Cambridge Chemistry Challenge

Does anyone know if there is a thread about the written Cambridge chemistry challenge for Y12?

I have searched but can't find anything :/

Thanks!

I don't think so. btw are you prepared for it? I've done both papers -got 59/64 in the 2011 and 44.5/60 in the 2012 paper. I think the 2012 paper was a lot harder than 2011's- I got nearly 100% in all questions apart from Q2 C, which I stared at it cluelessly for 30 minutes without getting anywhere (got zero for that 14 marker ).

Anyway, does anyone know how to work it out (Q2 C 2012)?

Thanks!!!

I was planning on doing the past papers, what are you going to 'revise' in order to prepare for it? Skimming through the papers I see very little that my AS chemistry will actually help me with tbh, are we meant to just know the stuff or is there someway to prepare for it?

I will do the 2012 paper tomorrow and see if I can work it out

So what have you done so far to prepare?

Well, some stuff on isomerism would be helpful- I did some of the chemistry olympiad papers (some of the stuff it contains is irrelevent as it requires A2 knowledge but otherwise it is very helpful). Anything about calculations would be fine if you're good at maths.

At the end, it mostly depends on your ability to deal with different situations rather than doing lots of revision.

The reason I'm doing it is partly for the fun of it and also it would be a good thing to put in UCAS. Are you thinking to do a chemistry-related degree (I want to do medicine)?

Doing it for fun, and its like the day before AEA and STEP so i'm probably not gonna revise. Good luck everyone though.

Yeah chemistry

I agree it is fun and way beyond the knowledge an as student would possess!

For the 2011 paper the isomers A1-A7 how are we meant to know which is which? For example how do we know the difference between the structure of A2 and A6 (I haven't fully done the question so I may be missing something). Basically how do you know which isomer is going to be A2 instead of the others?

I don't think you can revise for this paper, unlike the olympiad, pretty much all the information you need is given to you, they just ask weird questions!



59/64 and 44.5/60 are very impressive - nice job! I'm guessing you are aiming for Roentgenium then?
For 2c), I luckily guessed that S would be ethanol, T would be ethanol and U ethanoic acid due to the oxidation sequence (and the carbon clue) which lead nicely on to R and V. I have no idea how you'd get the bottom half, however!

Does anyone know if there is a thread about the written Cambridge chemistry challenge for Y12?

I have searched but can't find anything :/

Thanks!

Im doing it, probably wont get a good mark but it is still something to put down for UCAS

Don't think so. I guess this is it. I'm doing it on Wednesday.

I plan on doing it on Wednesday too, I think people can do it an time next week!

It seems that everyone is doing it on Wednesday (including me)!!

It seems that everyone is doing it on Wednesday (including me)!!

Just to buck the trend, I'm doing it on Thursday!!
Can someone explain to me the very last part of the first question in the 2011 paper (the one where you have to sort the molecules into a table of plane of symmetry/rotational symmetry) - I don't get why/why they don't have a plane of symmetry or rotational symmetry!


Posted from TSR Mobile

Basically, you start by drawing all the isomers on a separate paper! Only one of them will have both D's in the same environment (A1). As you deuteryse it with D2 there are two possible products X1 & X2. Now, A2 and A3 (only) should also produce X1 and X2 when deuterysed (you can work out the products of the remaining 6 isomers to see which two can produce BOTH X1 AND X2- this is the long way to do it<you can just know it by looking at it if you are imaginative enough!!>).

The difference between A2 & A6 would be that A2 can form 2 products but A6 can only form 1.