Equilibria, Energetics and Elements (F325) - June 2011 Exam.

What do people think 75-80 raw marks will score as UMS, just a prediction please as obviously nobody knows exactly?

What do people think 75-80 raw marks will score as UMS, just a prediction please as obviously nobody knows exactly?

Very high.
In Jan it was 65/100 for 80% UMS. I can't remember what it was for 90% and 100%.

So you are looking at 90%+ UMS. Congrats.

Hmm. They did specify 'showing the whole ligand', but I guess you did do that...hope for a lenient marker!

Just because they are a charity doesnt mean that distributing their material that they havnt yet published is legal. Im not overly sure of the specifics but I know someone who marks the papers and he says that they arent supposed to be distributed early because OCR charges money for them.

And ofc theft is required, how else do you think the bio paper was obtained, the original poster said he took it when the invigilators werent looking...

For the monomer and isomer question, do you think its alright if you didnt show the actual ligand and just a line instead (the way the example showed the 'simple' version).

Yeah i think the paper made reference to the example as acceptable. That's what I did.

For the one marker i just showed the 2 equations given but the other way round ie- the top equation gained electrons even with a smaller standard electrode potential and the bottom one lost electrons with the higher standard electrode potentail value?

iS this correct?

Really? I know at least one school where teachers are given the paper on the day of exam. They then photocopy it and give it out to students. Unfortunately I do not study there. I was not aware that this is illegal. And OCR does not charge for past papers. They charge for exams and the marking of thereof, not pieces of paper they allow people to obtain freely on the website. The only uploaded after the release of the grades because the exam boards are too busy with other things and want to avoid speculations about grade boundaries by students, complaints etc and unofficial mark schemes. I agree with you that the paper was fairer than that of OCR Biology F215. It covered all areas of the specification well. However I think it was too time pressured and a little too wordy... In short Jan 2011 and June 2010 were better. And somehow I doubt that will reflect in the grade boundaries, though these are only my thoughts.

Phew, that makes me feel alittle better anyway!

@ Sam Winsdor : "
Copy and paste this and send to [email protected] and [email protected] if you like - or write your own etc.



To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you to express my concern for the F325 GCE Chemistry paper I sat on 15th June 2011. I feel the paper was unfair and unrepresentative of the specification set by OCR. Only a few relevant topics came up, and others were generalised to ridiculous, unrelated things e.g. 'Magic Tang'. The paper had a ridiculous amount of text in it working; on the basis of a mark a minute a 100 mark paper should have a time limit of 100 minutes (1 hour 40 minutes) just for writing the answer which leaves 5 minutes for reading. The amount of text and the length of questions were way over estimated. As a student who has studied hard for a year and sat the paper I believe it was very unfair. I hope the grade boundaries and the revised mark scheme truly represent the difficulty of the paper.

Yours sincerely,

NAME "

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you to express my concern for the F325 GCE Chemistry paper I sat on 15th June 2011. I feel the paper was unfair and unrepresentative of the specification set by OCR. Only a few relevant topics came up, and others were generalised to ridiculous, unrelated things e.g. 'Magic Tang'. The paper had a ridiculous amount of text in it working; on the basis of a mark a minute a 100 mark paper should have a time limit of 100 minutes (1 hour 40 minutes) just for writing the answer which leaves 5 minutes for reading. The amount of text and the length of questions were way over estimated. As a student who has studied hard for a year and sat the paper I believe it was very unfair. I hope the grade boundaries and the revised mark scheme truly represent the difficulty of the paper.

Yours sincerely,

NAME "

The greater emphasis on application to unknown situations means that rote recall of the course content is unlikely on its own to guarantee a good result. The assessment model also provides the opportunity for more demanding stretch & challenge questions that will help inform the new A* grade, assessed in the A2 units only. In order to deliver this range of grades with the application emphasis, the A2 examinations are significantly tougher than the AS examinations.

For the new A2 examinations, this places a much greater emphasis on application of knowledge and understanding than in the past and novel questions that require application of knowledge and understanding will be a feature of this examination. The real challenge for both teachers and their students lies in their preparation for this style of examination. The best candidates usually rise to the challenge but weaker candidates can struggle. It is particularly important that weak candidates answer what they can in the questions, even if they are unable to see the way forwards to a final solution.

Future papers will be set in a similar style with a mixture of questions assessing stock chemistry from the main course and questions that assess whether candidates are able to apply their knowledge and understanding. In preparing their students for future papers, teachers are advised to use more application-based problems rather than solely questions based on the specification content.

A final general comment relates to candidate performance on the new A2 papers. Overall, candidates have responded to the challenge admirably. Having been exposed to some very demanding questions, the very best candidates have responded extremely well and have been able to demonstrate some very high quality responses. All candidates have been able to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding about chemistry at this level. The outcomes from this series represent a real achievement for successful candidates.

Here are some quotes from the chief examiner's report from January 2011 and June 2010: