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Chemsitry A level help

No matter how much or little I revise chemistry, I always get just below 90%, which is the grade boundary for an A* at my school. Does anyone have any advice on how I could improve my scores? I make (and use) flashcards and do all of the physics and maths tutor questions, but I always seem to be just a few marks off

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 1

Tulipbloom

Original post by gjgndkgna

Hey this is what I did:
Chemistry:
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I did Edexcel and we had 3 papers: 2 theory and 1 practical written. Don't make your own notes. I only used Chemrevise notes and the exam board spec sheets.
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Once you have read through all these notes once (and try to understand and not memorize), tick of the understood concepts from your spec sheets. Then do all the past papers you can find online: IAL (Unit 1-6), A levels (Paper 1-3), AS level (all). Add any mark scheme answers to your notes
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One key trick: although chem is all about writing the right words, giving options to the words is allowed for example: fizzing/effervescence/bubbling. I wrote this for one question in the mock exam and got two words crossed out of the 3 but got the mark still because I mentioned one of the words from the mark scheme. Nothing too off though or else a mark can still be taken away.
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Use the error carried forward in calculations to your advantage. For a 6 marker: you can gain 5 marks by simply doing the right working out. The final answer can be wrong/any numbers plugged in throughout you working out can be wrong and you can still score working out marks. Never cross out your working out but instead give options but do so neatly.
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Writing more than necessary is not the wrong option. 6 markers can be very specific so what you can do is write anything revolving that question topic and sometimes one of the written points can come up on the mark scheme. For example when they talk about measuring enthalpy change using a colorimeter state the full method, the improvements you can make, the specific steps that you will do (stirring, extrapolate, draw graph with axis).

(How is 90% an A*??? That's really high!)