect spectra, and there's no bloody stereochemistry to worry about.

Of course I too found it hard at the time, but I think you can make it a lot easier if you're systematic about it. If you learn properly how to identify what's a nucleophile and what's an electrophile you won't need to memorize the mechanisms exactly as they become intuitive. Similarly with IR and NMR it seems really hard at first, but the examiners are quite restricted in what they can ask you, so once you've mastered a few questions the rest are going to very similar.

I also remember a lot of people finding amount of substance difficult, so it's really worth buying a good problems book early on and practising all the calculations.

Reply 28

Mos Def

!MEna

yeah my basterd teacher gave me a C for it, if he gave me a B/A, i would have got an overall B... doesn't matter. I find T2 really easy, its just memorising a few set stuff, U2 is the tough one...even though i did marginally better in it this summer, but they were still high C's lol, never thought i would say that :rolleyes:

Reply 29

i'm no superman

Mos Def

Can you help me out about what we have to do for the practical / internally assessed stuff? On Friday, we wrote a method and equipment list using our books but the teacher said that the real assessment takes place on Tuesday so I haven't got a clue what to expect. By the way, it's the one on enthalpy changes...

It doesn't help that my teacher doesn't like me by the looks of things either.

Reply 30

Mos Def

!MEna

Umm well different schools do different things, and i don't remember doing to well on them, i think you have to design an expt on how to measure enthalpy, but dont take my word for it, jsut revise T5.

Reply 31

M.A.H

!MEna

is it your 1st practical or the 2nd one? the only one where i can remember about enthalpy change is using a polystyrene cup and measuring the temp change.

Reply 32

i'm no superman

M.A.H

is it your 1st practical or the 2nd one? the only one where i can remember about enthalpy change is using a polystyrene cup and measuring the temp change.

It's our first assessed one. I think it's processing the results and not the design one. Any help please?

Reply 33

M.A.H

!MEna

It's our first assessed one. I think it's processing the results and not the design one. Any help please?

the 1st one? hmm i keep thinking it was something to do with titration, but thats all i can remember im afraid :confused:

Reply 34

i'm no superman

M.A.H

the 1st one? hmm i keep thinking it was something to do with titration, but thats all i can remember im afraid :confused:

Oh right I might have it wrong but we also used a polystyrene cup and measured the temperature change that occured between HCl and NaOH and HCl and KOH.

Reply 35

M.A.H

!MEna

Oh right I might have it wrong but we also used a polystyrene cup and measured the temperature change that occured between HCl and NaOH and HCl and KOH.

hmm, well if its the polystyrene cup one, then you will need to work out the moles and stuff and you will be asked questions on working out the enthalpy change by using the temp change and also why the value you get isnt the same as the value in the Book Of Data

Reply 36

i'm no superman

M.A.H

I've given you positive feedback. Thanks for your help! :smile:

Do they ask anything about ions?
It's an exothermic reaction too right?

What would I need to justify?

Sorry for being a pain. I'm just trying to scrounge as many marks in the practical component since I tend to lose more marks in the written exams.

Out of curiousity what did you get for AS?
Like - each mark for each unit?

Thanks once again!

Reply 37

M.A.H

I cant remember whether or not they asked for an ionic equation. If its an acid + alkali reaction then the ionic equation is simply H+ + OH- ---> H2O

I remember one question asking why ethanoic acid is a weak acid and the reaction was exothermic when we did it. They will ask you to suggest reasons (i think it was 2) why your enthalpy value isn't the same as the book - answer: heat loss (one of the answers)

Thanks for the +rep :smile:

Reply 38

lil groovy dude