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Cambridge International AS and A Level Chemistry Revision Guide PDF

273 Pages·2011·10.24 MB·English
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CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS AND A LEVEL CHEMISTRY REVISION GUIDE David Bevan Hachette UK’s policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Orders: please contact Bookpoint Ltd, 130 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4SB. tel: (44) 01235 827827; fax: (44) 01235 400401; email: Cambridge International AS and A Level Chemistry Revision Guide Contents Introduction About this guide ........................................................................................................... 5 The syllabus ................................................................................................................. 5 Assessment .................................................................................................................. 6 Scientific language ...................................................................................................... 8 Revision ........................................................................................................................ 8 The examination ......................................................................................................... 10 n n n Content Guidance 1 Atoms, molecules and stoichiometry ................................................................... 14 2 Atomic structure .................................................................................................. 23 3 Chemical bonding ................................................................................................ 29 4 States of matter .................................................................................................... 39 5 Chemical energetics .............................................................................................. 49 6 Electrochemistry .................................................................................................. 56 7 Equilibria ............................................................................................................... 67 8 Reaction kinetics ................................................................................................... 78 9 Chemical periodicity ............................................................................................ 86 10 Group chemistry ................................................................................................... 93 11 The transition elements ...................................................................................... 104 12 Nitrogen and sulfur ............................................................................................. 113 13 Introduction to organic chemistry ...................................................................... 118 14 Hydrocarbons ...................................................................................................... 130 15 Halogen and hydroxy compounds ...................................................................... 139 16 Carbonyl compounds .......................................................................................... 149 17 Carboxylic acid and their derivatives ................................................................. 154 18 Nitrogen compounds ........................................................................................... 163 AS/A-level Chemistry 19 Polymerisation .................................................................................................... 170 20 Applications of chemistry ................................................................................... 175 Experimental Skills & Investigations Paper 3: AS practical paper ...................................................................................... 219 Paper 5: A2 assessment ........................................................................................... 225 n n n Questions & Answers About this section ..................................................................................................... 230 AS exemplar paper .................................................................................................... 231 A2 exemplar paper ................................................................................................... 244 'Try this yourself' answers ....................................................................................... 269 n n n Cambridge International AS and A Level Chemistry Revision Guide Introduction About this guide This book is intended to help you to prepare for your University of Cambridge International AS and A level chemistry examinations. It is a revision guide, which you can use alongside your usual textbook as you work through your course, and also towards the end when you are revising for your examination. The guide has four main sections: ●● This Introduction contains an overview of the AS and A2 chemistry courses and how they are assessed, some advice on revision and advice on the question papers. ●● The Content Guidance provides a summary of the facts and concepts that you need to know for the AS and A2 chemistry examinations. ●● The Experimental Skills section explains the data-handling skills you will need to answer some of the questions in the written papers. It also explains the practical skills that you will need in order to do well in the practical examination. ●● The Questions and Answers section contains practice examination papers for you to try. There is also a set of students’ answers for each question, with comments from an examiner. There are a number of ways to use this book. We suggest you start by reading through this Introduction, which will give you some suggestions about how you can improve your knowledge and skills in chemistry and about some good ways of revising. It also gives you pointers into how to do well in the examination. The Content Guidance will be especially useful when you are revising, as will the Questions and Answers. The syllabus It is a good idea to have your own copy of the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) AS and A level chemistry syllabus. You can download it from http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/uppersec/alevel/ The Syllabus Content provides details of the chemical facts and concepts that you need to know, so keep a check on this as you work through your course. The Syllabus Content is divided into 25 sections, 1 to 11.3. Each section contains many learning outcomes. If you feel that you have not covered a particular learning outcome, or if you feel that you do not understand something, it is a good idea to work to correct this at an early stage. Don’t wait until revision time! Do look through all the other sections of the syllabus as well. There is a useful section on Glossary of terms used in science papers and another giving resources to help you in your study. 