HELP - OCR chem A level
ocr a level chemistry is KILLING MEEE. pls can someone give me tips to get an A as in year 13 ive been consistent in C’s and ive been doing loadssssss of past paper questions so i just don’t know what im doing wrong. Plssss give me tips and advice from someone who has been in my shoes !!!
Original post by Bambi._
ocr a level chemistry is KILLING MEEE. pls can someone give me tips to get an A as in year 13 ive been consistent in C’s and ive been doing loadssssss of past paper questions so i just don’t know what im doing wrong. Plssss give me tips and advice from someone who has been in my shoes !!!
find out why you're missing out marks in papers and what topics they're from. make sure for calculations you lay your working out properly (check mark schemes they're very repetitive/illustrative of what you need) and make sure you're always securing those marks even for long calculations. even if you dont get the 'correct' answer im pretty sure you can still receive a majority of the marks just for calculations. so that's your first step find out your areas of weakness as someone who resat the entire a level independently I felt like the second time everything just made sense so if you need to go over content again do it. I recommend allerychem on YouTube I loved his topic summary videos
im going to give you access to my quizlet flashcards I hope they help. idk if you have flashcards or use them but my second time around I basically spammed these flashcards made sure that I a) understood them and b) memorised them and then just practiced exam questions. make sure you have the content and knowledge down so that you have all you need to answer questions and then its just a matter of practice and exam skill making sure you're securing all those marks for 6 mark questions you can literally bullet point to save time, make sure to mention keywords etc im sure you've heard chemistry is all repetitive and you'll soon come to realise. you're doing great so far getting yourself used to exam questions and how they're structured you just need to essentially score more marks and answer them better
I am currently studying OCR A chemistry on Quizlet
https://quizlet.com/user/leelolzies/folders/ocr-a-chemistry?i=3ecwd4&x=1xqY
there are nice summary topic notes available here also
https://chemrevise.org/ocr-revision-guides/
happy studying 😛
(edited 2 months ago)
Original post by m4riammmm
noooooooo what's going on is it a problem with understanding or is it the actual exam questions itself or are you missing out on content. at the end of the day dont see your results as grades like A B C D bc the difference between an A and C is literally just the amount of marks they secured and its just a case of they gained more marks rather than they're much smarter than you bc we're all seeing the same paper.
find out why you're missing out marks in papers and what topics they're from. make sure for calculations you lay your working out properly (check mark schemes they're very repetitive/illustrative of what you need) and make sure you're always securing those marks even for long calculations. even if you dont get the 'correct' answer im pretty sure you can still receive a majority of the marks just for calculations. so that's your first step find out your areas of weakness as someone who resat the entire a level independently I felt like the second time everything just made sense so if you need to go over content again do it. I recommend allerychem on YouTube I loved his topic summary videos
im going to give you access to my quizlet flashcards I hope they help. idk if you have flashcards or use them but my second time around I basically spammed these flashcards made sure that I a) understood them and b) memorised them and then just practiced exam questions. make sure you have the content and knowledge down so that you have all you need to answer questions and then its just a matter of practice and exam skill making sure you're securing all those marks for 6 mark questions you can literally bullet point to save time, make sure to mention keywords etc im sure you've heard chemistry is all repetitive and you'll soon come to realise. you're doing great so far getting yourself used to exam questions and how they're structured you just need to essentially score more marks and answer them better
I am currently studying OCR A chemistry on Quizlet
https://quizlet.com/user/leelolzies/folders/ocr-a-chemistry?i=3ecwd4&x=1xqY
there are nice summary topic notes available here also
https://chemrevise.org/ocr-revision-guides/
happy studying 😛
find out why you're missing out marks in papers and what topics they're from. make sure for calculations you lay your working out properly (check mark schemes they're very repetitive/illustrative of what you need) and make sure you're always securing those marks even for long calculations. even if you dont get the 'correct' answer im pretty sure you can still receive a majority of the marks just for calculations. so that's your first step find out your areas of weakness as someone who resat the entire a level independently I felt like the second time everything just made sense so if you need to go over content again do it. I recommend allerychem on YouTube I loved his topic summary videos
im going to give you access to my quizlet flashcards I hope they help. idk if you have flashcards or use them but my second time around I basically spammed these flashcards made sure that I a) understood them and b) memorised them and then just practiced exam questions. make sure you have the content and knowledge down so that you have all you need to answer questions and then its just a matter of practice and exam skill making sure you're securing all those marks for 6 mark questions you can literally bullet point to save time, make sure to mention keywords etc im sure you've heard chemistry is all repetitive and you'll soon come to realise. you're doing great so far getting yourself used to exam questions and how they're structured you just need to essentially score more marks and answer them better
I am currently studying OCR A chemistry on Quizlet
https://quizlet.com/user/leelolzies/folders/ocr-a-chemistry?i=3ecwd4&x=1xqY
there are nice summary topic notes available here also
https://chemrevise.org/ocr-revision-guides/
happy studying 😛
ahhh tysmm!! i think it’s my exam technique? coz after the synthesis paper mock i thought i did sick lmaooo n came out with a C so perhaps my knowledge is a bit off but mainly i think it’s gotta be exam technique.
