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I need help asap

Hey guys,
I've been revising chemistry and i use flashcards and mind maps to help me with remembering the information. However, when it comes to practice exam questions, I have no clue as to how i should answer them.
Any tips or advice would be appreciated
You don’t understand the questions or don’t know how to structure them?
Read through your exam board specification, try doing practise papers and answer questions you can and then check your answers, get familiar to the way the mark scheme structures the answers/ keywords. I don’t know if this is common for all exam boards but for OCR, you have to be very specific with your answers
Reply 2
Original post by tedibare
You don’t understand the questions or don’t know how to structure them?
Read through your exam board specification, try doing practise papers and answer questions you can and then check your answers, get familiar to the way the mark scheme structures the answers/ keywords. I don’t know if this is common for all exam boards but for OCR, you have to be very specific with your answers


i don't understand them at all, i don't know what's wrong with me. i've read my exam board specifications and the examiner reports but im still so lost
Original post by username54
i don't understand them at all, i don't know what's wrong with me. i've read my exam board specifications and the examiner reports but im still so lost

Are you sure you understand the content you're learning? If you don't already, ask your teachers to do exam questions in school then perhaps it will help you understand them?
Reply 4
Original post by tedibare
Are you sure you understand the content you're learning? If you don't already, ask your teachers to do exam questions in school then perhaps it will help you understand them?


I understand content easily , I can't seem to apply it to exam questions but this is only for science
Reply 5
Original post by username54
I understand content easily , I can't seem to apply it to exam questions but this is only for science

It seems that you're struggling with writing questions that are 3-6 marks. These types of questions normally have some points that you must mention to get the marks and as long as you say them you'd get the mark. For example, a question would be: Explain how vaccines reduce the risk of developing measles. In this question, the things you would have to mention would be 1: what happens when you take the vaccine - a dead/inactive pathogen is injected into the body. 2: how the body deals with it - releases antibodies 3: how the body becomes immune - memory cells/memory wbc remain in the body that release the specific antibodies to counteract the pathogen if it invades the body a second time. As long as you say these points you'd get the marks. If you know the content you should be able to say the points and get the marks.
Hope this helps.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by Okayn
It seems that you're struggling with writing questions that are 3-6 marks. These types of questions normally have some points that you must mention to get the marks and as long as you say them you'd get the mark. For example, a question would be: Explain how vaccines reduce the risk of developing measles. In this question, the things you would have to mention would be 1: what happens when you take the vaccine - a dead/inactive pathogen is injected into the body. 2: how the body deals with it - releases antibodies 3: how the body becomes immune - memory cells/memory wbc remain in the body that release the specific antibodies to counteract the pathogen if it invades the body a second time. As long as you say these points you'd get the marks. If you know the content you should be able to say the points and get the marks.
Hope this helps.


so i just need to learn how to break down the questions? Yeah i really struggle with 3 and 6 markers. That was really helpful, could you please do a 6 marker example if you can?
Reply 7
For 6 markers a lot of the time they ask to evaluate (there are others but this is the first one that comes to mind and one that I've seen a lot ). A question could be: Evaluate the use of statins and stents: For evaluating you'd need to give advantages and disadvantages. For both stents and statins here you would literally just list the pros and cons e.g.

The advantages of using statins are that they reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood and slow down the build-up of fatty material/cholesterol in the arteries so blood can flow to the heart muscle cells. The disadvantage of using statins is that they must be taken regularly and the effects/recovery after using statins won't be instant. There are also some negative side effects of taking statins.

Then you'd do the same for stents

The advantage of installing stents is that they hold the blocked artery open so blood can flow to the heart muscle cells. Stents remain in place and so they last for a long time. There is also a short recovery time after installing a stent, unlike statins.
The disadvantages of using stents are that there is a risk of thrombosis where a blood clot forms due to the stent. Another disadvantage of installing a stent would be that there is a risk of infection during the procedure (this applies to any operation where something is put inside the body anywhere).

