OCR Chemistry B (Salters) Thursday 10th January Discussion

Haven't seen it anywhere so thought i'd make it. How's preperation going for you guys?

it's awful I'm going through past papers how's it going for you?

Hi

Mine has to be the worst exam prep ever. My teachers haven't turned up for about 18 lessons in total, there was 1 whole week (7 lessons) when neither teacher was here. As a result we just "finished the module" on the last day before Xmas, but they missed out a few key things i.e. Entropy and Gas Volumes, Reforming, Cracking, Isomerisation etc.

Plus, they don't even know what to teach us! They wasted time on topics like E/Z Isomerism which is in the next module! Also with oxidation of Alcohols which I think is A2 And their idea of 'teaching' is a handout from a powerpoint made in 2008, so they don't have to doi anything

But apart from that it's fine What topics do you find the hardest? And sorry for ranting, had to get it out of my system.....

My teacher despite being the head of chemistry basically just went over GCSE things for the entire module so I'm feeling really uncertain, luckily another teach has provided notes summarised and colour coded for both topics.

I think enthalpy cycles can be confusing, gas volumes make me want to cry

it's okay it's salters you can rant

Enthalpy cycles are pretty confusing, i personally hate all the types of bonding- but that's mainly because I can't be bothered to learn it. Gas volumes are well explained in CGP Salters book if you have it? There are only a few ways of asking the question so once you learn those you'll be fine

That's good you had the other teacher to help you out a bit. Have you looked through past papers? That gives you a good guide as to what sort of questions they ask and to the detail your expected to know. Need to read through Chemical Storylines and learn things from there, but not much time left...

And is it just me, or is Chemical Ideas really poorly set out?

I like bonding

I've gone through one or two the answers just seem like common sense and I just over think them

I have the revision guide, personally thing salters would be soo much better if it just had separate books for AS/A2 with CS combined it's so tedious otherwise that said they repeat questions a lot.

I totally agree with the textbook thing- it's all in a really random order and you don't know what you have to know!!

The exams do tend to repeat a lot of questions, and yeah I find they are common sense- Salters is all about us 'applying our knowledge', lol.

I've highlighted the different areas for different topics, they seem to really over-word topics and make them seem so convoluted

I'm just doing every past paper I can get my hand on and learn the markscheme- they seem to like us explaining spectra, how catalysts work and how an why there are different types of pollutants

We'll get through it

Hey! I have trouble with Hess cycles. Do you guys understand them? I am just confused about what way the arrows are supposed to be pointing at...

I've highlighted the different areas for different topics, they seem to really over-word topics and make them seem so convoluted :sight:

I'm just doing every past paper I can get my hand on and learn the markscheme- they seem to like us explaining spectra, how catalysts work and how an why there are different types of pollutants

We'll get through it

Hey! I have trouble with Hess cycles. Do you guys understand them? I am just confused about what way the arrows are supposed to be pointing at...

They love heterogenous catalysts, and pollutants! From what i've seen they also seem to ask about spectra as you said, and nuclear radiation as a 'starter question'. We will indeed get through it....

On another note, anyone know what grade boundaries are like for Salters?

Grade boundaries seem pretty tricky, although I guess it's not unreasonable. Anyone who struggles with particular questions should post on the thread, between us we can conquer Elements of Life!

They're really tight :sad;

good idea

Can someone explain bond angles/shapes of molecules to me? It's something that I'm struggling. Thanks in advance guys