Welcome to part 3 of my A Level honest reviews! Today is about chemistry, not a subject I particularly love or hate, we just have a “meh” relationship. I find it easier than physics, but not as interesting as bio (I fell asleep lots of times oops…). Many people take chemistry though, no matter if you are team bio or team physics (or even team arts!) because chemistry is the foundation of science (as said by my teacher). If there are no atoms, what would make up the animals we study in biology? What would make up the things we push in physics? Whether you take it because you love it, or like me, you take it because you need it, read on to find out my experience with A Level Chemistry.
What can I expect?
I didn’t feel any significant jump between high school and A Levels. The first few chapters were slightly mind blowing, it totally changed my idea of the atom, but other than that I think it was fairly manageable. I did have an amazing lecturer though. We could ask her anything literally anytime and she would always make time to help us. So that really did help me adjust to the new course. One thing I did have trouble with was organic chemistry, especially in Paper 1. In class we learned really basic concepts but the questions, whoaaaa, they were kind of scary. Thankfully my lecturer was willing to help us, so many past papers later we got back on track.
How many papers are there?
At AS, there’s Paper 1, 2 and 3.
- Paper 1: 40 MCQ questions, 1 hour
- Paper 2: Structured questions, 1 hour 15 minutes
- Paper 3: Practical paper, 2 hours
At A2, there’s Paper 4 and 5
- Paper 4: Structured questions, 2 hours
- Paper 5: Written practical, 1 hour 15 minutes
How’s the workload?
It’s not as much as biology, but a little more than physics. I’d say its a moderate workload. There’s quite a good balance between chapters on calculations and on memorisation, so it’s not so draining to revise. The memorisation is mostly for organic chemistry (check out my organic chem notes here!). For chemistry I find past papers to be very useful because the questions in exams tend to twist and turn so you have to do more to be familiar. In AS we had a big question on a topic that was seldom asked, so don’t skimp on revising, even if it seems it won’t come out (trust me it does TT) Oh, be sure to remember the AS content. A2 content is AS content but more in depth so make sure your foundation is strong!
What’s the practical paper like?
Also easier than bio, harder than physics! The questions aren’t as predictable as physics, but I find them more doable than the bio papers. In Paper 3, the first part is an experiment where you’ll plot a graph, the second part is qualitative analysis. You have to be fast in Paper 3! Read the entire paper before you start anything so you can plan out your time. Maybe work on calculations while you’re waiting for the water bath to boil, do the experiment that requires cooling first etc. QA for me was pretty challenging, it gets confusing sometimes. Try your best to pay attention anytime you do QA questions in class so you know what each result should look like. Make sure you know the QA table at the back well so you don’t waste time looking for results. My lecturer told us, it’s not about who’s smarter, but who can work smarter! For Paper 5, practice practice practice and you’ll be fine. It’s also a moderate paper, not too hard, not too easy. But don’t waste time doing the old style past papers because they recently changed the format. We don’t have to write entire procedures anymore. The most challenging part for me was when they asked why a result was anomalous. Till this day I’m still blur about that, so if you are too, clarify it with your lecturer!
How’s the jump from AS to A2?
A slight jump I would say due to the time constraint. There are only a few completely new chapters, the rest are AS topics in more depth. Baisically it’s the same as AS, do past papers, revise consistently, and you’ll be a-okay.
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