The Student Room Group

AQA CHEM4 - How many topics left?

Just wondering where everyone else is on the course. We finished it last week and it felt a bit early; didn't spend much time on the structure determination stuff!

Started CHEM5; doing Born-Haber cycles along with period 3 elements. Apparently last year's class finished CHEM5 before Christmas.
(edited 9 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

My sch has finished the whole unit.
Almost finished Equilibrium. Just need to do Acid and Bases, and Structure determination. I have two teachers for chemistry so I reckon we will finish chem4 in about 2 weeks. How have you found the jumps from AS to A2 for chemistry?
How hard is unit 5?
Reply 3
Doubt we'll finish before xmas! I've heard CHEM5 is quite short?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 4
Original post by Itsmonique
Almost finished Equilibrium. Just need to do Acid and Bases, and Structure determination. I have two teachers for chemistry so I reckon we will finish chem4 in about 2 weeks. How have you found the jumps from AS to A2 for chemistry?
How hard is unit 5?

Strangely enough I find A2 easier than AS. I found AS more difficult because of the gap between AS and GCSE, however now that I'm used to the workload the gap between AS and A2 isn't too bad. You need to know AS quite well for all of A2 so that helps.

I'm not liking unit 5 at the moment because I haven't fully grasped the concepts but I'm working on it; the questions seem nicer because unlike CHEM4 there's more scope for definition questions (easy marks)
Reply 5
Original post by sr234
Doubt we'll finish before xmas! I've heard CHEM5 is quite short?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah there's 6 chapters compared to 11 in CHEM4
Reply 6
Original post by selenerrr__x
My sch has finished the whole unit.

How are you finding it? Do reckon you'd be ready for it if the exam was in January?
Original post by TajwarC
How are you finding it? Do reckon you'd be ready for it if the exam was in January?


I think my teacher just went super fast, we covered most of it but everyone's sort of all wishy washy about it and no ones scores that well in progress tests.
If I revised my ass off now, I might be ready for it in jan
Reply 8
Original post by selenerrr__x
I think my teacher just went super fast, we covered most of it but everyone's sort of all wishy washy about it and no ones scores that well in progress tests.
If I revised my ass off now, I might be ready for it in jan

Yeah that's basically what happened for us with structure determination and acids/bases. For the organic everyone just banged out revision and most of us did well in the tests. Would have liked to have spent more time on the structure det stuff because it's in my opinion the most difficult part of CHEM4 and carries loads of marks in the exam!
Original post by TajwarC
Strangely enough I find A2 easier than AS. I found AS more difficult because of the gap between AS and GCSE, however now that I'm used to the workload the gap between AS and A2 isn't too bad. You need to know AS quite well for all of A2 so that helps.

I'm not liking unit 5 at the moment because I haven't fully grasped the concepts but I'm working on it; the questions seem nicer because unlike CHEM4 there's more scope for definition questions (easy marks)


Me too! Like you said I find A2 a lot easier, I've been getting A's in all of my tests so far. I even have a kinetics test tomorrow! I'm glad chem5 is shorter, apparently it's more to do with memorizing the content. But my teachers plan to finish the syllabus in February next year so we can have time for the ISA.
Are you planning on retaking any units from AS?
Retaking chem1 and the coursework!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 10
Original post by Itsmonique
Me too! Like you said I find A2 a lot easier, I've been getting A's in all of my tests so far. I even have a kinetics test tomorrow! I'm glad chem5 is shorter, apparently it's more to do with memorizing the content. But my teachers plan to finish the syllabus in February next year so we can have time for the ISA.
Are you planning on retaking any units from AS?
Retaking chem1 and the coursework!


Posted from TSR Mobile

I "plan" to resit the whole AS LOL - I'm going for a degree in chemistry so I really need to nail the subject; I think doing the AS after studying A2 will be a walk in the park so I doubt I'll need a lot of revision for the resits. Also I sent off my UCAS with my AS units as pending so I'm pretty sure I now have to haha.

Out of interest did you do 2 ISAs or one last year, and are you doing the same for A2 this year?
Original post by TajwarC
I "plan" to resit the whole AS LOL - I'm going for a degree in chemistry so I really need to nail the subject; I think doing the AS after studying A2 will be a walk in the park so I doubt I'll need a lot of revision for the resits. Also I sent off my UCAS with my AS units as pending so I'm pretty sure I now have to haha.

Out of interest did you do 2 ISAs or one last year, and are you doing the same for A2 this year?


We did EMPA's last year because of our new head of science, but because the majority of people in my class failed, our teacher has switched back to ISA's, we're gonna do 2 this year. The majority of people in my class got a C or below so they also plan on retaking AS chemistry.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 12
Original post by Itsmonique
We did EMPA's last year because of our new head of science, but because the majority of people in my class failed, our teacher has switched back to ISA's, we're gonna do 2 this year. The majority of people in my class got a C or below so they also plan on retaking AS chemistry.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Exactly what I wanted to hear :biggrin: We were told only one got released but after everyone failed it I had a feeling something was wrong...
Reply 13
Only the structure determination topics left...maybe one or two more lessons on amino acids too

Posted from TSR Mobile
If you don't mind me asking what is your predicted grade for chemistry?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 15
We have Organic Synthesis and Mass Spectrometry left, Ive been finding chem4 pretty easy though :biggrin:
We've just finished Unit 4. I absolutely hate Unit 4 - no idea what people are talking about when they say it's easier than AS Chemistry, I'm finding it harder than A2 Maths, Further Maths and Physics combined. Thank god we're onto Unit 5 now, I hate organic chemistry. The only slightly redeeming feature is NMR which is pretty fun, but I'm just sick and tired of all the endless learning of mechanisms and flipping reaction conditions - why on earth do we need to learn reaction conditions?!
(edited 9 years ago)
finishing aromatic synthesis and then done :cool:
Original post by ThatPerson
I agree. Although I might be finding Chemistry more difficult due to the fact that it requires more memorisation and learning than Physics and I've been spending a disparate amount of time on Maths.


I think that's probably a big chunk of the reason I don't like it. Maths, you just understand it and you're done. Physics isn't much different. Chemistry, not only are things more conceptually difficult because you can't just understand equations, you've got to commit everything to memory.
Reply 19
Original post by Chlorophile
We've just finished Unit 4. I absolutely hate Unit 4 - no idea what people are talking about when they say it's easier than AS Chemistry, I'm finding it harder than A2 Maths, Further Maths and Physics combined. Thank god we're onto Unit 5 now, I hate organic chemistry. The only slightly redeeming feature is NMR which is pretty fun, but I'm just sick and tired of all the endless learning of mechanisms and flipping reaction conditions - why on earth do we need to learn reaction conditions?!

I'd say knowing about the conditions would be useful for practicals you would do at undergrad. Those are easy marks though! It's always going to be something like "heat under reflux" or in "ethanolic solution" or something on the lines of that.

Physical chemistry is the worst in my opinion, organic is the most interesting

Quick Reply