Chemical equations gcse alevel

- [ ] I’m homeschooled so I have no teachers could someone help me understand this, my question is: If you get given a question for example like: sodium sulphate reacts with potassium hydroxide what will be produced? is that expected understanding and knowledge for gcse and or a level to then figure out what the products would be as if I get asked how one reactant reacts with some other chemical element would I be expected to know and figure out what that product from the reaction would be and would I have to learn and understand the different chemical reactions as in displacement reactions and so on, so my role is to essentially become like a detective and see what the contents of the reactions reactants are to then figure out what the products would be

So for displacements it would only usually be that of the halogens. The most they will test you on is the reactivity series I think. There will be reactions you will be expected to know if the chemicals change for example: any base (hydroxide/carbonate/etc) + any acid ->..... Having done A level Chemistry, you get given (in the spec sheet too) a list of chemical reactions you need to know and most of the elements don't change.

Thank you for replying I’m a gcse student now transitioning to my alevels in chemistry and I was wondering am I meant to see a chemical reaction as in the reactant side and I have to learn the ability to figure what the products produced would be is that something I have to learn no matter the chemical reaction type

Hey are you doing Edexcel Chemistry? And no you don't need to learn that ability but it could actually be quite useful in the long run when you do synthesis (you get a bunch of reactants and you are given a final product and have to show a series of reactions that would lead to your end product). There are so many reactions that sometimes having the ability to guess the products would be useful = shows understanding instead of you simply memorizing. For example: when you get to organic chemistry you can kinda guess when you see the chemical elements that make up a reactant what products might be made. One example is in the catalytic converter (came up for my paper last year = how would CO and NOx react in the converter? Neutral gases = N2 and CO2 will be produced). Don't think you should worry about this too much though it comes naturally over time