Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

AS Chemistry- helping each other out!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 340

lyricalvibe

Original post by BBeyond

nah economics, it was alright, chem tomorrow :tongue:

and #rekt by dina y0

Good luck!I when do you get your results? Chemistry is chill fam, just name a couple hydrocarbons balance a couple equations and viola->A grade :tongue:

Not REKT ☑ rekt☑
I'm sorry results are inconclusive :wink:

Reply 341

jshep000

Ayy, you know down a group, first ionisation energy decreases because there are more shells between outer electrons and nucleus which leads to greater shielding and all that. But why does it increase across a period again? Is it because of the positive protons, I think I'm confusing myself lmao :redface:

Reply 342

kdizzle97

Hey! This thread seems helpful haha :smile:

I do Edexcel Chemistry and the multiple choice questions make me question my insanity..

Reply 343

BBeyond

Original post by lyricalvibe

Good luck!I when do you get your results? Chemistry is chill fam, just name a couple hydrocarbons balance a couple equations and viola->A grade :tongue:

Not REKT ☑ rekt☑
I'm sorry results are inconclusive :wink:

No idea

Hopefully next lesson :tongue:

Yeah I like chem, it's probs my easiest subject tbh atm :biggrin:

If only aye :wink:

So basically that means u got rekt but u don't wanna admit it :wink:

Original post by jshep000

Increases between G1-2 as number of protons increases while shielding remains constant. Decreases a little bit G2/3 as G3 is in a higher energy level (p-orbital) and the s-orbital offers partial shielding. G3-5 increases as number of protons increases shielding constant. G5-6 small fall as one of the p-orbitals has 2 electrons in, they repel making it easier to lose one. G6-8 increases, number of protons increase while shielding in constant. :smile:

Reply 344

bukosaurus_rex

Original post by lyricalvibe

Thanks! This was really helpful!
How's the A2 treating you?

That part about being within 0.1 sounds terrifying :eek:

and harsh! How many people got within 0.1 of the teacher value in your class roughly :colondollar:

?
Side note, how hard is unit 2 compared to 1 in AS? Finished unit 1 with mock exam in december and the exam was fairly easy-as long as you knew what you were doing. Is it the same but more?

No problem! :colondollar:

Hold on, this is a very long post again (sorry)

A2 is more intense, there are more challenging ideas you need to get to grips with, you definitely feel the work more especially for me since I took on all four of my subjects :eek:

(I promise I'm not a sadist) but as long as you put in the work consistently it's not too bad.

It is very daunting when you realise you have to be within 0.1, you don't find out how far you were from the teacher's result (well none of my class did at least) but in practices the closest I came was 0.2 most of the time.

Despite this, overall I got 58/60 in my coursework (which was a surprise) so it doesn't hurt too much I guess. So don't get too bogged down by this. The most important thing is to learn the theory behind the experiments so you can answer the questions well (but not in too much depth that you begin to dream about it, your teacher should go through it with you at a suitable depth to answer the questions given correctly, but really it isn't that hard at all!).

Don't worry about getting it right the first time either, you can try again twice more. But aim to get it right first time, it will save you to hassle of redoing it.

I agree that unit 1 is quite easy, definitely the most basic exam. Just make sure you are very comfortable with everything.

Unit 2, is a bit harder, but not unbearable. Just keep on top of work, and using tips that I expand on below and you should be fine! Learn your ionic formulae as you may asked questions that rely on you knowing that the hydroxide ion is OH^- also learn the tests for different compounds (e.g. O₂ relights a glowing split and CO₂ make limewater turn cloudy) and the reactions between compounds such a complete combustion and incomplete combustion (these are all in your specification, of which you should know every point and be able to answer question based on these points, more below).

The most "challenging" part of unit 2 is the Advanced Notice Article (which you might not find challenging at all), which is an article that they give you some time between Feb and April, I'm not too sure when. You are expected to read it and answer questions on it in the exam. I'm not sure how much help your school gives you, our school didn't do much on it at all. But it is very important and the questions come towards the end of the paper.

