We had the problem that we had to rely on teachers to get the right results for our notes, what we would call one colour like dark orange would, according to Chemistry Nuffield be brown, and if we put orange, we would have lost or rather not got the mark. Im not even bothering with Chemistry for A2 and packed it in after the exams had finished and carried on with my other subjects and was so much more happier. I dont know about boooks to help so much, i borrowed a text book my cousin had for when she had to do chemistry as part of degree/teacher training (shes a biology teacher) and she had hated chemistry.
And as to those who got Bs and As, you must have brilliant Chemistry teachers in the background or actually learnt a lot at GCSE. We told simply to learn the sylbus, and only teaching done was by one of our two teachers. Our Chemistry teachers for As were totally rubbish, one teacher never prepared for lessons and if we asked her to explain anything in a different way, she couldnt. The other teacher was new to teaching and thought the other teacher was brilliant until our results came back from our january exams, and our complaining that the other teacher was a waste of space, we even went to the new head of science! The new teacher, in about april time actually started to become a really good teacher, to the extent that she prepared for lessons and was more willing to put time in to see us if we had problems. If we had had her from the start for 5 hours instead of 2 a week from the start and teaching like that, i think the whole class would have done well.
In the A2 exams, there were only 2 candidates, one of my friends sister and a lass called Emma, tho Sarah (my mate) and her sister parents both did chemistry in pharmacutical degrees and so taught a lot of the course needed at home, and as a result, Sarahs sister actually got a high grade in chemistry (A or B i think).
I think to suceed in Chemistry Nuffield, you need brilliant teachers behind you and probably more time. I wouldnt do it again knowing what i do about the teachers behind it. If it was a different sylbus or better teachers i maybe would consider Chemistry again, but there is not way i am repeating my As year in it. Sarah, who also did chemistry even said she was thinking of redoing it and was one of only 2 who planned to do it for A2 out of 9 of which noone got higher than a D and only 4 actually passed.