National 5 Chemistry 2017-18

Hi!

Here's another thread specifically made for all of us doing taking the N5 Chemistry Course this academic year :smile:

It's edging towards the exams, so how's the revision going? I'm pretty sure they're going to suddenly appear in a few weeks with lots of revision exercises :eek:

In my school, we've already covered our assignment - in January/February - what about you? Are your teachers waiting on this month for all coursework?

Finally, how did the Prelims go? I'd say that mine went fairly well, got a good score and all - so full steam ahead for the exams.

It'll be good to talk to more N5 Chemistry Students, you always see so many GCSE people on this and we're all sitting here like "what even is a gcse or that weird aqa, edexcel stuff... :confused:

"

Reply 1

MLM99

11

Well, I have to say I really underestimated Chemistry this year; I've not done badly given I haven't really revised but I'm going to struggle to get by B. I think the problem for me is that we don't actually write down any notes which means I feel less engaged in the lesson and can't remember as much. I have enjoyed the course so far as it's fairly interesting but I don't think I would be doing Higher even if I was doing really well this year. We finished our assignments last week, very chaotic and short notice but I think I will get a decent mark, my Underlying Chemistry was a bit vague, however.

Reply 2

username3779536

OP

16

Original post by MLM99

Well, I have to say I really underestimated Chemistry this year; I've not done badly given I haven't really revised but I'm going to struggle to get by B. I think the problem for me is that we don't actually write down any notes which means I feel less engaged in the lesson and can't remember as much. I have enjoyed the course so far as it's fairly interesting but I don't think I would be doing Higher even if I was doing really well this year. We finished our assignments last week, very chaotic and short notice but I think I will get a decent mark, my Underlying Chemistry was a bit vague, however.

Sounds good, it's a similar case in our class.
Our teacher sort of reads through our notes, but we never really do the same things we do in physics or maths, it's more listening and the odd question. Underlying Chemistry, brr. I think I spent a lot of evenings and late night concentration sessions working on notes - didn't pull it all together until it was fairly close to the write up itself :wink:

Original post by faye.2002

i am writing my national 5 chemistry assignment, but i am stuck on how to write a evaluation. it is on how different metals effect the voltage made in an electrochemical cell. i used copper and then changed the second metal 3 times and then repeated each experiment 3 times.

any help would be great
thanks

Thought you might find this thread useful :smile:

Reply 4

username3779536

OP

16

Looking at the above post, @faye.2002
Strangely enough, we've done our assignments on the same thing. We used copper as metal b and did tests with six other metals instead, repeating it twice. Anyway, unfortunately saying taking more readings won't drastically change your experiments outcome, so thats not the best option. For mine, one of our metals was aluminium. I spoke about aluminium being reactive and forming what's known as an oxide layer. This makes results inaccurate and therefore has to be removed before performing the experiment. If you have not used aluminium, you should look into metals which could have formed and oxide layer, and possible ways to remove it to make your results more accurate. Best of luck!

Reply 5

hollcap

3

Hey does anyone have any tips for the open-ended (using your knowledge) questions? i never understand what they want us to say or what they're on about.... like this question from the 2017 paper:

A student wanted to investigate whether copper could be used as a catalyst for the reaction between zinc and sulfuric acid.
Zn(s) + H2SO4(aq) ZnSO4(aq) + H2(g)
Using your knowledge of chemistry, suggest how the student could investigate this.

Original post by hollcap

Hey does anyone have any tips for the open-ended (using your knowledge) questions? i never understand what they want us to say or what they're on about.... like this question from the 2017 paper:

A student wanted to investigate whether copper could be used as a catalyst for the reaction between zinc and sulfuric acid.
Zn(s) + H2SO4(aq) ZnSO4(aq) + H2(g)
Using your knowledge of chemistry, suggest how the student could investigate this.

It's difficult to provide advice on this, as the questions can be so varied. One thing I'd recommend is just a lot of practice- though there aren't SQA resources for this, lots of schools have stuff specifically for open ended questions on their websites: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=national+5+chemistry+open+ended+questions&rlz=1C1VSNG_enGB638GB650&oq=national+5+chemistry+open+e&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.36231j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Using these type of resources should help massively.

Use whatever they give you in the question, so for example the one you posted- they say catalyst (what do you know about the properties catalysts?), what can you say about the reactions, or any of the reactants/products involved, can you think of an experiment you have done to investigate catalysts before? You can use diagrams, equations and words to help explain your ideas or knowledge.

These questions are generally poorly done, and I would advise you to miss them out the first time you go though the paper. Once you've been through it, then go back to them. This prevents you from using up too much time on what is only a few marks. And, another reason for doing this is that other questions in the paper can actually help you with ideas by reminding you of stuff you might want to include!

