A level Chem help
I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
Reply 1
Original post
by Soph_grace160I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
I had a friend who did, but that was because they went on meds, and that helped them with focus, so outside of that (which may not be entirely relevant) I haven't seen anyone, you can absolutely try though. One of my best recommendations, and what I've personally used for my revision for years now, is to just run through a past paper, and assess where exactly you're losing marks (sometimes it's just AQA's rank stupidity, if they're your exam board, but there ain't much you can do about that), remember to be specific here, not just 'silly mistake' but look at what exactly lost the mark, if it's from misremembering definitions or phrasing, then you need a flashcard with that, if it's something like organic synthesis, and needing to get better answering technique (for instance, you may struggle with a certain type of question), then you just need to do a lot of those to get a feel for it (this is what I did with vectors and planes in further maths), if you're struggling with content, then you could try to look for alternative resources (e.g. savemyexams, physicsmathstutor, seneca, etc.) but before that, you should try asking your teacher, as I'm sure they'll be more than willing to explain it (they've made their job professionally talking about chemistry, after all)
it's also often good to have a mental checklist for a question (for instance, when I finish an inorganic question, I quickly run through a few steps: (1) re-read the question and make sure I've answered the right thing, e.g. given pKa when they've asked for it and not accidentally given Ka, then I (2) check if it's the right order of magnitude (roughly), in the case of Ka, I'd expect something around 10^-5, for pKa, around 10^0, so if I get something well out I should check again (this is, again, something you build up after doing many questions, but generally mols is in the order 10^-3, that's the one I always apply, and probably the most useful sanity check, although obviously it can be outside of that), finally I (3) check that I've given the correct number of sig figs (or decimal points), the rule for this is your answer should have the same sig figs as your least accurate data input, e.g. if I have 22 grams of hydrogen and I'm calculating mols, and I use Mr = 1.008, I'll give my final answer to 2 sf, as 22 is 2 sf and less accurate than 1.008), but feel free to make your own, this is something you make by looking at your own mistakes and altering it to help catch them
Hope this helps and best of luck
Reply 2
Original post
by Soph_grace160I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
Hey @Soph_grace160,
It's definitely possible to go from a grade C to a grade A in four months with consistent and effective revision. Have a look through your previous mocks and class tests and identify the topics you seem to struggle most with (e.g. polymers, amines, electrode potentials). Focus your revision on these topics first, making sure to do relevant past paper questions as you go. As mentioned above, if you're revising regularly and still losing marks, read the mark scheme to try and identify why - are you misremembering definitions, are you mixing up organic compounds, etc. You should hopefully start to see some improvement within a few weeks.
If you're stuggling to understand the A-Level Chemistry content itself, check out some YouTube revision videos on each topic. Sometimes all it takes is having someone new explain the concept to you.
Hope this helps and best of luck,
Eve (Kingston Rep).
(edited 3 weeks ago)
Reply 3
Original post
by The :3I had a friend who did, but that was because they went on meds, and that helped them with focus, so outside of that (which may not be entirely relevant) I haven't seen anyone, you can absolutely try though. One of my best recommendations, and what I've personally used for my revision for years now, is to just run through a past paper, and assess where exactly you're losing marks (sometimes it's just AQA's rank stupidity, if they're your exam board, but there ain't much you can do about that), remember to be specific here, not just 'silly mistake' but look at what exactly lost the mark, if it's from misremembering definitions or phrasing, then you need a flashcard with that, if it's something like organic synthesis, and needing to get better answering technique (for instance, you may struggle with a certain type of question), then you just need to do a lot of those to get a feel for it (this is what I did with vectors and planes in further maths), if you're struggling with content, then you could try to look for alternative resources (e.g. savemyexams, physicsmathstutor, seneca, etc.) but before that, you should try asking your teacher, as I'm sure they'll be more than willing to explain it (they've made their job professionally talking about chemistry, after all)
