Chemistry A Level

What is Chemistry A Level like? I'm planning to study it next year at Long Road which do the OCR B Course (but I don't know if that's good or bad?). But! The only reason why I want to do chemistry is so I can go onto Forensic Science in Higher Education... Is it different to GCSE? Because I hate quantitative chemistry.

Reply 1

spidle

12

There's going to be a quite a few quantitative chemistry questions in the exam, it pops up all throughout A level in little bits of each topic and also there is a whole topic based on chemistry maths. Chemistry A level requires quite a lot of memorisation as well as understanding concepts. It is a hard subject but if you like it then it should be good, it's like GCSE chemistry but expanded and more in depth on every topic.

Reply 2

ivser

5

Only do it if you're really sure you like Chemistry. I liked the GCSE and the first year of the A Level course, but I am disliking the second year. There's a lot of information that you just have to learn; reaction mechanisms, synthesis etc. If that's your thing, go for it. But considering I'm applying for Comp Sci, I regret doing Chemistry instead of Computing.

Reply 3

chumnies

OP

8

Original post by ivser

Only do it if you're really sure you like Chemistry. I liked the GCSE and the first year of the A Level course, but I am disliking the second year. There's a lot of information that you just have to learn; reaction mechanisms, synthesis etc. If that's your thing, go for it. But considering I'm applying for Comp Sci, I regret doing Chemistry instead of Computing.

Nope. Chem isn't my thing but it's a desired qualification... I think I'll just revise for my GCSEs and not take it, I think it'll be too hard! :confused:

Reply 4

ivser

5

Original post by chumnies

Nope. Chem isn't my thing but it's a desired qualification... I think I'll just revise for my GCSEs and not take it, I think it'll be too hard! :confused:

Provided you can put in the effort, you'll manage to get through. The jump from GCSEs to A Levels is a very significant one, so the amount of work increases drastically.

So if you're willing to spend more time on chemistry than on any other subjects (provided you don't take Further Maths, which is even more work than that), and you're sure you need it, go for it.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

Ed5

14

Original post by chumnies

What is Chemistry A Level like? I'm planning to study it next year at Long Road which do the OCR B Course (but I don't know if that's good or bad?). But! The only reason why I want to do chemistry is so I can go onto Forensic Science in Higher Education... Is it different to GCSE? Because I hate quantitative chemistry.

I finished OCR B this year, and it was definitely very challenging. The maths questions (if that's what you mean by quantitative) are much more convoluted and will usually have multiple steps, but the maths itself is mostly just simple algebra. In terms of the exam papers, the structure is fairly similar to GCSE with a balance of maths and non-maths questions, and usually one or two long answer (6 marks) questions.

Something to note is that it gets easier as it goes on: the second year topics bring all the first year topics together and things start to make sense, so don't be surprised if you struggle in first year more than in your other subjects! My entire class (myself included) were scoring Ds, Es and Us in all the first year tests, but in the end I came out with an A and most of the class were above a C. It was actually my worst subject at GCSE (my only B) so it's absolutely doable

Chemistry is a very good A Level to have given the amount of degrees it can get you into and its general respectability as a course. It was tough but I'd 100% recommend it!

Hope that helps, hmu if you have any other questions

Reply 6

chumnies

OP

8

Original post by Ed5

I finished OCR B this year, and it was definitely very challenging. The maths questions (if that's what you mean by quantitative) are much more convoluted and will usually have multiple steps, but the maths itself is mostly just simple algebra. In terms of the exam papers, the structure is fairly similar to GCSE with a balance of maths and non-maths questions, and usually one or two long answer (6 marks) questions.

Something to note is that it gets easier as it goes on: the second year topics bring all the first year topics together and things start to make sense, so don't be surprised if you struggle in first year more than in your other subjects! My entire class (myself included) were scoring Ds, Es and Us in all the first year tests, but in the end I came out with an A and most of the class were above a C. It was actually my worst subject at GCSE (my only B) so it's absolutely doable

Chemistry is a very good A Level to have given the amount of degrees it can get you into and its general respectability as a course. It was tough but I'd 100% recommend it!

Hope that helps, hmu if you have any other questions

Alright, cheers for the explanation! I've been actually revising over the Quantitative stuff from youtube videos, and I think it's just the teachers in my school don't explain things properly, and my whole class just messes around so it's extremely difficult to listen to the teacher. And yeah, one of the main reasons I want to pick Chemistry is due to the fact most universities value it over anything. Thanks once again! :smile: