Hi! I have an upcoming practical exam on titrations with a written component on the Acidic Environment Syllabus 1 (indicators) and Syllabus 4. I was just wondering if you had any tips for studying for these sort of exams, as well as any helpful information on those syllabus's? Sorry, this is really vague and open-ended, I'm just a bit uncertain as to how I prepare!
Also, are there any rules to determining whether a substance is a strong/weak acid/base when just given it's formula?
Thanks so much!
Hey Grace!
I'll answer your last question first, as honestly it's just easier; no, there is no way to know whether something is a strong/weak substance based entirely on its formula (as far as I know, and definitely as far as your Curriculum goes). The only way you could be required to 'know' is if it is a substance you regularly use in the Syllabus (ie. HCl and H2SO4 are strong, Citric is weak etc.) or, experimentally, you could tell based on the pH of a substance.
What I mean by that is you could create a dilute/concentrated solution, test its pH, and determine its strength. If you put 0.1 Mol of monoprotic acid into 1L of water, you would expect the concentration of
to be 0.1mol/L for a strong acid (and therefore the pH to be 1). If you test this experimentally, and find the pH to be higher, you know its a weak acid!
As for the general "How do I study for a practical exam!" question, I think that's definitely harder to answer. Have a working understanding of the dot points, to which I can only suggest writing your own notes, talking to friends about the dotpoints, and answering past HSC questions on those specific dotpoints. Then, make sure you are very, very comfortable with the terms Reliability, Validity and Accuracy in terms of first-hand experiments. If you're not sure, Reliability refers to repetition, Validity refers to experimental design testing the required variable (ie. controlling variables etc.) and Accuracy refers to the precision of instruments. Then, make sure you know which the independent and dependent variables are. Look through potential practical tasks that can be drawn from the dotpoints in those two sections, in case you can guess the question.
Other than that, I don't really have specific tips! If you have a good idea of the chemistry in those sections, understand experimental design, and bring a Ruler for your graph, you'll be totally fine!
An extra note: make sure to write out procedures in past tense, in case you have to!
Let me know if there is anything (more specific, preferably aha) else I can help you with!
Jake