A-Level Chemistry is a difficult A-Level, but with lots of hard work and determination, I managed to achieve an A* at the end of my course and I grew to love chemistry a lot more. At the start of year 12, I was panicking that I wasn’t understanding everything, but by the time it came to by Year 13 exams, I felt fairly confident that all my hard work would pay off. Here are some of the tips/techniques that I used for Chemistry, I really hope they are beneficial to you! The exam board I did was AQA, but many of the UK exam boards are similar for Chemistry. Text Books I used the CGP text book for A-Level chemistry, it covers all of the content in a way that was easy to understand, but the right amount of detail! However, I think chemistry is a subject that you can’t learn mostly from a text book, it’s heavily reliant on understanding and maths skills. I didn’t make as many notes for chemistry as I did for biology, as it is a subject that requires less memorization and more application. I also had the Oxford Text Book for chemistry but I didn’t use this that often, it depends on your budget which text books you buy. If you’re struggling to afford text books for A-Levels, try and speak to someone at your sixth form as they may offer bursaries for students based on your household income.
Youtube videos
One of the resources I used the most was ‘E Rintoul’ on Youtube- honestly, his channel is amazing and he explains every topic of chemistry (year 12 and 13) SO well. I used these videos for understanding throughout the year, often before my lessons I would have watched the corresponding video already, and it made me cope a lot better in classes. I also used the videos for quick revision a few weeks before exams- I put it on x2 speed and made quick notes from them! He also goes through full past papers on his channel with full explanations which is so useful if you get stuck on a question.
Primrose Kitten’s channel also has amazing resources for lots of the different topics in A-Level chemistry with such good explanations! There are also different products on her website, including workbooks and flashcards, so definitely check that out if you are on the hunt for new resources 😊
Past papers
Past papers are especially important for chemistry as there is so much application involved. I left it a little late in Year 12 to do past papers and it panicked me a bit because I wasn’t used to the type of questions! On the website, ‘mathsmadeeasy’, they have a list of all of the old specification papers (for AQA). Although the content differs slightly and the new papers are a lot more difficult, these papers are perfect to do throughout the year to test your knowledge and understanding. Ask your teacher if they can set mini tests after each topic to check how you’re doing. Having a specific deadline to revise a topic before is a great source of motivation.
Memorising inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry consists mainly of content to memorise: flame tests, equations, formulae etc. You should aim to start learning these as you go through the year, please don’t leave it until last minute! Here are the techniques that I used for memorisation in chemistry:
Write out the equations (or whatever you’re trying to learn) out from memory, then check what you have written against the text book. Continue this until you are consistently getting all of them correct!
Make sure you UNDERSTAND what is happening in the equation, rather than just trying to learn a load of random numbers and letters. See if your teacher can explain this to you thoroughly- understanding something makes it so much easier to memorise, as if you forget a small part, it is easy to figure out what is supposed to be there. If your teacher is unable to explain in a way that is helping you, it might be worth doing some research to find a tutor in your area- I did this and it was the best thing I ever did. My tutor was so passionate in chemistry and I gained so much from every session.
Make posters for your bedroom- be sure to write big enough to see from a distance, use lots of colour and read them often
Make flashcards- have all of the different equations on flashcards and frequently test yourself, or get someone else to test you
Learning mechanisms
When you first start A-Level chemistry, mechanisms can be daunting - it’s likely that you haven’t seen anything similar before. I hated mechanisms at first, but by the end of year 13, they were on of my favourite parts of the specification- if you know them, they are an easy 4-5 marks in an exam (I did AQA).
Similar to inorganic chemistry, try and understand what is going on. Understand where the electrons are beginning, where they are moving to, and why that is happening. Understand the meaning of electrophile and nucleophile and their purpose. At first, I was just trying to memorise a picture, but when you understand what is happening, there really isn’t much more to learn! Don’t worry if it’s hard to get to grips with them at first, just keep persisting and you will eventually get there.
‘E Rintoul’ on Youtube has videos on all of the mechanisms and explains them so well 😊
Practicals
Practicals are a large part of the exams in Chemistry- for AQA, they can be tested on paper 1, 2 or 3- and I’m pretty sure there is one exam board that has a paper solely testing practical skills.
My tips for learning practicals, and scoring highly on practical questions:
Concentrate during all of your required practicals, put lots of effort into your practical techniques and pay attention to the results!
Do a practical write up after each one- it’s likely that you will be set this by your teacher. In science-based A-Levels (at least, for AQA!), you obtain a pass or a fail in your practical aspect. I believe this is the decision of your teacher, but sometimes an examiner may come into your sixth form to observe everyone’s skills and to have a look through your classes lab books. This happened to me in Biology last year, we just treated it like a normal practical lesson and everything went smoothly!
Use online resources to revise practicals- chemrevise has some good ones!
Practice exam questions on specific practicals, maybe print off a collection of them from different papers, and complete them- asking your teacher for help if you get stuck
Good luck to anyone who is starting A-Level chemistry this year, or anyone who is part way through the course! I hope my tips helped you in some way, and feel free to message me on Instagram (@studyingwithjasmine) if you have any more questions about my revision techniques!
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