The Student Room Group

OCR Alevel chemistry A* tips

Hi I'm in year 13 and I'm doing OCR A Alevel. I do get a lot of A*s in my topic tests however I understand that the grade boundaries for the overall papers is 90% for an A*. Could anyone who got an A* last year for OCR Alevel chemistry tell me any tips they did for studying that got them those A*s. So far, I do flashcards, blurting and past paper questions regularly but I always feel like something is missing.
Original post by Alesha_sk
Hi I'm in year 13 and I'm doing OCR A Alevel. I do get a lot of A*s in my topic tests however I understand that the grade boundaries for the overall papers is 90% for an A*. Could anyone who got an A* last year for OCR Alevel chemistry tell me any tips they did for studying that got them those A*s. So far, I do flashcards, blurting and past paper questions regularly but I always feel like something is missing.

Whilst I neither sat my exams last year, nor did I do OCR A level chemistry, I have mentored students who did, several of whom did very well indeed.

I recommend talking less confident classmates through the material to consolidate your own understanding. Of course, try putting everything as simply as possible without removing important terminology etc.

I think by the sounds of it, you are using the right techniques for study for the most part. However, what I don’t know is how routinely you are using said methods and how you are revising with flashcards. These will impact how effective active recall methods are.
(edited 2 months ago)
Hi! I'm in year 12 so this won't be helpful for you (sorry), but i'm doing ocr a chemistry, and aren't getting the grades I want currently. Do you have any tips for revision or ways of going through the content to condense it?
I'm able to do most of the work in lessons, but forget how to do it afterwards. We do worksheet questions so i have to look at examples to understand whats going on.
I have mocks after Christmas and would like a higher expected grade lol
If you have any advice or tips, it would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you in advance!!!
Reply 3
Original post by XwhoisthisX
Hi! I'm in year 12 so this won't be helpful for you (sorry), but i'm doing ocr a chemistry, and aren't getting the grades I want currently. Do you have any tips for revision or ways of going through the content to condense it?
I'm able to do most of the work in lessons, but forget how to do it afterwards. We do worksheet questions so i have to look at examples to understand whats going on.
I have mocks after Christmas and would like a higher expected grade lol
If you have any advice or tips, it would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you in advance!!!
Hi I 100% recommend flashcards and using Physics and Maths tutor for exam questions! Unlike AQA OCR A is very specific and repetitive with their questions and answers. So questions like “what is the relative atomic mass” you need to memorise the answer for that which would be “the weighted mean mass of an atom of an element compared with 1/12th the mass of an atom of carbon 12”. Ect. In topic tests especially a majority of the questions you may find on PMT will be on your topic test. In terms of learning the content properly I recommend free science lessons for year 12 and Allery chemistry for year 13 (mostly because Free science lessons hasn’t done any year 13 content yet apart from organic chem so it may be different by the time you get into year 13). Free science lessons explains his content in the same way he explains GCSE content so it’s very easy to understand. Seneca learning is also very good because it can go into further detail that can help you when it comes to understanding your content.
It’s a lot of practice. In terms of learning your content when you have frees or after every lesson, make sure you write down your notes and practice your content. Learning content for Alevel chemistry should be a long term thing it’s not the best idea to start doing last minute revision a couple of days before a topic test because it’s harder content and it may cause more stress.

Also what other subjects are you doing? If you’re doing maths you will definitely find year 13 non organic side very easy because that’s very maths heavy. If you’re not that fine as well as long as you keep consistent with practice you’ll be great.

Also please don’t worry if you’re not getting the grades you’d like. You’ve only just finished your first term of year 12 and you have mocks at the end of the year. Loads of classmates in my chemistry classes weren’t getting the grades they want in their topic tests at the beginning but by the time they got to mocks loads of them got As. You’ll do amazing I know it!
Original post by Alesha_sk
Hi I 100% recommend flashcards and using Physics and Maths tutor for exam questions! Unlike AQA OCR A is very specific and repetitive with their questions and answers. So questions like “what is the relative atomic mass” you need to memorise the answer for that which would be “the weighted mean mass of an atom of an element compared with 1/12th the mass of an atom of carbon 12”. Ect. In topic tests especially a majority of the questions you may find on PMT will be on your topic test. In terms of learning the content properly I recommend free science lessons for year 12 and Allery chemistry for year 13 (mostly because Free science lessons hasn’t done any year 13 content yet apart from organic chem so it may be different by the time you get into year 13). Free science lessons explains his content in the same way he explains GCSE content so it’s very easy to understand. Seneca learning is also very good because it can go into further detail that can help you when it comes to understanding your content.
It’s a lot of practice. In terms of learning your content when you have frees or after every lesson, make sure you write down your notes and practice your content. Learning content for Alevel chemistry should be a long term thing it’s not the best idea to start doing last minute revision a couple of days before a topic test because it’s harder content and it may cause more stress.
Also what other subjects are you doing? If you’re doing maths you will definitely find year 13 non organic side very easy because that’s very maths heavy. If you’re not that fine as well as long as you keep consistent with practice you’ll be great.
Also please don’t worry if you’re not getting the grades you’d like. You’ve only just finished your first term of year 12 and you have mocks at the end of the year. Loads of classmates in my chemistry classes weren’t getting the grades they want in their topic tests at the beginning but by the time they got to mocks loads of them got As. You’ll do amazing I know it!

Thank you so much! This really helps. I've made some flashcards but only really used them for revision so I guess I'll have to do constant recall with them
I'm doing AQA Biology and Edexcel Maths - I find Biology the easiest though!
Reply 5
Original post by XwhoisthisX
Thank you so much! This really helps. I've made some flashcards but only really used them for revision so I guess I'll have to do constant recall with them
I'm doing AQA Biology and Edexcel Maths - I find Biology the easiest though!

Haha that’s so different to me I always found Biology harder due to the amount of content and the mark scheme specific questions but trust me you’ll find the energetics part of chemistry really good since there’s a lot of maths :smile:

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