How does A2 chemistry compare with AS

I do ocr a and got an a at as but thinking to drop chemistry now as i heard a2 is the hardest a2 ever and if i keep it it would mean i do all 4
however i do enjoy chemistry i want to know what is a2 like

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

TSR Jessica

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile:

Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

You can also find the Exam Thread list for A-levels here and GCSE here. :dumbells:

Just quoting in Fox Corner so she can move the thread if needed :h:

Spoiler

Reply 2

hopefuldentist10

It's not a huge step up. I did OCR B which I'm not sure is similar to what you're doing. There was far more organic chemistry to memorise for us in A2 as well as buffer calculations which could be challenging.

Revising chemistry is the hardest of all subjects because it is equal parts memory and intuition, so you must have excellent notes as well as be doing past papers effectively.

Reply 3

alow

It builds on AS knowledge. Work hard and it'll be fine.

Reply 4

L33t

Original post by youreanutter

I personally found it a lot more interesting than my AS year, especially the organic benzene and synthesis chemistry.

It is not the hardest A2 ever if you work hard at it! If you enjoy it then stick with it it's the best A-Level in my opinion I loved my chemistry lessons and will miss them dearly :frown:

Reply 5

asdfgghjkl

Original post by youreanutter

i did aqa and tbh its not bad at all it just builds on AS knowledge. i dunno if OCR do it but the only tough tough parts from A2 are proton NMR and transition metals. work hard and youll be fine. - coming from a student who got a D in AS them but retook all units in my A2 year and came out with an A. (Hard work and dedication is all you need, with a hint of past papers :wink:

) - SMASH IT!

Reply 6

bulkybros100

I did OCR A with the old syllabus which has now kinda finished. The Step up from AS to A2 is quite big. However that is not the hard bit. The hard bit is the exam. The Chemistry A2 exams itself are so hard, that even if you know everything in the textbook, it can still be very confusing in the exam because they give you lots of things that you've never seen before.

At AS I did little work and scraped a D in my F322 mock 5 weeks before the real thing. In the real thing I got a high B.

At A2, I worked really hard and made lots of notes and practiced a lot ! but still ended up with a B (5 ums off an A)...

Proton NMR is a nightmare btw - arguably the hardest topic

Reply 7

alow

Original post by bulkybros100

Nonsense. There are maybe 10-15 marks overall in A2 that make you think, the rest is just applying the same old methods you should have done countless times. With good exam technique and practice there's no reason you can't get an A without having to do a 'hard' question.

Proton NMR is easy once you've practiced, and it's literally the easiest thing to practice because there are thousands of examples to try.

Reply 8

bulkybros100

Original post by alow

No it's not. Most of the questions require application to unfamiliar context so you can't just regurgitate things that you've obtained from practice/revision.

Proton NMR is not the easiest thing because they tend to give you much harder, ambiguous examples in the real thing. Did you not see the F324 June 2015 NMR question ?

Reply 9

tcameron

AS is honestly a lot easier than A2. I got a fairly decentA at AS and was so confident I decided not to resit to get thr highest A possible like a lot of people did despite getting high grades at AS. Flopped the practicals and one very difficult exam and dropped to a B grade.
I'd say if you aren't committed to it drop the subject if you feel it won't hinder your uni offer possibility

Reply 10

alow

Original post by bulkybros100

No it's not. Most of the questions require application to unfamiliar context so you can't just regurgitate things that you've obtained from practice/revision.

They really don't. The vast majority of questions are the same techniques that are in almost every paper.

Proton NMR is not the easiest thing because they tend to give you much harder, ambiguous examples in the real thing. Did you not see the F324 June 2015 NMR question ?

Yes I did. It was a fairly straightforward NMR question, if you had done lots of practice it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. There are literally thousands of spectra you can look at, so there's no excuse for not having done enough practice. Also the spectra in exams are not real spectra so have a perfectly flat baseline, no peaks for impurities, perfect splitting and are chosen such that there should be no ambiguous assignments, making them even easier.

Reply 11

bulkybros100

Original post by alow

They really don't. The vast majority of questions are the same techniques that are in almost every paper.

Yes I did. It was a fairly straightforward NMR question, if you had done lots of practice it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. There are literally thousands of spectra you can look at, so there's no excuse for not having done enough practice. Also the spectra in exams are not real spectra so have a perfectly flat baseline, no peaks for impurities, perfect splitting and are chosen such that there should be no ambiguous assignments, making them even easier.

This guy is obviously trolling...

Reply 12

alow

Original post by bulkybros100

This guy is obviously trolling...

It's not my fault you didn't practice NMR questions enough. When I sat F324 I had done every past paper and legacy paper, along with tonnes of other problems. It was a walk in the park.

Reply 13

tcameron

Original post by alow

It's not my fault you didn't practice NMR questions enough. When I sat F324 I had done every past paper and legacy paper, along with tonnes of other problems. It was a walk in the park.

I agree, f324 is easy once you do all the past papers as they repeat questions but f325 is another story

Reply 14

alow

Original post by tcameron

I agree, f324 is easy once you do all the past papers as they repeat questions but f325 is another story

F325 they usually ask about 1 more 'difficult' question per paper, which is nice. As long as you understand the course content it's fine.

Reply 15

bulkybros100

The bottom line is that A2 chemistry exams are a lot lot harder than the AS exams. I've got a friend who got almost full UMS in AS chemistry but missed out on his A* .

Depends on the person I guess. If you're a good abstract thinker then you'll do quite well.

Reply 16

alow

Original post by bulkybros100

Then that's because he simply didn't work enough. Anyone that gets almost full UMS at AS could easily get an A* by putting in the work.

Hard work beats being "a good abstract thinker" any day for A Levels.