AQA CHEM4 discussion/unofficial mark scheme

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Yeah, people usually always do a little bit, but honestly comparing all the papers side by side this WAS the hardest yet... And over the past 3 days I have done nearly all the past papers.
Questions were often repeated from previous year and the general structure was nearly the same on every paper. This wasn't the case this year. It seems like this year they went that extra step to make every questions just that little bit tougher.. They even managed to make rates of reaction equations and tables (which has been the easiest question in all the past papers) quite challenging. What's more, they put in a ton of 'suggest/explain' questions which took some thinking outside of simply recalling facts from the spec. This tripped a lot of people up.

This was the first chem4 paper where I actually struggled for time. Even the simple 1 markers took more thought and time than any 1 markers previously set. I don't know what AQA were thinking but it seems like they thought it would be a great idea to completely change the design of the paper for the last year of the spec. Hooray.

Yeah I do agree, I was scoring over 90 in past papers but I think I dropped around 20 for this. So in that regard, it wasn't disastrous but it maybe was unnecessarily difficult in comparison.

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Reply 161

CassiaPeach

For the P and Q question I put ammonia instead of water then put misty fumes of HCl. Is ammonia also right?

Reply 162

ahsan_ijaz

Original post by emma_1111

Did anyone get 116 for the Mr of the abundant peak?

Yes and am damn sure it's correct

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Reply 163

ahsan_ijaz

Original post by Azzer11

Hi same to same I think I dropped about 20 marks - the reaction on social media and her has been insane - I hope the boundaries are about 73 A and 77 A* they have to drop as the paper was again AIDS but somehow I think I only dropped 20 marks - fingers crossed - should study for Chem 5 now and expect the most ****ed up paper out there but be ready for anything - all you can do is try understand much of it as possible

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Reply 164

Cadherin

Original post by ahsan_ijaz

Yes and am damn sure it's correct

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I got 114 :/

Others have been saying 112. They'll probably be lenient on the mark scheme.

Reply 165

Naf232

For the question about P and Q I put steamy fumes instead of 'misty fumes of hcl' do you think that's acceptable?
And another question, seems silly but for the first two equations of ethanoic acid I can't recall if I put in the reversible arrows, I think j put single for both, what are my chances there?

Reply 166

Ebaysass

take a look at this!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lower-grade-boundaries-for-chemistry-unit-4-2016

Reply 167

Shabaz77

Can you please send the mark scheme

Reply 168

ahsan_ijaz

Original post by Naf232

Sould get the marks for fumes if you put h20 as reagent

Reply 169

dylanpatel97

ah man flopped the 1000x rate equation

Reply 170

ahsan_ijaz

Original post by Cadherin

I got 114 :/

Others have been saying 112. They'll probably be lenient on the mark scheme.

i think it wants the peak with highest m/z - which had to cl37 but who knows

Reply 171

Naf232

Original post by ahsan_ijaz

Sould get the marks for fumes if you put h20 as reagent

Yeah I put h20 as reagent, what about the arrows, any idea?

Reply 172

ahsan_ijaz

Original post by Naf232

Yeah I put h20 as reagent, what about the arrows, any idea?

1st equation required arrows definetely to show the eqm lies way to teh right as the acid dissociates

not sure about 2 one

Reply 173

Lolaturface

Original post by mgill17

I agree, if it is a CHEM4 paper you should be tested in CHEM4 content. Nothing synoptic worth that many marks and don't even get me started on some of the questions that were CHEM4 based but just utterly ridiculous.

This poor excuse of a paper has literally cost me my grade for university and I'll be literally heartbroken if this paper is the reason I don't get in. I literally got 85 and above in all the other past papers for this unit but I think I've got about 67/68 in this. And my CHEM5 will probably not be enough. I understand that obviously the content has to get harder over the spec lifetime but this was a whole new level.

Yeah such as that one question about medical reasoning, and the silly rates one marker, and many others. And same I think I
may be forced to take a gap year now, which I was planning to do anyway but it must be an inconvenience for others who weren't planning to take one.

However I do think grade boundaries will be lower; they won't make up for the hardness of it. I think Chem5 will be easier, at least I find it easier. I don't really see how they could make it that hard cos a lot of its memory, I guess they could throw in a hard question about redox potentials.... just gotta try ur best at chem 5 don't give up hope! things tend to turn out better than we think!

Reply 174

Cadherin

Original post by ahsan_ijaz

i think it wants the peak with highest m/z - which had to cl37 but who knows

No, they said most abundant peak.

Which would be either 112 or 114

Reply 175

Anam

Guys the acylium ion question i swear the ion was different on the benzene ring it had a Cl attached to it! So the ion should have looked different right?? Please reply cuz i added a cl to the structure