OCR Chemistry A Level

Just replied to your biology topic! XD

(I presume you're doing A Chemistry and not Salters Chemistry?)

Is it good?
If you're interested in chemistry, I suppose it is! The first unit is basically a slight extension of GCSE. It was abit boring to begin with, as we were just doing mole calculations etc. but you soon start learning new stuff. Alot of people did triple science in my set, I only did double science, though I quickly caught up! The second unit is more hands-on. You learn about hydrocarbons and isomerism... which sounds boring, but when you start burning things and stuff it gets quite interesting!

What is particuarly hard?
There's a couple of definitions you need to learn once you start. The examiners are quite picky when it comes to them. The calculations are simple enough, just make sure you keep an eye out for unit conversions and balanced equations! The practicals aren't hard either.

Are the exams hard/ difficult/ very different from GCSE?
There will be a couple of long questions in each exam. In the first there's usually two or three 5-7 mark questions which just ask you to describe trends in particular elements etc. which is easy enough. The 10 markers on the second exam are usually related to drawing a reaction mechanism or using information from a graph/table. It's easy to see where the marks come from and therefore it's fairly easy to score highly.

Is there anything I should work on before starting it?
Just try revising mole equations etc. and maybe look into group 7 elements. The colour changes for those elements are quite annoying to memorise, but the more you learn them, the more you remember

are you doing the salters course for OCR. that's the one i'm doing and the teacher said it's really good because it allows even the less able students to gain a deeper understanding of chemistry whilst still stretching the more academic students.

Yes I'm pretty sure it's Chemistry A.

Chemistry has been one of my favourite subjects this year and luckily I'm pretty good at moles because our school places so much emphasis on them at GCSE so that we are above GCSE level because so many take it for A Level.

I have looked at a couple of past papers and did see there are some longer questions!

I'll make sure I do some moles revision, I think I still have a moles sheet which I was supposed to use to revise for GCSE but didn't!

When do they change colour?


Thank you for your reply, really helpful

Psssh don't expect me to remember the colour changes! I think iodine goes yellow, bromine goes cream and chlorine goes white. You'll be taught all that don't worry! XD

Anyone else done this course?

I have just completed OCR Chemistry A AS Level this year.

Is it good?
Yes, I do believe its quite a good exam board to do. Only because, those who revise get top marks, and if you revise well then the exam is quite easy. We cover lots of areas of Chemistry, in GCSE you mainly focus on physical chemistry (reactions, moles, calculations, the environment etc) and although the OCR AS level course does still contain this, you cover in a lot more depth organic Chemistry too. I found it really enjoyable as I don't think I would've liked another year learning about the environment and basic reactions with the groups; from the course I've developed quite an interest in organic Chemistry (basically reactions with carbon-containing compounds).


What is particuarly hard?
At first, everything (especially in unit 2) seemed like a big jump to me. When we were first given Hess' law cycles, radicals, ozone depletion and reaction mechanisms such as electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution (don't worry about these words just yet) I was a bit like ?. After a few lessons on each though they become like second nature. I think just committing yourself to learning all of your definitions is hard (as examiners like them word-perfect, if there is ANY doubt in what you mean in the exam then they'll just mark it wrong. So its best to learn them off by heart if possible).

Are the exams hard/ difficult/ very different from GCSE?
Not really. They're obviously nothing like those multiple choice Science exams you do at the start of your GCSE, but they're fairly similar to the 2nd lot of written exams. They consist of a number of definitions (any number usually from 2-5), then many 2, 3, 4 and 5 marker questions, and couple of 8-10 marker questions.

Is there anything I should work on before starting it?
Not at all! Your teachers will teach you the course and you only need a basic knowledge of how to bung a few numbers into a calculator for any calculation stuff. Enjoy your summer

I just finished my a-levels last month. I also did OCR chemistry A and I think others before me have pretty much answered all your questions. One think however I would like to add is that I found difficult to maintain my timing for some of the exams, and the best advice for this I could give is practise past paper questions in time conditions nearer the exam times.

if you want to be sure u can handle it i would suggest doing some research of your own, but im sure u will be fine , im planning on doing chem as/a level aswell starting this september