Original post by Bambi._
ahhh tysmm!! i think it’s my exam technique? coz after the synthesis paper mock i thought i did sick lmaooo n came out with a C so perhaps my knowledge is a bit off but mainly i think it’s gotta be exam technique.
hahaha our confidence can get the best of us or maybe the examiners are just mean lol its good to know specific areas of why you went wrong so make sure you're spending just as much time reviewing and analysing your finished papers as you are doing them. once that exam technique is perfected you'll skyrocket honestly
Original post by m4riammmm
hahaha our confidence can get the best of us or maybe the examiners are just mean lol its good to know specific areas of why you went wrong so make sure you're spending just as much time reviewing and analysing your finished papers as you are doing them. once that exam technique is perfected you'll skyrocket honestly
yuh i rlly hope so lol thanks again
Reply 5
Hi l'm also a year 13, I take OCR chem and my predicted is an A* and I’ve managed to get straight A*s in all my in class tests so far - I think I might be able to give some advice 
Unfortunately a LOT of chemistry is about memorisation - which is why flashcards will come in super handy! I personally use Quizlet but anki is also a really good choice. At this point I'd say don't waste time trying to make your own flashcards as you don't really have time and it’s not a super active form of revision. There’s lots of ones available online that other people have made, here are the ones I made and that I use: https://quizlet.com/user/mollyfster/folders/chemistry-a-level-ocr?i=3o6usn&x=1xqY (be warned, there’s a couple random typos and the Redox topic and Analysis topic flashcards are incomplete as I haven’t finished learning this in class yet).
A revision method that I SWEAR by is 'brain dumping' or 'blurting'. Basically, choose the topic you want to revise, for example alkenes. Then on a piece of paper or word document write down literally EVERYTHING you can remember about the topic - even the smallest details. Resist the urge to look at your notes or google anything until you are absolutely sure there's nothing else you can add from your memory. Once you're done, check over your notes/flashcards/textbook and, in a different colour, add on any information that you forgot or got wrong. If you want you can put this missing information onto small flashcard sets and revise them. After a few days, repeat this whole process with the same topic and hopefully you'll be able to recall more info. Repeat this as many times as you like until you can recall alllill of the information I used this method for all my subjects at GCSE and got straight 9s!
Another good way to make sure you stay on top of the content is to download the specification (the ocr specification can be found here: https://www.ocr.org.uk/images/171720-specification-accredited-a-level-gce-chemistry-a-h432.pdf). Go through the spec topic by topic and read the specification points on the left hand side which outline what you should know. If you're super confident you understand a spec point, highlight it in green. If you kind of understand it, highlight it in orange. If you have no idea what it is, highlight it in red. This gives you an idea of what topics you'll need to focus your revision on, and also ensures you have an understanding of what the exam board expects you to know (if it's not on the spec, don't waste time learning it!).
Once you've got the content down, do loads and loads of past papers. Seriously just do all the ones you can find after each paper make sure you really carefully go through the markscheme in order to understand anywhere you went wrong. It can also sometimes be useful to read the examiners reports as they often write about common mistakes made by students which you can avoid making! If you're finding answering questions in specific topics difficult, you can use savemyexams or myphysicsandmathstutor to find questions by topic - and do practice questions specifically on the topics you find hard.
For organic chemistry synthesis I made a lot of mindmaps, showing reactions and conditions which were useful for learning them.
Here is one made by the OCR exam board (including a blank copy you can fill in as revision):
https://www.ocr.org.uk/images/359182-organic-synthesis-reaction-pathways.pdf
I think it's also useful to have a general understanding of why you need specific conditions, so you can make educated guesses in the exam if you need to. For example, if your reagents are volatile you'll probably need to heat under reflux, and if you're trying to remove water you'll probably need an acid catalyst.
Hope this helps and if you have any more questions or need more advice feel free to ask <3
Unfortunately a LOT of chemistry is about memorisation - which is why flashcards will come in super handy! I personally use Quizlet but anki is also a really good choice. At this point I'd say don't waste time trying to make your own flashcards as you don't really have time and it’s not a super active form of revision. There’s lots of ones available online that other people have made, here are the ones I made and that I use: https://quizlet.com/user/mollyfster/folders/chemistry-a-level-ocr?i=3o6usn&x=1xqY (be warned, there’s a couple random typos and the Redox topic and Analysis topic flashcards are incomplete as I haven’t finished learning this in class yet).