it's also often good to have a mental checklist for a question (for instance, when I finish an inorganic question, I quickly run through a few steps: (1) re-read the question and make sure I've answered the right thing, e.g. given pKa when they've asked for it and not accidentally given Ka, then I (2) check if it's the right order of magnitude (roughly), in the case of Ka, I'd expect something around 10^-5, for pKa, around 10^0, so if I get something well out I should check again (this is, again, something you build up after doing many questions, but generally mols is in the order 10^-3, that's the one I always apply, and probably the most useful sanity check, although obviously it can be outside of that), finally I (3) check that I've given the correct number of sig figs (or decimal points), the rule for this is your answer should have the same sig figs as your least accurate data input, e.g. if I have 22 grams of hydrogen and I'm calculating mols, and I use Mr = 1.008, I'll give my final answer to 2 sf, as 22 is 2 sf and less accurate than 1.008), but feel free to make your own, this is something you make by looking at your own mistakes and altering it to help catch them
Hope this helps and best of luck
it's also often good to have a mental checklist for a question (for instance, when I finish an inorganic question, I quickly run through a few steps: (1) re-read the question and make sure I've answered the right thing, e.g. given pKa when they've asked for it and not accidentally given Ka, then I (2) check if it's the right order of magnitude (roughly), in the case of Ka, I'd expect something around 10^-5, for pKa, around 10^0, so if I get something well out I should check again (this is, again, something you build up after doing many questions, but generally mols is in the order 10^-3, that's the one I always apply, and probably the most useful sanity check, although obviously it can be outside of that), finally I (3) check that I've given the correct number of sig figs (or decimal points), the rule for this is your answer should have the same sig figs as your least accurate data input, e.g. if I have 22 grams of hydrogen and I'm calculating mols, and I use Mr = 1.008, I'll give my final answer to 2 sf, as 22 is 2 sf and less accurate than 1.008), but feel free to make your own, this is something you make by looking at your own mistakes and altering it to help catch them
Hope this helps and best of luck
Hey what meds did your friend go to help with focus and what was their reason if you don’t mind me asking
Reply 4
Original post
by Anahita_123Hey what meds did your friend go to help with focus and what was their reason if you don’t mind me asking
I won't put details on a public forum, but they were prescribed by a shrink, so if you think you may be struggling with A-levels due to some kind of mental condition, then that's probably the avenue
Reply 5
Yes queen you can
For content watch allery chem on YouTube and go through class PowerPoints, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help too.
Use PMT for past papers and when making notes and OMG MAKE MINDMAPS!!
Practice is what’ll make your grade go up fast.
Do a past papers and turn the questions you got wrong into flashcards, and put the mark scheme on the other side of the card (I used gizmo online to make flashcards). At first it’ll seem like you’re getting loads wrong but trust the process! Before attempting your next paper go through your flashcards and brush up on any content you found hard. Do this for every AS and A level paper, then it’ll get to a point where you’ve run out of papers so start redoing them all again! Doing papers twice like this is actually quite helpful. It’ll help you remember those questions that get repeated A LOT and it’ll help you remember those mark scheme specific answers and also required practicala and 6 markers. Each past paper you’ll start seeing improvements so don’t be discouraged! On the day of my actual exams I spent the whole morning blurting through my mindmaps and flashcards and mark schemes.
What topics are you most struggling on?
For content watch allery chem on YouTube and go through class PowerPoints, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help too.
Use PMT for past papers and when making notes and OMG MAKE MINDMAPS!!
Practice is what’ll make your grade go up fast.
Do a past papers and turn the questions you got wrong into flashcards, and put the mark scheme on the other side of the card (I used gizmo online to make flashcards). At first it’ll seem like you’re getting loads wrong but trust the process! Before attempting your next paper go through your flashcards and brush up on any content you found hard. Do this for every AS and A level paper, then it’ll get to a point where you’ve run out of papers so start redoing them all again! Doing papers twice like this is actually quite helpful. It’ll help you remember those questions that get repeated A LOT and it’ll help you remember those mark scheme specific answers and also required practicala and 6 markers. Each past paper you’ll start seeing improvements so don’t be discouraged! On the day of my actual exams I spent the whole morning blurting through my mindmaps and flashcards and mark schemes.
What topics are you most struggling on?
Reply 6
Original post
by aspiringSapphireYes queen you can
For content watch allery chem on YouTube and go through class PowerPoints, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help too.
Use PMT for past papers and when making notes and OMG MAKE MINDMAPS!!
Practice is what’ll make your grade go up fast.