It has chemical ideas that you will have covered for example my Advanced Notice last year was about the chemistry of wine, which was linked to primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols, esters, skeletal formulae and some other ideas. To see how it works, look at past papers and the corresponding advanced notice and see how they create questions from the article.

Last year there was a teacher who posted a 40 min video on the Advanced Notice on YouTube and talked about what might come up and what you need to be comfortable with, which was so helpful as our teacher didn't do much at all. I'm not sure if he will do one this year, but if I see it I will definitely point you in that direction.

The last thing (I think) that made unit 2 somewhat harder than unit 1 was that they want you to know more things from the Chemical Storylines textbook, I remember a past paper question asked what did scientists find in 1980 that made them feel differently about the ozone layer? (or words to that effect) the answer was a paragraph in the book. So make sure you have read your Storylines so you have some idea about what is going on, to be honest it is an interesting read.

But this shouldn't be your main agenda, make sure you know all of the chemical theory before memorising contextual facts as they only take up 1 or 2 marks in the exam -- but these could be important marks in the grand scheme of things).

Here are some of my tips for doing well at AS Salters chemistry, which isn't as bad as everyone thinks: :tongue:

To be perfectly honest, some of the people who find this exam board the hardest and perhaps didn't do as well, didn't know how to attack the exam in the right way (not saying my way is the only right way, but it helped me get an A when I was getting average scores in my mock exams and it helped my friends who were also struggling to cope with the course).

With this exam board you need very specific answers for certain questions and the only way to get full marks for these questions is to do EVERY PAST PAPER THERE IS.

Here is a link to a website with older Salters past papers, don't worry if you don't know some things in there, it is an older spec so the things you need to know are different.

However it is invaluable in being able to determine whether or not you have a great enough understanding to be able to apply the chemical ideas to unknown contexts.

You can get the newer papers that correspond to the spec on the website, which if you haven't been on it already, it has all of the resources given by the exam board, such as specimen papers, exemplar answers from higher band students and more.

It sounds insane I know, but Salters chemistry loves very specific answers, I remember in unit 2 in the Atmosphere unit a question about infrared radiation and how it causes global warming almost always comes up and if you don't state that the bonds in the molecules of gas in the atmosphere absorb infrared and vibrate, you LOST a mark. Even if you said the molecule absorbs infrared, the mark is gone, so Salters is very, very specific in that sense and to be honest it is very easy to beat the exam.

Sometimes, it can seem frustrating as it seems they don't even want your understanding, they just want you to answer it in their way. But some of the unusual context questions do stretch your understanding.

So you can just learn off answers from mark schemes for some questions, such as heterogeneous catalysis, but be careful as you will have to tweak the answer slightly sometimes to fit the question.

On this topic quickly; always answer the question, there is nothing an examiner hates more than a candidate who writes down everything they know about the subject in the question without applying it in one way to the question.

This not only wastes valuable time in the exam, but it can also lose you marks that would have been easy to gain if you applied it to the questions. However it is good to start off writing some background information which leads to you giving reference to the question. A good habit is to quickly jot bullet points your answer in small writing next to or above the question then check if your answer actually answers the question. Then after you've written it out fully read the answer to make sure it is relevant if it is, it is okay to move on.

Another thing to do is to get a copy of the specification on the website and learn off every single point on there!

This is key because they cannot ask you about anything unconnected to things on the spec, at least one month before your exam go through the almighty list and tick off all the things you know confidently, then highlight the ones you don't and go over them. Try and find questions on these topics and practice. Make your weak points your strong points, if not you will regret it. I can talk from experience. In unit 2 you go onto E-Z isomerism which I was okay with, but I couldn't draw the isomers of more complex skeletal formulae and I left it until it was too late to fix it and it came up in my exam and I struggled and probably cost me a good few marks.

So my advice is to make yourself be in a position where you are comfortable by May (or earlier if you like or maybe even the day before your exam :wink:

) that you can answer all of the types of questions you have come across.

