Welcome to the new A-Level portal for chemistry. You will find info and details of the course here. You should also use the course books (A-Level Chemistry for OCR – Rob Ritchie and Dave Gent, The A-Z of Chemistry and the school Lab-book)
For teaching the new A-level is split into “modules” details of which can be found below.
Module 1: Foundation Chemistry
- Atomic and Electronic Structure
- Mole calculations
- Acids and their reactions
- Using the reactions of acids
- Oxidation and reduction
- Electronegativity
- Bonding and intermolecular bonding
- Shapes of molecules
Module 2: The Periodic Table and Energy
- History of the periodic table
- Ionisation energy
- Periodicity
- Trends and patterns in:
- Group II
- Group VII
- Enthalpy changes
- Measuring Enthalpy
- Hess’ law
- Rates of reaction
- Changing the rate of reaction
- The equilibrium constant
Module 3: Organic Chemistry
- Nomenclature
- Isomerism
- Functional groups
- Alkanes
- Alkenes
- Alcohols
- Aldehydes
- Ketones
- Carboxylic acids
- Halogenoalkanes
- Mechanisms
- Addition
- Radical substitution
- Nucleophilic substitution
- Environmental impact of halogenoalkanes
- Synthesis
- Mass spectrometry
- IR Spectroscopy
Definitions form a major part of the A.S and help can be found here.
Exam Dates
- Unit 1: Breadth in chemistry 1 h 30 min
Fri 27 May am - Unit 2: Depth in chemistry 1 h 30 min
Fri 10 June pm
Past papers
This is a new specification. The papers are different if you sit an AS or the full A level. For the A.S. There are still two exams the first ‘Breadth in Chemistry’ has some multiple choice structured and other longer answers on the course content and practical skills. The second is titled ‘Depth in Chemistry’ and is all structured or longer answer questions.
At A level there are three papers: Periodic table, elements and physical chemistry, Synthesis and analytical techniques and Unified chemistry.
Because the exams require extensive knowledge of practical skills, you will also work towards the practical endorsement. This is only awarded for the full A-Level.
As this is a new course there are very few papers available for it. However, it’s still worth looking at older papers to revise. You can find a selection below…
unit 1
Mark Schemes
- MS Jan 2009
- MS Jun 2009 (also contains U2)
- MS Jan 2010 (also contains U2 & U4)
- MS U1 June 2010
- MS U1 Jan 2011
- MS U1 June 2011
- MS U1 Jan 2012
- MS U1 June 2012
unit 2
Past Papers
Mark Schemes
- MS June 2009 (Also contains U1)
- MS Jan 2010 (Also contains U1 & U4)
- MS U2 June 2010
- MS U2 Jan 2011
- MS U2 June 2011
- MS U2 Jan 2012
- MS U2 June 2012