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Students react after A-level Chemistry Paper 1 on 10 June 2025

graphic of scientist proudly holding up a couple of chemistry flasks

An unusual experiment

A-level Chemistry has been keeping you waiting, but paper 1 finally arrived today...to a mixed reception.

While 84% of OCR students and 85% of Edexcel gave their paper a positive rating on The Student Room's exam chat, only 59% of AQA students felt the same way.

“Where was mole fractions and harber cycles?” asked Ameliaw552. “Soooo they just skipped out all of Kp and Period 3?” said Trapz06. "No kp is shocking better be in paper 3," vowed 24patrisia.

Scroll down for our pick of reactions to today's paper - or get deeper into the chat and our unofficial markschemes with the links below.

Exam discussion on The Student Room

AQA was in the mood for some big ol' curveballs

@membraneboundpeptidase

♬ original sound - Non_competitive_Inhibitor
@n222veeee #alevelchemistry #aqachempaper1 ♬ ECE Marketing Airball - EC Equine Marketing
@bradley.1z What the hell was that paper #aqa #alevels #chemistry #paper1 #cooked ♬ original sound - bradley
@mmels2.0 Well there’s my chemistry out the window aqa I would appreciate if u stop doing us dirty with these stem papers #chemistry #paper1 #stem #alevels #aqa #countyourdays ♬ Originalton - .

As some of the expected heavy hitters were nowhere to be seen...

@archie_heard12 AQA you have done it again😭 Paper 2 better be so nice 🙏🤚🏻#alevels #fyp #fyppp #exam #stem #alevelchemistry #aqa ♬ original sound - Mary Leigh Horn
@joe282663 #aqa #alevelchemistry ♬ original sound - Lukedeandj
@tiioooooooooo #alevel #chemistry #alevelchemistry #alevel2025 #exam ♬ original sound - عمر راجپوت

Not everyone is raging at their exam board though

@a.nagh.a some questions… cough cough all of those equations i had to write were questionable, for i thought it was okay for the most part let’s hope i get that B 🥀🥀🙏🙏 #fyp #foryoupagе #fyppp #alevelchemistrypaper1 #aqaalevelchemistry #aqa #chempaper1 #chem #alevels2025 #lowkeydied ♬ som original - songs.max
@and2_priv grade boundaries gonna be 101% at this rate #alevel #chemistry #ocr #paper1 ♬ teenage dream - overlays ⸆⸉
@a_level_cumback Hard paper tbh but lowkey smashed it. #alevels #viral #aqa #edexcel #year13 #studytok #revision #relatable #viral_video #alevel #football #gcse #exams #fyp #chemsitry #aqachemistry ♬ son original - Twizzy_R😵🔛🔝

But AQA was just too much for some folks

@my_ka25

Aqa A level chemistry paper 1 killed a part of my soul, it’s looking like a second resit bruh

♬ original sound - sims

Time to draw a line under it all

@rey_sangh The empirical formula ligand question was a godsend but lowkey felt like a trick 🥀 #ocra #chem #chemistry #fyp #viral #exams #paperone #answers ♬ Soft Spot (955 remix) - JMSN & Sada Baby
@miialauren worst paper of my life… where was the maths questions?!! why was it all reactions #aqachemistry #chemistrypaperone #alevels #flop ♬ STRIPPING IN THE CLUB HNM MEGAMIX - LEOPARD
@gracesfiles aqa please be nice for paper 2 🙏🏾 #chemistry #alevelchemistry #aqa #studytok #paper1 #medicine #fyp ♬ growth - Gede Yudis

What people are saying about A-level Chemistry Paper 1 on The Student Room

Why did AQA love magnesium so much for the first question? I thought I was acc going insane with how frequently it was showing up in my answers after they already talked about magnesium hydroxide…

AQA A-level Chemistry Paper 1

Ecrendis

Solid exam. Main issues were amphoteric bit and the Gibbs one (because my brain fell apart and forgot how to do enthalpy related.) Thank GOD that wasn't a huge topic. Definitely feel like I got at minimum 65% there, I'll take it.

What did people get for Kp? My result was something like 2.7x10-3 atm-1 or around that. Even if I got wrong, would be surprised at anything lower than 3 mks.

Also what did people write for the equations for catalysts? I wasn't 100% sure so I honestly just ********ted what I barely remembered with an oxygen going to the vanadium catalyst and the sulphur dioxide (now trioxide) and then again, and for Fe2+ I said it bonds to the iodides and then imparts 2 electrons onto the S2O8 to produce the product. Also mentioned some BS about heterogenity versus homogenity and all that.

All around solid paper. Probably easier than the last few years but could go either way?

Edexcel A-level Chemistry Paper 1

Aditum

This was so bad… I only revised the maths bit where’s my Kp or thermodynamics…

AQA A-level Chemistry Paper 1

cantankerous-gai

More A-level exam reactions on The Student Room

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Want to check in on a different subject or exam paper? Find students discussing all the exams from this summer's A-levels here.

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Article by Nik Taylor on Tuesday 10 June 2025