You obviously can't know what will come up in the test for certain, there may be a question that is asked in a certain way to throw you. However don't freak out, instead think, what have I learnt in this unit that can be applied to this problem? Even if it seems unlikely, if it is the best answer you've got, write it down.

If after this very long reply (apologies, once I start I find it hard to stop) you have more worries, please don't hesitate to ask more questions! I know how daunting AS can be after GCSE but it doesn't have to be, once you know what you are doing you can be cool and collected and be ready to battle those exams in May/June! :biggrin:

By the way, not meaning to stress you, but have you found out your exam timetable yet? If your school hasn't given you a copy yet, you can find it out on each of your exam boards websites.

It is a good way to get you (hopefully) focused on and not scared about the exams and acing them! :wink:

Hopeful yours are very spaced out *fingers crossed* mine this year are horrid! I have Biology, Further Maths, Chemistry, English Lit and Maths all on consecutive days :mad:

on my first week!!

Reply 345

Feraligatr

Original post by BBeyond

I'm sure you only have to known like Group 1 to 3? :colondollar:

Reply 346

Emerald123

hi everyone!
i am doing as aqa chemistry and i need help on positional and chain isomers!

Reply 347

BBeyond

Original post by zhang-liao

I'm sure you only have to known like Group 1 to 3? :colondollar:

Are you on edexcel? We defo have to know about 1st I.E. across the 1st 3 periods. (not the 4th with the 3D shell)

Reply 348

Feraligatr

Original post by BBeyond

Are you on edexcel? We defo have to know about 1st I.E. across the 1st 3 periods. (not the 4th with the 3D shell)

Yeah

you?

Reply 349

langlitz

Original post by braindead1997

Hi... I'm new here... n desperately in need of help... can someone explain to me the difference between a RISK and a HAZARD? Also, what's the difference between cis-trans isomerism and E/Z nomenclature? I'm resitting for unit 1 and 2 papers after I flunked them... and i really don't wanna flunk them again! Thanks a bunch! :smile:

You should just google the hazard vs risk thing, I haven't done AS, I have no idea what they're looking for. However the difference between E-Z and cis-trans is: cis trans is used when you're describing the relative positions of two groups where the other two groups present on the double bonded carbons are hydrogens. EZ is used for any double bond, you can have any groups and then you can assign E/Z based on all the rules you've been taught for that.

Basically EZ is more specific than cis trans

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 350

BBeyond

Original post by zhang-liao

Yeah

you?

Yup

Reply 351

braindead1997

Original post by langlitz

Ahhh..... thnx a lot!!!! :smile:

Reply 352

Feraligatr

Original post by BBeyond

Yup

Hardly anyone does Edexcel here :redface:

Reply 353

braindead1997

Original post by zhang-liao

Hardly anyone does Edexcel here :redface:

Do you do edexcel IAL or GCE? I do edexcel.

Reply 354

Feraligatr

Original post by braindead1997

Do you do edexcel IAL or GCE? I do edexcel.

GCE. Are IAL International A-Levels?

How about you?

Reply 355

braindead1997

Original post by zhang-liao

GCE. Are IAL International A-Levels?

How about you?

Yep, that's the one. I do IAL, and i regret taking that instead of GCE... :frown:

Reply 356

Feraligatr

Original post by braindead1997

Yep, that's the one. I do IAL, and i regret taking that instead of GCE... :frown:

Why didn't you take GCE's?

Reply 357

braindead1997

Original post by zhang-liao

Why didn't you take GCE's?

I guess you could say that the teachers kinda forced us to take IAL since it was a new syllabus and usually the new syllabus papers are easier, but god they were dead wrong cause the paper format was nothing like I've ever laid eyes on! And I have no idea if it was only me but the papers felt real thick too... Then they also went onto say that IAL is gonna be more recognized than GCE and stuff like that, but they're both equally recognized.... *sigh* biggest mistake in my life... i have to resit for a couple of papers now....