UK chemistry olympiad

Hey , Im in year 12 and i wanna do the chemistry olympiad (from the RSC) just to get it done and dusted tbh. I am planning to just get enough qualifications this years so the next i dont have to worry about it when im in year 13 so i can focus on studying coz i want A*'s or A's
ik i just started but i dont mind grining my a** off till im brain dead to get good, i just need help with how to prep for it so please anyone whos done it and is willing to help please tell me, im really greatful and even if its critical advice i dont mind.
God bless and i hope u have a nice day

Om g sorry for this late reply. i was trying to revise content
anyway congrats on getting 12th NATIONALLY thats insane for one and two thank you for offering me your advice
Alr do u also mind answering a few questions
1) which modules or units are the reccuring topics in ? im doing ocrA so i want to revise most of the main contents by nov and abit of dec
2) im really intrested into going into chem although the math isnt my strong suit for some reason. ik its just practice but still. so pls imma ask u is the olympiad mainly mathy so id know where to kinda work on too
3) do u mind telling me what uni u went to , i was just curious yk. if u dont want to its fine
Again thank you for your time and i really hope youre doing well
wish me luck
also the book is free online at internet archive for anyone else who may find this

1) OCR A doesn’t cover unit cells (though neither do any of the other exam boards in sufficient depth). Organic synthesis essentially is just modules 4 and 6 combined, plus some post-A level reactions (Wittig, Grignard, Diels-Alder, Lindlar’s Catalyst) and NMR is somewhere within module 6.
To cover unit cells etc, I would suggest looking here:
https://edu.rsc.org/download?ac=515776
Organic synthesis also has a similar sheet, but it isn’t as helpful imo as it is far less comprehensive:
https://edu.rsc.org/download?ac=515775
The RSC are annoying in that they limit the number of their free resources you can access to 1 per month if you don’t have an account, or if you do sign up (completely free of charge), you are limited to 2 per month.
2) There is a fair bit of maths in the Olympiad. Just looking through the 2024 paper as it was the most recent, I counted 42 marks for mathsy questions out of the total of 82 (this is excluding writing equations, even though exam boards typically classify them as such). Most of it is stuff you will have studied or will study your A level chemistry classes (i.e moles, equilibria, rates, thermodynamics etc), but occasionally you may be required to rearrange equations or manipulate logarithms with the laws of logs (an A level maths topic - I’ve only ever seen it come up once though from memory and that was on the 2022 paper in that ensilication of vaccines question). The units cells questions can be quite mathsy, but I think the guide to them I gave above should be enough for you to make sense of them.
3) I’m still at uni - I’m now going into my second year at Oxford.
Best of luck and congratulations for taking up the Olympiad. It is a wonderful opportunity to put your knowledge of chemistry to use in unfamiliar situations and an excellent means of seeing how well you can identify and use relevant information - several skills that will serve you well at university.
Also, do be careful when accessing free pdfs of books like that. It is best to avoid (unintentionally) downloading a bunch of malware along with the pdf.

1) OCR A doesn’t cover unit cells (though neither do any of the other exam boards in sufficient depth). Organic synthesis essentially is just modules 4 and 6 combined, plus some post-A level reactions (Wittig, Grignard, Diels-Alder, Lindlar’s Catalyst) and NMR is somewhere within module 6.
To cover unit cells etc, I would suggest looking here:
https://edu.rsc.org/download?ac=515776
Organic synthesis also has a similar sheet, but it isn’t as helpful imo as it is far less comprehensive:
https://edu.rsc.org/download?ac=515775
The RSC are annoying in that they limit the number of their free resources you can access to 1 per month if you don’t have an account, or if you do sign up (completely free of charge), you are limited to 2 per month.
2) There is a fair bit of maths in the Olympiad. Just looking through the 2024 paper as it was the most recent, I counted 42 marks for mathsy questions out of the total of 82 (this is excluding writing equations, even though exam boards typically classify them as such). Most of it is stuff you will have studied or will study your A level chemistry classes (i.e moles, equilibria, rates, thermodynamics etc), but occasionally you may be required to rearrange equations or manipulate logarithms with the laws of logs (an A level maths topic - I’ve only ever seen it come up once though from memory and that was on the 2022 paper in that ensilication of vaccines question). The units cells questions can be quite mathsy, but I think the guide to them I gave above should be enough for you to make sense of them.
3) I’m still at uni - I’m now going into my second year at Oxford.
Best of luck and congratulations for taking up the Olympiad. It is a wonderful opportunity to put your knowledge of chemistry to use in unfamiliar situations and an excellent means of seeing how well you can identify and use relevant information - several skills that will serve you well at university.
Also, do be careful when accessing free pdfs of books like that. It is best to avoid (unintentionally) downloading a bunch of malware along with the pdf.