5 introduction Introduction Syllabus content The content of the A-level syllabus is divided into 25 sections: Topic 1 Atoms, molecules and stoichiometry Topic 2 Atomic structure Topic 3 Chemical bonding Topic 4 States of matter Topic 5 Chemical energetics Topic 6 Electrochemistry Topic 7 Equilibria Topic 8 Reaction kinetics Topic 9.1 The periodic table: chemical periodicity Topic 9.2 Group II Topic 9.3 Group IV Topic 9.4 Group VII Topic 9.5 An introduction to the chemistry of transition elements Topic 9.6 Nitrogen and sulfur Topic 10.1 Introductory organic chemistry Topic 10.2 Hydrocarbons Topic 10.3 Halogen derivatives Topic 10.4 Hydroxy compounds Topic 10.5 Carbonyl compounds Topic 10.6 Carboxylic acids and derivatives Topic 10.7 Nitrogen compounds Topic 10.8 Polymerisation Topic 11.1 The chemistry of life Topic 11.2 Applications of analytical chemistry Topic 11.3 Design and materials The main part of this book, the Content Guidance, summarises the facts and concepts covered by the learning outcomes in all of these 25 sections. Some of these sections deal only with AS material and some with just A2 material. Most chapters contain aspects of both AS and A2, and the A2 material is clearly indicated by a bar in the margin. Assessment The AS examination can be taken at the end of the first year of your course, or with the A2 examination papers at the end of the second year of your course. What is assessed? Both the AS and A2 examinations will test three Assessment Objectives. These are: 6 Cambridge International AS and A Level Chemistry Revision Guide A: Knowledge with understanding This involves your knowledge and understanding of the facts and concepts described in the learning outcomes in all of the 25 sections. Questions testing this Assessment Objective will make up 46% of the whole A-level examination. B: Handling information and solving problems This requires you to use your knowledge and understanding to answer questions involving unfamiliar contexts or data. The examiners ensure that questions testing this Assessment Objective cannot have been practised by candidates. You will have to think to answer these questions, not just remember! An important part of your preparation for the examination will be to gain confidence in answering this kind of question. Questions testing this Assessment Objective will make up 30% of the whole examination. C: Experimental skills and investigations This involves your ability to do practical work. The examiners set questions that require you to carry out experiments. It is most important that you take every oppor- tunity to improve your practical skills as you work through your course. Your teacher should give you plenty of practice doing practical work in a laboratory. Questions testing this Assessment Objective will make up 24% of the whole A-level examina- tion. This Assessment Objective is assessed in the AS practical paper (Paper 3) and in Paper 5 at A2. Notice that more than half of the marks in the examination — 54% — are awarded for Assessment Objectives B and C. You need to work hard on developing these skills, as well as learning facts and concepts. There is guidance about this on pages 219–228 of this book. The examination The AS examination has three papers: ●● Paper 1 Multiple choice ●● Paper 2 Structured questions ●● Paper 3 Advanced practical skills Paper 1 and Paper 2 test Assessment Objectives A and B. Paper 3 tests Assessment Objective C. Paper 1 contains 40 multiple-choice questions. You have 1 hour to answer this paper. This works out at about one question per minute, with time left over to go back through some of the questions again. Paper 2 contains structured questions. All the questions must be answered. You write your answers on the question paper. You have 1 hour 15 minutes to answer this paper. Paper 3 is a practical examination. You will work in a laboratory. As for Paper 2, you write your answers on lines provided in the question paper. You have 2 hours to answer this paper. 7 introduction Introduction The A2 examination has two papers: ●● Paper 4 Structured questions ●● Paper 5 Planning, analysis and evaluation Paper 4 tests Assessment Objectives A and B. Paper 5 tests Assessment Objective C. Paper 4 has two sections and you have 2 hours to complete it. All the questions must be answered. You write your answers on the question paper. Paper 5 contains a number of questions based on the practical skills, including planning, analysis and evaluation. As for Paper 4, you write your answers on lines provided in the question paper. Note that this is not a practical examination. You can find copies of past papers at http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/chemistry/asalchemistry/ pastpapers/ Scientific language Throughout your chemistry course, and especially in your examination, it is impor- tant to use clear and correct chemical language. Scientists take great care to use language precisely. If doctors or researchers do not use exactly the right word when communicating with someone, then what they say could easily be misinterpreted. Chemistry has a huge number of specialist terms and symbols and it is important that you learn them and use them correctly. However, the examiners are testing your knowledge and understanding of chemistry, not how well you can write in English. They will do their best to understand what you mean, even if some of your spelling and grammar is not correct. Nevertheless, there are some words that you really must spell correctly, because they could be confused with other chemical terms. These include: ●● words that differ from one another by only one letter, for example ethane and ethene ●● words with similar spellings but different meanings, for example homogeneous and homolytic; catalysis and catalase; sulfurous and sulfuric; phosphorus and phosphorous In the Syllabus Content section of the syllabus, the words for which you need to know definitions are printed in italic. You will find definitions of most of these words in this text. Revision You can download a revision checklist at http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/chemistry/asalchemistry/ 8 Cambridge International AS and A Level Chemistry Revision Guide This lists all of the learning outcomes, and you can tick them off or make notes about them as your revision progresses. There are many different ways of revising, and what works well for you may not be as suitable for someone else. Have a look at the suggestions below and try some of them out. ●● Revise continuously. Don’t think that revision is something you do just before the exam. Life is much easier if you keep revision ticking along all through your chemistry course. Find 15 minutes a day to look back over work you did a few weeks ago, to keep it fresh in your mind. You will find this very helpful when you come to start your intensive revision. ●● Understand it. Research shows that people learn things much more easily if the brain recognises that they are important and that they make sense. Before you try to learn a topic, make sure that you understand it. If you don’t, ask a friend or a teacher, find a different textbook in which to read about it, or look it up on the internet. Work at it until you feel you have got it sorted and then try to learn it. ●● Make your revision active. Just reading your notes or a textbook will not do any harm, but nor will it do much good either. Your brain only puts things into its long-term memory if it thinks they are important, so you need to convince it that they are. You can do this by making your brain do something with what you are trying to learn. So, if you are revising from a table comparing the reactions of alkanes and alkenes, try rewriting it as a paragraph of text, or converting it into two series of equations. You will learn much more by constructing your own list of bullet points, flow diagram or table than just trying to remember one that someone else has constructed. ●● Fair shares for all. It is not a good idea to always start your revision in the same place. If you always start at the beginning of the course, then you will learn a great deal about atoms but not very much about organic chemistry or applications of chemistry. Make sure that each part of the syllabus gets its fair share of your attention and time. ●● Plan your time. You may find it helpful to draw up a revision plan, setting out what you will revise and when. Even if you don’t stick to it, it will give you a framework that you can refer to. If you get behind with it, you can rewrite the next parts of the plan to squeeze in the topics you have not yet covered. ●● Keep your concentration. It is often said that it is best to revise in short periods, say 20 minutes or half an hour. This is true for many people who find it difficult to concentrate for longer than that. But there are others who find it better to settle down for a much longer period of time — even several hours — and really get into their work and stay concentrated without interruptions. Find out which works best for you. It may be different at different times of the day. Maybe you can concentrate well for only 30 minutes in the morning, but are able to get lost in your work for several hours in the evening. ●● Don’t assume you know it. The topics in which exam candidates are least likely to do well are often the ones that they have already learned something about at GCSE, IGCSE or O-level. This is probably because if you think you 9 introduction

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