After this, you would give a conclusion where you just say which one you think is better.

In conclusion, I believe that using stents is better than using statins as stents need to be installed once and last a long time whereas statins can give bad side effects and must be taken regularly which is negative as one may forget to take their statins.

As you may have noticed all I did was list the pros & cons of both of them and I would get the marks. Remember for evaluate questions you must give a conclusion to get all the marks. This may seem really long but if you know the content it is fast to write as you are just stating the points and then giving a conclusion. If revising the content is not a problem for you then you should be just fine.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 8
I suggest for revision you go through past papers or practice papers and then look at the mark schemes. The mark schemes tell you a lot. They tell you the points that would be expected, the points that must be mentioned and things that wouldn't give the mark/wouldn't be accepted. If you go through enough of them you should naturally just know how to answer the questions.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 9
Original post by Okayn
For 6 markers a lot of the time they ask to evaluate (there are others but this is the first one that comes to mind and one that I've seen a lot ). A question could be: Evaluate the use of statins and stents: For evaluating you'd need to give advantages and disadvantages. For both stents and statins here you would literally just list the pros and cons e.g.

The advantages of using statins are that they reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood and slow down the build-up of fatty material/cholesterol in the arteries so blood can flow to the heart muscle cells. The disadvantage of using statins is that they must be taken regularly and the effects/recovery after using statins won't be instant. There are also some negative side effects of taking statins.

Then you'd do the same for stents (I'm just gonna list the points here instead of writing them out so you could think of a way to write it out in sentences)

The advantage of installing stents is that they hold the blocked artery open so blood can flow to the heart muscle cells. Stents remain in place and so they last for a long time. There is also a short recovery time after installing a stent, unlike statins.
The disadvantages of using stents are that there is a risk of thrombosis where a blood clot forms due to the stent. Another disadvantage of installing a stent would be that there is a risk of infection during the procedure (this applies to any operation where something is put inside the body anywhere).

After this, you would give a conclusion where you just say which one you think is better.

In conclusion, I believe that using stents is better than using statins as stents need to be installed once and last a long time whereas statins can give bad side effects and must be taken regularly which is negative as one may forget to take their statins.

As you may have noticed all I did was list the pros & cons of both of them and I would get the marks. Remember for evaluate questions you must give a conclusion to get all the marks. This may seem really long but if you know the content it is fast to write as you are just stating the points and then giving a conclusion. If revising the content is not a problem for you then you should be just fine.


Thank you for being so detailed and so helpful. I know i said i understand content easily but how do i make sure i dont forget it?
Reply 10
Original post by username54
Thank you for being so detailed and so helpful. I know i said i understand content easily but how do i make sure i dont forget it?

You go through it again and again. When you revise something revise it again on the same day but like 6 hours later. Then revise it again the next day. Then you can look through it 2 days later and you'd remember I hope.
Original post by Okayn
You go through it again and again. When you revise something revise it again on the same day but like 6 hours later. Then revise it again the next day. Then you can look through it 2 days later and you'd remember I hope.


Thank you so much, are you also in year 11?
Reply 12
Original post by username54
Thank you so much, are you also in year 11?

Yeah sadly
Original post by Okayn
Yeah sadly


You're really smart, I just know you're going to get really good TAGs.
Original post by Okayn
Yeah sadly


Sorry to bother you but do you also have mocks after easter and if so, what revision techniques are you using to revise?
Reply 15
Thanks, I do have mocks I just revise by going through things a lot and doing practice papers as I said before that's pretty much the same for all my subjects. You can look through specifications as well to see if you know everything. I hope we all do well. Goodluck
Original post by Okayn
Thanks, I do have mocks I just revise by going through things a lot and doing practice papers as I said before that's pretty much the same for all my subjects. You can look through specifications as well to see if you know everything. I hope we all do well. Goodluck


Thank you so much once again and good luck!

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