I’d have a look at this thread for starters as a number of olympiad questions have been solved here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7289472
I got into round 2 in 2022, finishing joint 12th nationally in round 1. I personally think the best textbook to refer to (especially if you plan to later study chemistry at university) would be “chemistry^3: introducing inorganic, organic and physical chemistry” by Burrows et al if you can find an affordable copy.
Each year, there are certain topics practically guaranteed to come up. Unit cells, NMR and organic synthesis are very frequently assessed (NMR is usually limited to numbers of signals expected on a spectrum and organic synthesis uses a lot of post-A level reactions like Grignard and Wittig).

Hi, just wanted to ask as you are obviously very knowledgeable in chemistry and the olympiad. I am 5th year in Scotland or I think year 12 in England, and after looking at one of these past papers, I know less than half of the content as we have not yet been taught it 😵 Do you have any tips on how to achieve at least a bronze award and maybe a silver one?

How much did you prepare for the olympiad when you got into round 2? Had you done like uni admission test level (which I would say is probably doing every past paper ever) or not? Had you gone far beyond the curriculum?

A bronze award typically requires you to have scored circa a fifth of the marks if memory serves and a silver award typically requires you to have scored closer to a third.
That said, you probably should focus on topics guaranteed to come up. If you were to get full marks on the organic synthesis and unit cells questions alone, you’d probably have a gold. Unfortunately, the organic synthesis topics tend to be the more difficult ones to learn.
I’m not entirely sure how the Scottish system works. I assume by now you’ve completed your nationals and are studying highers (this I think is roughly equivalent to year 12 in England) and so much of what will come up should theoretically have been taught. If my assumption is correct, I do believe Andrew Hay and Miss Adams chemistry may be of particular use to your preparation (and for your advanced highers a little later down the line).
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCU32Og7N9VTUWL1qfJOPZxA
https://m.youtube.com/@andrewhaychemistry
From the above resources, you can recap topics you have learnt already and learn how to approach common problems in topics you haven’t yet studied. I would say equilibria, energetics, moles and kinetics are some of the likeliest topics to come up that both of the above explain (other than basically anything from organic chemistry).
One thing worth noting is that many of these problems are structured so that the answers to earlier parts of a question are useful in later parts of the same question. If you need to use an answer from an earlier part, but couldn’t answer it, generally you will be given an “answer” to use (if it’s a calculation). For organic synthesis, make up a plausible molecule if you couldn’t make sense of an earlier step in the synthesis.
Also, I would suggest highlighting important words and information in the question. Losing sight of what you are actually trying to calculate is an easy way to lose marks.

I definitely went beyond the curriculum (purely out of interest), but the stuff I read up on outside of A level was for the most part irrelevant to what was actually assessed on the Olympiad exams in both rounds. The stuff I read about unit cells (in chemistry^3 - more about that later) was useful, though.
I made good use of books like “Chemistry^3: introducing inorganic, organic and physical chemistry” by Burrows et al (don’t buy this unless you plan on doing a chem degree afterwards) and usually taught others concepts in chemistry or worked them through past paper questions. This was more for my Oxford interview prep than the Olympiad, however, but it was helpful regardless.
I’d say my prep with past papers wasn’t that thorough. I had done basically every recent past paper (i.e maybe all past papers set within the last 4 years) and one or two old papers (which were p*ss easy in comparison, so perhaps not worth paying too much attention to doing).

Are there any chapters in Chemistry^3 that you would recommend, or say are essential to learn and practice? Also, is it useful to learn the equations for rates, constants, and the Arrhenius equation?

The stuff they have on unit cells is perhaps the most helpful. The first few chapters really are a recap of AS level and so are worth a read if you are in doubt. I'd say it's also worth reading the chapters on equilibria, energetics and kinetics as these topics do routinely come up.
I wouldn't really bother with memorising constants as they give them to you on a sheet typically attached at the end of the question booklet. Usually they will give you equations you need, but memorising anything expected of you at A level is of course a must.

How did everyone do? I scored 40 which I was happy with. Waiting for boundaries to come out now.

That looks like it should be a gold. Very well done.

I ended up getting 42, partly thanks to you of course! I'd assume that is also gold?