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how do people get As and Bs in chemistry!!!???

hi everyone,
as you can see from the title, i am SOO LOST on how to achieve a B or even an A 😭😭😭, i've asked for advice but i always get the generic do exam questions and go over the textbook but it's not helpful :/ does anyone have a cheat code because i am really loosing hope now.
I've been getting mostly A*'s and A's throughout year 12 and currently year 13, and i'd say that buying the stemup chemistry anki flashcards are extremely useful for getting the base knowledge as well as memorising answers specific to markschemes. This may sound repetitive but exam practice will genuinely be you best friend. Doing exam practice and doing the past exams really help. Make sure you can do the chemistry maths with good accuracy, as its a very big part of chemistry so if you've got that solidified than you should be okay. I'd defo recommend to use chemrevise for notes and chemsheets for maths topics eg. atomic substances as they've got whole booklets that explain the topics as well as LOADS of practice questions. I hope this helps, and i hope you do well!!
Reply 2
Original post by sarahussain1132
I've been getting mostly A*'s and A's throughout year 12 and currently year 13, and i'd say that buying the stemup chemistry anki flashcards are extremely useful for getting the base knowledge as well as memorising answers specific to markschemes. This may sound repetitive but exam practice will genuinely be you best friend. Doing exam practice and doing the past exams really help. Make sure you can do the chemistry maths with good accuracy, as its a very big part of chemistry so if you've got that solidified than you should be okay. I'd defo recommend to use chemrevise for notes and chemsheets for maths topics eg. atomic substances as they've got whole booklets that explain the topics as well as LOADS of practice questions. I hope this helps, and i hope you do well!!


btw where do you think the best site is for exam questions?? Also congrats on getting A*s and As :biggrin:
Original post by diorama82
btw where do you think the best site is for exam questions?? Also congrats on getting A*s and As :biggrin:

Thanks so much!! I'd defo say to use 'Physics and Maths tutor (PMT)' and 'Access Tuition' for exam questions and for full exam papers use your exam board or you can also use PMT or AT as they have got a section for exam papers. If you end up finishing your exam papers, i'd say to re-do them and see if you're making the same mistakes and to do different exam boards as a lot of the time they'll be testing similar content.
Reply 4
Original post by sarahussain1132
Thanks so much!! I'd defo say to use 'Physics and Maths tutor (PMT)' and 'Access Tuition' for exam questions and for full exam papers use your exam board or you can also use PMT or AT as they have got a section for exam papers. If you end up finishing your exam papers, i'd say to re-do them and see if you're making the same mistakes and to do different exam boards as a lot of the time they'll be testing similar content.


Thank you very much!! Silly question but do you think if i continously do that i can bump from a C to an A in 5 weeks??
Original post by diorama82
Thank you very much!! Silly question but do you think if i continously do that i can bump from a C to an A in 5 weeks??

Apologies in advance for butting into your chat!

Just saw this and was reminded of a really good resource which helped me a lot to get my A in chemistry when I was in sixth form: Chemguide was a very good friend to me. Its basically a collection of miniature guides to explain key concepts in chemistry (e.g. mechanism tutorials etc) - its a little dated now and not exam board specific but was really useful in helping me understand the core concepts so I could them apply them to what I learnt in class. Youtube vids are also great if you want a quick explanation or tutorial!

One more thing I'd recommend, although it may sound silly, ask your teacher directly what they expect to see from someone getting a B or an A - this could give you some inspo on what to work on.

Hope this is of a little help, best of luck 🙂

Holly
University of Bath
(edited 3 months ago)
Reply 6
Original post by diorama82
Thank you very much!! Silly question but do you think if i continously do that i can bump from a C to an A in 5 weeks??

don’t be demotivated! in year 12 i was consistently achieving Cs, Ds and even and E one time. By the end of year 13 i managed to get close to an A* and chemistry became my easiest a level. it’s definitely doable you just need to change your mindset and recognise that (especially for ocr a) chemistry a level is very repetitive and most of the exam questions are in the same format. essentially this means that you have to look at old exam papers and make sure you are able to answer every question. if you get something wrong, find out why and apply this newfound knowledge until you understand 90% of the course.

to reiterate what people r saying here, pmt is a great resource and machemtutor is a very good youtube channel that can assist you. if you find yourself overwhelmed just take a step back and reflect on the basic principles of chemistry. best of luck, you’ll be fine

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