Do a past papers and turn the questions you got wrong into flashcards, and put the mark scheme on the other side of the card (I used gizmo online to make flashcards). At first it’ll seem like you’re getting loads wrong but trust the process! Before attempting your next paper go through your flashcards and brush up on any content you found hard. Do this for every AS and A level paper, then it’ll get to a point where you’ve run out of papers so start redoing them all again! Doing papers twice like this is actually quite helpful. It’ll help you remember those questions that get repeated A LOT and it’ll help you remember those mark scheme specific answers and also required practicala and 6 markers. Each past paper you’ll start seeing improvements so don’t be discouraged! On the day of my actual exams I spent the whole morning blurting through my mindmaps and flashcards and mark schemes.
What topics are you most struggling on?
For content watch allery chem on YouTube and go through class PowerPoints, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help too.
Use PMT for past papers and when making notes and OMG MAKE MINDMAPS!!
Practice is what’ll make your grade go up fast.
Do a past papers and turn the questions you got wrong into flashcards, and put the mark scheme on the other side of the card (I used gizmo online to make flashcards). At first it’ll seem like you’re getting loads wrong but trust the process! Before attempting your next paper go through your flashcards and brush up on any content you found hard. Do this for every AS and A level paper, then it’ll get to a point where you’ve run out of papers so start redoing them all again! Doing papers twice like this is actually quite helpful. It’ll help you remember those questions that get repeated A LOT and it’ll help you remember those mark scheme specific answers and also required practicala and 6 markers. Each past paper you’ll start seeing improvements so don’t be discouraged! On the day of my actual exams I spent the whole morning blurting through my mindmaps and flashcards and mark schemes.
What topics are you most struggling on?
I went from a C in feb mocks to an A in the real thing by doing this so it’s deffo possible don’t give up
Reply 7
Original post
by Soph_grace160I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
Hi,
For A-level Chemistry, I’d recommend going through the specification using RAG (red, amber, green) to identify any weak areas. Making active recall resources such as flashcards and mindmaps, completing topic by topic questions on physicsandmathstutor, then moving onto full past papers once confident with all content. I found MaChemGuy and Allery Chemistry on YouTube really useful for areas I struggled with or for past paper walkthroughs.
Hope this helps,
Tayba
Student Rep
Reply 8
A-level chemistry is an absolute horror, isn't it? I've seen Allery Chemistry (especially great for calculations), and physics&maths tutor mentioned on here, which I found really helpful, and I would also recommend the CGP revision book. Sometimes having something explained in a different way from the teacher and textbook is what it takes to really make something click, and I found the reaction pathway mindmap in the book so helpful for organic synthesis questions.
Reply 9
Original post
by Soph_grace160I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
I'm not particularly keen in giving resources and general tips (like "revise more", "use CGP"), since these vary in efficacy from person to person. However, I would give Allery Chemistry/The Chemsitry Tutor/Chemistry Student a try, if you're looking to cover topics in full from first principle. They were great help to me when I did the course - the videos are quite lengthy (in the form of a full lesson), but listening actively is definetly worth it.
Otherwise, getting a C to an A is definetly more than possible in four months. Just gotta kick it up a notch and work up a little bit more 💪
Any specific questions (or just advice in general) please feel free to ask. I'm more than happy to help in any topic, and just help to explain any tricky concepts
Reply 10
Original post
by Soph_grace160I’m really struggling with year 13 chem and I really need to achieve an A in the subject but literally can only ever pull of Cs and Ds, did anyone go from a C to an A in 4 months? I’m desperate for the A so I can go into my course in uni but I just don’t understand the content
There is already some wonderful advice on this thread, but it would really help to know which exam board you are with in order to recommend you possible resources that may help.
As above, you have a TSR account, so make the most of it. If you attempt a past paper question, lose marks on it and can’t understand for the life of you what the MS is on about, ask someone here to help you understand it - especially if you can’t ask your teacher for whatever reason.
It’s perfectly possible to go from a C to an A in a matter of months, but it isn’t easy. Again, a problem shared is a problem halved - feel free to ask TSR for help with exam questions and a user like myself, nxvastel, pigster or Charco will inevitably help you out.
Reply 11
hi, I’m in basically the same situation as you but I’ve found that memorising chemrevise notes with flashcards has been rlly helpful
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