Chemistry A level

I'm really struggling to apply my knowledge to the questions being asked on the exam papers, any tips? (I'm currently AS and on the exam board WJEC)

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Reply 1

frostfly

Original post by Johne00

I'm really struggling to apply my knowledge to the questions being asked on the exam papers, any tips? (I'm currently AS and on the exam board WJEC)

I can totally relate to you as I do Biology A Level, also WJEC. I hate those application questions where sometimes you just have no idea what's happening! The way I deal with this is get really familiar and understand fully all the contents I learned - so that way, when I read the questions, I should be able to know or have an idea of what's going on. Exam questions and specimen papers really help. Remember to also check the mark scheme to see what exactly they are looking for.

Chemistry is truly a tough A Level. Do plenty of practice and learn the topics thoroughly. I wish you the best of luck! :smile:

Reply 2

Johne00

Original post by honour

I do biology also! I'm finding biology slightly easier that chemistry but still sooo hard!
Okay thank you for the tips!! How do you revise for biology? What works best for you?
Good luck to you too!!

Reply 3

06moca1

How are you revising chemistry?

Reply 4

username2752874

Original post by Johne00

I'm really struggling to apply my knowledge to the questions being asked on the exam papers, any tips? (I'm currently AS and on the exam board WJEC)

I'm doing A2 (new spec), and you probably did the paper I did at AS as a mock - unfortunately, you're taking the most painful exam board for chem and bio since A Levels were reformed; their papers used to be easy prior, now they're awful.

Reply 5

frostfly

Original post by Johne00

I do biology also! I'm finding biology slightly easier that chemistry but still sooo hard!
Okay thank you for the tips!! How do you revise for biology? What works best for you?
Good luck to you too!!

I use a textbook and make notes.

I use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eduqas-Biology-Level-Year-AS/dp/1908682620/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1491602330&sr=8-9&keywords=wjec+biology+a+level

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wjec-Biology-Level-Study-Revision/dp/1908682523/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1491602318&sr=8-5&keywords=wjec+biology+textbook which is a more summarised version.

There are also plenty of video tutorials on YouTube that are quite helpful, especially the ones by Mr Pollock :smile:

Reply 6

Johne00

Original post by 06moca1

How are you revising chemistry?

At the moment, I've written out notes not for every topic and made myself sort of a homemade revision guide. Because the spec changed last year there's only one past paper to do which my teacher is holding back from us for us to do it as a mock after easter (we did the specimen as a mock in January and I didn't do well at all)
Do you do chemistry aswell? If you do, any revision tips?

Reply 7

Johne00

Original post by honour

That's what I do also! I don't have the revision guide though, does it help a lot? Or is it not worth it (as I already have the textbook!)
Okay awesome I'll check him out!

Reply 8

06moca1

Original post by Johne00

Never ever write out notes for chemistry. This is not biology. What you should do is buy notebooks and draw the mechanisms and the equations out over and over. You should also just read the official textbook to understand the chemistry of mechanisms.
Then you should do as many practice questions as possible and learn the chemistry.

I said this a few times on TSR but i'll say it again. I got 90% in the organic chem parts of my AS and A2 level. I suck at maths because I did not take it at A level so I got B grades in physical chem. Overall i got an A in chemistry A level. I keep getting 80-90% in the final year exams at my university.

Trust me. People who do not revise chemistry like I stated do rubbish.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

Johne00

Original post by GradeA*UnderA

What did you get at AS? And any tips? I've seen the questions from papers prior to 2016 (my teacher pulls questions from lots of different papers for each topic to make into a test for each one) I think the new spec is far too difficult and think it's u fair for them to make it this hard! Hopefully I'll end up doing okay though!

Reply 10

frostfly

Original post by Johne00

That's what I do also! I don't have the revision guide though, does it help a lot? Or is it not worth it (as I already have the textbook!)
Okay awesome I'll check him out!

The revision guide is just there if you can't be bothered to go through all the details in the textbook haha

Reply 11

Johne00

Original post by 06moca1

Never ever write out notes for chemistry. This is not biology. What you should do is buy notebooks and draw the mechanisms and the equations out over and over. You should also just read the official textbook to understand the chemistry of mechanisms.
Then you should do as many practice questions as possible and learn the chemistry.

I said this a few times on TSR but i'll say it again. I got 90% in the organic chem parts of my AS and A2 level. I suck at maths because I did not take it at A level so I got B grades. Overall i got an A in chemistry A level. I keep getting 80-90% in the final year exams at my university.

Trust me. People who do not revise chemistry like I stated do rubbish.

Okay thank you! I'm the same I'm finding unit 2 (the organic chem) far easier than unit 1, because I'm not great at maths either.
So, the best thing I can do is write out the equations over and over and practice questions?

Reply 12

username2752874

Original post by Johne00

I had an A.

Grade boundaries were very low, slightly above 50% for an A in U1, and 50% exactly in U2.

Reply 13

Johne00

Original post by GradeA*UnderA

I had an A.

Grade boundaries were very low, slightly above 50% for an A in U1, and 50% exactly in U2.

Do you think they'll still be pretty low this year??

Reply 14

06moca1

Original post by Johne00

Ye pretty much. Chemistry is just practice and understanding. In fact, chemistry and maths has the same revision style. That's why it's easier to get really high grades in chemistry. There's a reason why I keep on picking organic chemistry as a module during my Biochemistry degree.

Reply 15

username2752874

Original post by Johne00

Do you think they'll still be pretty low this year??

Sorry, that was bio, but chemistry was low too. Low 40s out of 80 for an A.

Umm, the thing is, there will be people older than you resitting the paper and inflating the boundaries. With us, we had the advantage of no retakers, so that may have lowered the boundaries.

If you are very good at chemistry, the new spec is ideal, as it lets you get ridiculously high UMS scores - it's bad for the weaker students as they go through a streak of being unable to answer any questions.

I can't predict what the boundaries will be, but if everyone come out complaining like what happened in mine, then they'll likely be low.