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 7

hollcap

3

Original post by Labrador99

It's difficult to provide advice on this, as the questions can be so varied. One thing I'd recommend is just a lot of practice- though there aren't SQA resources for this, lots of schools have stuff specifically for open ended questions on their websites: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=national+5+chemistry+open+ended+questions&rlz=1C1VSNG_enGB638GB650&oq=national+5+chemistry+open+e&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.36231j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Using these type of resources should help massively.

Use whatever they give you in the question, so for example the one you posted- they say catalyst (what do you know about the properties catalysts?), what can you say about the reactions, or any of the reactants/products involved, can you think of an experiment you have done to investigate catalysts before? You can use diagrams, equations and words to help explain your ideas or knowledge.

These questions are generally poorly done, and I would advise you to miss them out the first time you go though the paper. Once you've been through it, then go back to them. This prevents you from using up too much time on what is only a few marks. And, another reason for doing this is that other questions in the paper can actually help you with ideas by reminding you of stuff you might want to include!

Hope this helps :smile:

thanks!!! also thanks for such a fast reply

Original post by hollcap

thanks!!! also thanks for such a fast reply

No problem! :smile:

Glad to be able to help :smile:

Reply 9

username3922232

1

Does anyone know any good study/revision websites or anything

Reply 10

snazzles

13

Original post by Zoe frame

Does anyone know any good study/revision websites or anything

Our school tells us to use evans2chemweb and brightred but I've only barely skimmed over brightred so I don't know how good they are xx

Reply 11

TarTarToise

3

(In reply to hollcap’s question about Using your Knowledge questions) Hi, so most questions like these are worth 3 marks, which means you need to make at least 3 points in order to get full marks for it. The one from the 2017 paper could be answered but saying something like this:1) to show it is a catalyst, the copper would have to speed up the reaction and not be used up in the process.2/3) to show that it is a catalyst, you need to make a comparison between the reaction without the copper and the reaction with the copper and show that the one with the copper speeds up the reaction by working out both reaction rates (it is always good for these types of questions to put in an equation, for this one you could put in reaction rate= change in quantity/ change in time) you also have to say that in order for the copper to be a catalyst, it must remain unchanged in the process of speeding up the reaction. Just to take not I don’t always get a maximum of 3 marks for these and I find it difficult to mark them myself using the marking sceme, but hopefully this helps 😊

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 12

QIsForCucumber

9

I did National 5 chemistry last year and the revision tool which helped me most was ‘Miss Adams Chemistry’ on YouTube. She gives very clear explanations and makes understanding content simple imo.

Reply 13

Zobo123

1

Anyone got any good resources for revision?

Reply 14

Joker62

8

Original post by Zobo123

Anyone got any good resources for revision?

Past papers are all you really need. If you’ve done all the N5 ones then do Int 2 as well.

Reply 15

RockGirl19

16

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd post here that I'm doing Advanced Higher Chemistry this year, and if you have any specific questions for someone who's already sat the exam then feel free to ask :smile:

.

In terms of resources, I know there's only 3 weeks or so to go but personally I found the How To Pass books really useful for both Nat 5 and Higher sciences.

And in response to the "using your knowledge" questions, they truly are the bane of my life, and they don't go away! Personally my technique has been to mark them and leave them to the end of the exam, as tbh the marks awarded for them tend to be disproportionate to calculations or other short questions which are far quicker to answer. Then, when you get round to them I'd recommend making a wee list of the sections of the course which the question could cover. The way I then write my response is usually the "PEE" technique which you probably use for english, i.e "Point, Evidence, Explain." Make your basic point, quote or give an example of your evidence, and then answer the question.

Good luck for the exam everyone!

Reply 16

username3881192

9

When it’s soneybing like this always answer with diagrams and stuff. As little writing as possible. You can show two experiments on with a copper catalyst and one without. Then you can measure hydrogen produced, test with a pop etc.

Reply 17

hollcap

3

Original post by TarTarToise

(In reply to hollcap’s question about Using your Knowledge questions) Hi, so most questions like these are worth 3 marks, which means you need to make at least 3 points in order to get full marks for it. The one from the 2017 paper could be answered but saying something like this:1) to show it is a catalyst, the copper would have to speed up the reaction and not be used up in the process.2/3) to show that it is a catalyst, you need to make a comparison between the reaction without the copper and the reaction with the copper and show that the one with the copper speeds up the reaction by working out both reaction rates (it is always good for these types of questions to put in an equation, for this one you could put in reaction rate= change in quantity/ change in time) you also have to say that in order for the copper to be a catalyst, it must remain unchanged in the process of speeding up the reaction. Just to take not I don’t always get a maximum of 3 marks for these and I find it difficult to mark them myself using the marking sceme, but hopefully this helps 😊