AQA A level chemistry synthetic routes map - what is the best one to memorise?

@TypicalNerd what do you think?

Both resources seem comprehensive and at a glance don’t seem to (substantially) differ from the AQA syllabus from what I remember of it. I will be a bit nitpicky about a few (small) things I noticed on the synthetic routes map on the older resource, though.
The older resource is more helpful (largely due to colour coding) and it has not been forgotten that nitriles can hydrolyse to give carboxylic acids and that you can convert alcohols into haloalkanes. I don’t believe you need to learn that alkenes react with (cold, alkaline) KMnO4 to give diols, though.

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate the details in the 'nitpicky' section LOL. When you said "Other than the fact that there are a few labels that look like they are for arrows representing entirely different transformations", which ones were you referring to?

Also, what do you think about the aromatic synthetic routes on the old and new version?

The one that came to mind was the “LiAlH4 reduction” label by the ketone -> alcohol transformation as the label is also right by the alcohol -> ester arrow. Granted, there is colour-coding, but if you happen to be colourblind like I am, the red and black colour coding isn’t necessarily easy to immediately spot.

Ah, I see. You're right that confused me as well. You pointing that out just made me spot another difference, weirdly enough? In the new synthetic map, ketone -> alcohol is NaBH4 nucleophilic addition, but in the old one it's LiAlH4 reduction.

Additionally, there is no mention of the acid catalysed hydration of alkenes to alcohols (though that might be implied by the elimination, dehydration from alcohol -> alkene by conc. H2SO4 / H3PO4? not sure, what do you think)

LiAlH4 is the preferred reagent by AQA, but NaBH4 works. LiAlH4 is a stronger reducing agent than NaBH4, so it’s not always an alternative to NaBH4 - NaBH4 cannot reduce carboxylic acids, but LiAlH4 can, for example.

I see, thank you. In that case, Why is NaBH4 nucleophilic addition and LiAH4 is reduction?

Both reactions are nucleophilic addition (and also reductions because there is a gain of hydrogen involved).

Thank you. If you don't mind, I have another question relating to physical chemistry. Do you think it would be worth memorising this graph of ionisation energies?

For the questions where they ask you "which one of these elements has a higher 2nd ionisation energy?" sometimes it feels like im just taking a guess.

You only really need to memorise the graph for period 2 or period 3. You need not consider the period 1 elements.
For second ionisation energies, the graph has the same shape, but you can think of each point as shifting right by 1. So for example, the second ionisation energy graph for period 2 would have a maximum for Li, it would drop off massively for Be, raise slightly for B, drop slightly for C, rise again until O, drop off slightly for F and rise again for Ne.

Thanks, I appreciate the extra part about the second ionisation energies. I've stumbled upon those kinds of questions, but they are only one mark or so, mainly multiple choice.. Still, memorising the graph is good to spot the deviations in the general trend of ionisation energy. Thank you for all the help the past few days.

For one mark questions on ionisation energies, the trick to approaching them is quite straightforward.
The general rule of thumb is that for (n+1)th ionisation energies, the group n elements have the highest one on their period. Par exemple, the group 1 elements have higher second ionisation energies than the elements in any other group.
If you are given a series of elements from one group, the general rule of thumb is that the elements at the top of the group have the highest ionisation energies and those at the bottom have the lowest.
Now suppose you get a question like
Which of the following elements has the highest third ionisation energy?
A: Sodium
B: Magnesium
C: Argon
D: Barium
The first thing to do is identify the groups each element are in. Sodium is in group 1, magnesium and barium are in group 2 and argon is in group 8. This narrows down the answer to either B or D, since group 2 elements should have higher third ionisation energies than any other groups by the rule above.
Next, let’s look at the periods Mg and Ba are on. Magnesium is on period 3 and barium is on period 6. Since magnesium is on a lower period than barium, it must be magnesium (B).

So for 1st ionisation energies, I'd have to refer to that graph I posted earlier and try draw it out from memory since this rule only applies for (n+1)th ionisation energies.