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Do I look like I've tried the gold papers.

eh, I stopped counting after the first one. I'm not sure which are classed as good papers but I'm just picking whatever year, randomly.

Sorry for my disappearence :x (i have been studying i promise, just havent been checking on TSR)
Good luck to those with C3 tomorrow. Lets smash it

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Hey Anon! How are you finding bio 5 and c4? I still haven't started and am wondering whereabouts you are 😊 (you're my cramming motivation!)

My advice to you is to do the IAL papers,R papers and recent papers 2014 and 2015 since these are the hardest.None of the maths papers are anything like the old papers,which are frankly too easy and a waste of time if you are cramming.

Sorry for my disappearence :x (i have been studying i promise, just havent been checking on TSR)
Good luck to those with C3 tomorrow. Lets smash it

I do AQA for chemistry, so for the format of their exam the most important thing is knowing the syllabus very well because the majority of the paper is simple recall with a few things that slightly alter the question.......

Thanks for the advice btw. I do AQA and am doing past papers too, but I was wondering, did you do the really old past papers? Like 2006 and onwards? Because I tried doing it and then realised that some of the questions are kind of different and the answers are worded in a way we don't need to know ( I.e the requirements from recent mark schemes are different). Also, I'd love to do them so that I feel prepared but as you might have noticed, the questions this year are absolutely unpredictable (even for the retakes)!!! So do you think it would be worthwhile?

Also, do you do AQA Biology by any chance?

For chem I don't really bother with the legacy papers (I don't even allow myself to be happy about doing well in the 2010-2012 papers :L) because I know the standard of papers they're setting now are much more difficult and don't compare to the earlier papers and as you stated, the wording is different and what would get you a mark in 2007 may not get you a mark now so I wouldn't use the older mark schemes as a good benchmark for what to write in the exams now!

I resat chem 1&2 and did just the 2010-2015 papers and found that they were enough for me to feel confident going into the exam that I would do well! Everyone is different so what may be enough for one person to do may not be for another so if you have time and aren't feeling 100% sure of chem 5 do as much practice as you can.

I unfortunately do OCR bio and it's the bane of my life :L that is one paper I feel no where near ready for and its worth 150 ums... Let's hope I can pull something out of the bag by Thursday!! 😂

Hi! Thank you so much for your advice and for sharing your way of doing past papers!!! I resat both chem1 and chem2 too, and I did all the past papers for chem1 (from 2002 to 2015 - lol) and I noticed that as I got closer to the recent papers, some of the phrases just became second nature, but that doesn't seem to be the case with chem5, unfortunately

And yes you are right! The recent papers, especially from 2013 onwards, have become harder but since I haven't been getting good grades on some tests, I might as well do them from 2010 onwards to feel satisfied .

Good luck for Chem and Biology and I do pray that you do well in both your exams and any other exams that you've got At least you do not have chem and business studies on the same day like I do

Thank you and good luck in all your exams too!! (You're right, I would hate having two exams in one day...)

I like doing the ones from 2010-2012 first too because their questions become the 'easy questions' in the later papers so if you pick up how to answer them then they become easy marks that you don't have to think about during the harder exams they set now and have extra time to attempt the more difficult questions they throw your way!

Just keep going with chemistry 5! What I found most difficult to wrap my head around in chem 5, but helped once I learnt it properly is this:

• Make sure you really understand what causes an E0 value to be +ve or -ve in the electrochemical series and how changing the conditions of the reaction changes the equilibrium and the E0 value.

• Make sure you understand what and why certain transition metal ions have certain reactions (e.g. How to react CO3^-2 with 2+ and 3+ ions).

• Learn your colours!!

• Memorise the reactions between your oxides and the basic and acidic reagents!

• Learn the definitions for the born haber cycle and what affects the size of different enthalpy values.

These things, once they become second nature, make chem 5 far more easy to deal with! Good luck for tomorrow, I'm sure you'll do great!

I'm feeling the exact same, which board are you?