A revision method that I SWEAR by is 'brain dumping' or 'blurting'. Basically, choose the topic you want to revise, for example alkenes. Then on a piece of paper or word document write down literally EVERYTHING you can remember about the topic - even the smallest details. Resist the urge to look at your notes or google anything until you are absolutely sure there's nothing else you can add from your memory. Once you're done, check over your notes/flashcards/textbook and, in a different colour, add on any information that you forgot or got wrong. If you want you can put this missing information onto small flashcard sets and revise them. After a few days, repeat this whole process with the same topic and hopefully you'll be able to recall more info. Repeat this as many times as you like until you can recall alllill of the information I used this method for all my subjects at GCSE and got straight 9s!
Another good way to make sure you stay on top of the content is to download the specification (the ocr specification can be found here: https://www.ocr.org.uk/images/171720-specification-accredited-a-level-gce-chemistry-a-h432.pdf). Go through the spec topic by topic and read the specification points on the left hand side which outline what you should know. If you're super confident you understand a spec point, highlight it in green. If you kind of understand it, highlight it in orange. If you have no idea what it is, highlight it in red. This gives you an idea of what topics you'll need to focus your revision on, and also ensures you have an understanding of what the exam board expects you to know (if it's not on the spec, don't waste time learning it!).
Once you've got the content down, do loads and loads of past papers. Seriously just do all the ones you can find after each paper make sure you really carefully go through the markscheme in order to understand anywhere you went wrong. It can also sometimes be useful to read the examiners reports as they often write about common mistakes made by students which you can avoid making! If you're finding answering questions in specific topics difficult, you can use savemyexams or myphysicsandmathstutor to find questions by topic - and do practice questions specifically on the topics you find hard.
For organic chemistry synthesis I made a lot of mindmaps, showing reactions and conditions which were useful for learning them.
Here is one made by the OCR exam board (including a blank copy you can fill in as revision):
https://www.ocr.org.uk/images/359182-organic-synthesis-reaction-pathways.pdf
I think it's also useful to have a general understanding of why you need specific conditions, so you can make educated guesses in the exam if you need to. For example, if your reagents are volatile you'll probably need to heat under reflux, and if you're trying to remove water you'll probably need an acid catalyst.
Hope this helps and if you have any more questions or need more advice feel free to ask <3
I’ve got 2 pieces of advice that will really help to push you into A-A* category (definitely more A*) if you can dedicate the effort.
- Understanding:
Doing many past papers and exam questions is best when you have a very firm understanding of the course and foundations of chemistry. It’s essential to know exactly what is going on in questions and understand the topics rather in detail than just memorising facts. To help I’d suggest
-Exam application
Do as many past paper questions on a range of topics but don’t leave it at just that. If you make the same mistake you’ve made before then your exam practice is not efficient. It may be tedious, but make a note of every mistake you make and don’t be lenient (except for calculations and those type of errors). Make a full document on specifics of questions that you’ve done wrong. For example one of mine highlighted in bold is to remember that enthalpy change of combustion from calculation is always negative
Ik it’s long but it will definitely help. Its helped me get A* in every paper, dropping around 2-3 marks only in mocks and in full papers
- Understanding:
Doing many past papers and exam questions is best when you have a very firm understanding of the course and foundations of chemistry. It’s essential to know exactly what is going on in questions and understand the topics rather in detail than just memorising facts. To help I’d suggest
•
Going over chemguide.co.uk slowly, page by page, word by word for any topics you are lost in. It’s tedious but it’s worth it.
•
Speaking and explaining it out loud. If you can’t explain a topic out loud to someone clearly then don’t consider it mastered
Do as many past paper questions on a range of topics but don’t leave it at just that. If you make the same mistake you’ve made before then your exam practice is not efficient. It may be tedious, but make a note of every mistake you make and don’t be lenient (except for calculations and those type of errors). Make a full document on specifics of questions that you’ve done wrong. For example one of mine highlighted in bold is to remember that enthalpy change of combustion from calculation is always negative
Ik it’s long but it will definitely help. Its helped me get A* in every paper, dropping around 2-3 marks only in mocks and in full papers
(edited 2 months ago)
Reply 7
Hi I do ocr chem aswell. In November I got a 57% (c) in my mock, but in Feb ended up getting 81% in my mock which was an A. My best advice would be to know ur content really well. My revision strategy in November was to just do past paper questions but in Feb I took a step back and first fully understood the content. Not memorize but fully understand it. Then I did past papers, lots of past papers. If u go through paper 2 for Ocr u can tell it's most mod6 and some mod 2 and for here and there so I focused on mod 6 on PMT there's this section that has papers for specific modules so I just did about 4-5 of them. On the side I was doing actual past papers too from the Ocr official website
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