When studying high-school Chemistry, OCR A level is your definite final exam to attain the qualification. Learn how to best prepare for this exam here

Chemistry is one of the hardest school subjects to master, and the corresponding OCR A Level Chemistry exam is a great challenge for any student. We at StudyMind.co.uk are striving to provide the best possible services for students that are willing to surpass this challenge – including personal tutoring, database of OCR Chemistry past papers and continuous support. Learn in this article about the competent preparation tactics to prepare for OCR A level Chemistry exam.

The exam should be taken carefully

The most effective method of preparation in the short term

It is important to mention right away that if you decide to start preparing for the final exam in chemistry in just a few months’ notice, the best option is not to study at all – even if using specifically only OCR A Level Chemistry past papers, you won’t even be able to learn the A Level Chemistry periodic table in time.

This is because you need to take the exam thoughtfully, and preparing in a hurry, as a rule, gives the corresponding result, which is spontaneous, unpredictable and rather deplorable.

As such, the decision to take the exam in chemistry should be a balanced, thoughtful one. It is advisable to fully understand that you are going to take the Chemistry exam no later than September of your last year at High School (and, of course, the earlier the better).

The dedication and commitment are of crucial importance

As far as how to prepare, well, any preparation method will be effective if you are ready to dedicate yourself to proper learning. The tutors and course instructors, even though they will most likely be pretty qualified and professional, will not be the main beneficiaries of your success at the exam. So, set this as a dogma that the only person who is interested in the successful exam result is yourself –- and act accordingly.

You should always keep in mind that tutors and courses per se are by no means a panacea, and the mere fact that you are employing this method will not guarantee the successful passing of the exam. The one and only self-control is crucial to make it possible to get a positive result, everything else can only help to a greater or lesser extent.

The effective way to have a self-preparation

Any academic preparation should begin with a deep and thorough “revision” of knowledge already had. It is important to understand how well you are doing with the main sections of chemistry, with what is submitted for the exam. It will surely turn out that you know some sections quite well, some worse – and some you simply missed and totally don’t know yet.

You can conduct such a self-assessment using the OCR Chemistry A level past papers. It is recommended to solve one past paper per day for 3-5 days, and then collect statistics for each task: this will help you roughly understand your level at the beginning of preparation.

The most efficient work algorithm

When preparing for the Chemistry exam, start with the very basics and only then move on to other topics. Study the subject section by section, be sure to solve corresponding tasks after each fragment of the theory, look at mistakes, think about why they happened. Clarify in books or on the Internet all the points that caused difficulties.

It is useful upon completion of the study of large blocks, for example, inorganic chemistry, to solve several “prefabricated” past papers, which consist only of the tasks of this block, but are interspersed.

The effectiveness of self-preparation along the weak school teachings

Even if your high school teacher was not best of class, self-preparation still in any case remains effective. Every other method can also take place, of course, but without dedicated self-preparation work it will all be meaningless. If a student chooses an exam in chemistry, it means that he does it consciously, including a sensible assessment of his own resources.

Sore points

The important nuances that should be paid attention to

Everything here is purely individual: it depends on the school curriculum, and on the level of teaching, and, for example, on which sections the student happened to miss at high school (say, due to illness), and which ones not. A specific answer to this question will always be given to everyone by proper self-assessment, which was already mentioned above.

The types of problems that are most likely to be difficult

On the whole, the most typical problem at the exam has little to do with chemistry itself – it is a lack of attention. Indeed, very often graduates in the exam are let down not by knowledge, but by inattention – and the inability, under stress and within a strict time limit to first read and understand the task, only then start solving it, painstakingly perform all the calculations in the task, not make mistakes in math’s, put the coefficients in a simple rather than a complex equation.

It has happened that a student who correctly wrote down a complex redox reaction at the same time simply inattentively forgot the coefficients in an elementary equation, like the interaction of aluminum with sulfur. Such mistakes are especially heart-breaking. Therefore, train your attention, and solve as many past papers as possible to besten your exam time management.

Recommendations on how to train attention

It is honestly hard to give advice on how to increase the attention span, and there can be no universal solution to this problem – the same way there is no universal way of preparation for exams.

However, one important tip is to avoid the infinite scrolling in apps like TikTok or Instagram at all costs – they are proven to decrease the attention span of a user, and it is hard to regain it afterwards.