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Lied to in GCSE Chemistry?

Now I'm doing AS Chemistry, I realise that some things we learnt at GCSE are actually incorrect (or were what people used to think many many years ago).
It just makes things more confusing as now I have to break out of that mindframe/habits.
Is it best for them just to ommit these things from the syllabus or tell the truth?

Reply 1

LadyEcliptic

You learn more about the gcse stuff in more detail, plus if you have swapped boards, each have their own specifications so the informatio could be different with different boards, for example, colours of transition metals. How incorrect are we speaking?

Reply 2

kelefi

it is not best to omit the details or tell the truth.

i had a heated debate with my teacher on the useless and idiocy of GCSE, where they lied to us and now im having to completely redefine my knowledge because what they told me i had to know, was in fact wrong.

my teacher gave a pretty good response, and it went along the lines that many of the things they teach at GCSE are for the knowledge level of year 10s and 11s. those who take A level chemistry are generally more skilled at chemistry and can get the detailed things, but at GCSE explaining that electrons are in orbitals and sub shells would have just been to confusing for many students.

its better to tell them a vaguely correct fact than not tell them anything.

Reply 3

SubwayLover1

It,s not lying but just simplified and generalised.

Reply 4

WillWalker23

Topics that are taught incorrectly at gcse:

Bonding - at gcse bonds are either ionic, metallic or covalent and no where in between. Ionic is always between metal and non metal at gcse, covalent betweens two non metals and metallic in metals. What about BeCl2, AlP and AlCl3?? What about acids?

Ideal Gas Laws - one mole of any gas occupies 24 litres at RTP - assuming all gases are ideals which they're not.

Electron orbitals - octet rule emphasised too much, when really not strictly true, gcses ignore sub shells and energy levels

They're are probably more, these are the only ones I can remember.

Reply 5

Bethaaaaany

I don't think so. Also doing AS chemistry and to be honest even now it's taken me a while to get the hang of orbitals and sub-shells for example, so during GCSE I wouldn't have understood it at all. I don't think the way they teach GCSE is necessarily lying, because at the end of the day they are the fundamentals of chemistry- yes the Octet rule is adhered to too consistently, yes redox is taught 'wrong', yes periodic trends are over-simplified but it hasn't impacted how difficult I find chemistry, in fact knowing those basics helped me enormously at the beginning of AS whether they were incorrect or not. :smile: