AQA A Level Chemistry

Which topics are most commonly tested in Paper 1 usually please e.g acids and bases,thermodynamics etc?

Those two definitely, especially buffer calculations for acids and bases. Equilibrium is also common. Transition metals and ions in aqueous solutions are common because they can only be tested on 1 and 3. If you read the spec you can see the exact topics per paper, but the ones I've listed tend to be worth the most marks. :smile:

Reply 2

anon25x

Original post by DanielK1456

Thank you ! Have you noticed any patterns for Paper 2 and 3 please?

Reply 3

DanielK1456

Original post by anon25x

Thank you ! Have you noticed any patterns for Paper 2 and 3 please?

Paper 3 is always very practical based, as it states in the spec. I think recently organic practicals have been favoured slightly, although there should be a mixture of physical and organic required practicals. Just know all the methods and reasons as to why steps are taken, and any improvements that can be made to methods. Paper 2 is slightly trickier to plan for imo, but NMR is a favourite question. It's always worth lots of marks. Knowing all your mechanisms is useful as these can be tested on paper 2 or the multiple choice on paper 3. Knowing all the different organic pathways is important, and how you can use different mechanisms to go from one compound to the next. The synthesis pathways always come up on paper 2. :smile:

Reply 4

Adamsmob

Hey does anybody know why, in this past paper im doing right now (2019 AQA Paper 1), that it says the observations from the reaction of
NaBr + H2SO4 are Orange/Brown Fumes?
From my understanding, elemental bromine is formed in the reaction, so surely the observations would be that the solution turns orange, and not that there are orange fumes released. Am I missing something? Bromine is a liquid at room temperature not a gas, so maybe the question assumes that you should know the reaction generates enough heat to produce gaseous bromine and not liquid bromine?