OCR Chemistry A: The jump from AS to A2?

I would really appreciate if someone could give me some advice.
I want to start studying hard for Chemistry over the Summer so that I'm not panicking when it comes to exam season. I struggled a bit with AS Chemistry and even now still struggle with answering the hard, application questions so I was thinking of making a condensed and simplified revision guide of all my notes following the spec, doing some application questions, do all the past papers for AS chemistry and really getting to grips with the AS course to prepare myself for A2. Do you think this is a good idea or is it better to start focusing on A2 topics now, only problem is that I dont want to confuse myself before I'm taught by my teacher. Also, how is A2 different from AS? And what do they mean by 'application' questions, how can I prepare myself for these?

I would really appreciate if someone could give me some advice.
I want to start studying hard for Chemistry over the Summer so that I'm not panicking when it comes to exam season. I struggled a bit with AS Chemistry and even now still struggle with answering the hard, application questions so I was thinking of making a condensed and simplified revision guide of all my notes following the spec, doing some application questions, do all the past papers for AS chemistry and really getting to grips with the AS course to prepare myself for A2. Do you think this is a good idea or is it better to start focusing on A2 topics now, only problem is that I dont want to confuse myself before I'm taught by my teacher. Also, how is A2 different from AS? And what do they mean by 'application' questions, how can I prepare myself for these?

application as in make sure you know all the theory off by heart because they'll ask you to apply it. just like how you learn about avagrados constant and moles but the questions are "Applied" they give you a question and you use all the equations you know to work **** out.

I'd say master titrations and ionic equations because it gets alot more complicated in A2.
There's also alot more "experimental" content in A2, go through the AS PAGs and do the questions.

Your AS really needs to be solid, make sure you've done all the AS past papers.

don't worry about A2 stuff, since you've never studied it, you might confuse yourself like you've said and there's plenty of time in the year to cover it extensively, so "getting ahead" now isn't that necessary.

Chemistry has been linear since 2015 so everything you learnt this year can be in next years exam, for us, Electrophillic Addition, Structure and Bonding amongst other stuff came up this year. (in the A2 papers)
If you're going to do any work this summer, it should be lightly going over this years spec to keep things fresh in your mind so that you're revising AS next year, not re-learning AS.

for organic, the differences were new mechanisms for things like aromatic compounds (e.g benzene), carbonly compounds like ketones and aldehydes, some new topics like amines/amides/carboxylic acids and NMR. In terms of difficulty is wasn't that much harder than AS imo.

For physical/inorganic there are loads of new topics; transition metals. lattice enthalpy, entropy etc.
maths gets a bit more complex with logs and stuff introduced.
some more depth of this years content, so Acids and Bases, Redox, Rates gets more detailed etc.
Difficulty jump in physical/inorganic>difficulty jump in organic imo.

Overall though, I found it really enjoyable.

Application questions are whereby you've got to think outside the box to get the answer rather than regurgitating information, the content may not be in the spec specifically but they might give you all you need to know in the question and you've got to figure it out from there, for example. Best way to prepare for these is simply to practice them.

I did OCR A Chemistry.

In terms of the jump, overall i struggled with trying to fit everything (1st and 2nd yr) content in my revision but the jump wasnt too bad.
For organic chemistry its justs more reactions and mechanisms you need to learn.
For physical chem its more calculations involved.


My tips for going into A2 chem is to have a solid foundation so I'd recommend going over any AS topics you particularly struggled with a week before you start college/sixth form.
Go through AS content throughout the yr, Id recommend doing 2 topics every weekend (thats how i tried doing it) and i suggest that you continually do AS past papers throughout the yr so you finish all of them before exam time, even around feb time.


For now, dont worry and take it easy. You need energy for A2


Good luck!

The most straight forward answer I can give you is do all your notes in advance so when you get in class it's all revision (no writing) and just listen to the teacher.

Do topic test from a-level chemistry.co.uk before every class test you have.

4 months before exams do the ocr website past papers and ask your teacher for the papers they have in interchange. All of them.

Message me if you have any questions.

Aren't you supposed to be on your summer holidays?

don't worry about A2 stuff, since you've never studied it, you might confuse yourself like you've said and there's plenty of time in the year to cover it extensively, so "getting ahead" now isn't that necessary.

Chemistry has been linear since 2015 so everything you learnt this year can be in next years exam, for us, Electrophillic Addition, Structure and Bonding amongst other stuff came up this year. (in the A2 papers)
If you're going to do any work this summer, it should be lightly going over this years spec to keep things fresh in your mind so that you're revising AS next year, not re-learning AS.

for organic, the differences were new mechanisms for things like aromatic compounds (e.g benzene), carbonly compounds like ketones and aldehydes, some new topics like amines/amides/carboxylic acids and NMR. In terms of difficulty is wasn't that much harder than AS imo.

For physical/inorganic there are loads of new topics; transition metals. lattice enthalpy, entropy etc.
maths gets a bit more complex with logs and stuff introduced.
some more depth of this years content, so Acids and Bases, Redox, Rates gets more detailed etc.
Difficulty jump in physical/inorganic>difficulty jump in organic imo.

Overall though, I found it really enjoyable.

Application questions are whereby you've got to think outside the box to get the answer rather than regurgitating information, the content may not be in the spec specifically but they might give you all you need to know in the question and you've got to figure it out from there, for example. Best way to prepare for these is simply to practice them.

chemistry was so hard doe

If this year's H432/01 is anything to go by, balancing simple equations is causing lots of people problems.

How did you find the papers?