chemistry olympiad year 10

im doing the rsc chem olympiad as a year 10 after my teacher asked if i wanted to do it, but idk much of the a level syllabus, except how to draw and name organic compounds. As im only in yr 10 i havent learnt some of the gcse syllabus, but know most of it, including mole calculations.
i have the book chemistry^3 and have read the chapter on unit cells. ik organic synthesis is a common topic that comes up in the chem olympiad but im not quite sure how to start learning it. how would i get more marks and how should i prepare?

im doing the rsc chem olympiad as a year 10 after my teacher asked if i wanted to do it, but idk much of the a level syllabus, except how to draw and name organic compounds. As im only in yr 10 i havent learnt some of the gcse syllabus, but know most of it, including mole calculations.
i have the book chemistry^3 and have read the chapter on unit cells. ik organic synthesis is a common topic that comes up in the chem olympiad but im not quite sure how to start learning it. how would i get more marks and how should i prepare?

I would agree entirely with Stilllearning123 - you will struggle without having done much of A level first and so this is why I generally recommend against taking the Olympiad until you have at least covered the majority of the year 12 content.
Chemistry^3 is an excellent place to start. It should be useful for learning how to approach the unit cells questions (which usually are limited to determining formulae of substances, packing efficiencies and/or calculating the densities of the ionic compounds in question). However, I have seen 3D geometry thrown in there, so don’t forget about Pythagoras’ theorem.
In terms of organic synthesis, much of it involves post-A level reactions, but the hints they give you should make determining the intermediate species possible with A level knowledge. The best way to learn how to approach these is to practice and ask for help here if you aren’t sure. They often will use spectral data as hints (e.g they might tell you how many signals there are on the 1H NMR spectrum, relevant absorption peaks on the IR spectrum or the m/z ratio of the M^+ peak on the mass spectrum).
For IR, it is worth memorising a few (rough) values for shifts and wavenumbers (A peak past 3000 cm^-1 ish usually corresponds to an alcoholic O-H bond, a peak at around 3000 cm^-1 usually corresponds to a carboxylic acid O-H bond, anything at around 1750 cm^-1 ish is due to a C=O bond and anything around 1650 cm^-1 ish is due to a C=C bond).
The most common topics otherwise are usually physical chemistry oriented. Anything involving enthalpy, entropy, equilibria, rates and moles should be expected. I’d personally use A level resources like physics and maths tutor to cover these.

thanks for the info ive done two practice papers and im averaging around the silver/gold level but im thinking ill probably get around high bronzw or silver in the actual thing bc of time constraints.

I believe the paper was today. How did everyone find it?

thanks for the info ive done two practice papers and im averaging around the silver/gold level but im thinking ill probably get around high bronzw or silver in the actual thing bc of time constraints.

I found it a bit easier than last year's honestly so I'm expecting the grade boundary to be around 40% for gold
(crying rn)

no way the paper was harder

My teacher said that my paper has been sent for moderation. Does this mean I have a chance to receive a gold award? What marks are required for moderation? My teacher doesn’t remember my mark. I am in Year 10.

There is next to no chance that you have achieved a gold award in the Olympiad as you will have covered next to none of the content needed to get more than 5ish marks.

So, why on earth does my paper need to be moderated?

So, why on earth does my paper need to be moderated?

There is next to no chance that you have achieved a gold award in the Olympiad as you will have covered next to none of the content needed to get more than 5ish marks.

In fairness, they could have studied extra stuff outside of school. I had studied all of A level by the time I started year 10 and managed circa 65% on the first Olympiad past paper I attempted whilst in year 11.

How did you study? What materials did you use?

I predominantly used YouTube videos by Eliot Rintoul to self-teach A level chemistry, but I occasionally also made use of PMT and ChemGuide. I found other channels such as MaChemGuy and Davies A level chemistry, which I found useful as well.
I would generally recommend sticking to resources dedicated to your exam board rather than using absolutely anything you can find, though.

In fairness, they could have studied extra stuff outside of school. I had studied all of A level by the time I started year 10 and managed circa 65% on the first Olympiad past paper I attempted whilst in year 11.