Succeeding in Chemistry - A guide to VCE Chem
(ps: I apologise for any errors and the bad layout)
(pps: OOPS THESE ARE MOSTLY FOR ¾ CHEM BUT CAN BE USED FOR ½ ALSO!)Coming into 3/4 chem I was very anxious as I have heard many rumours of the difficulty. As well, I was unsure about how to approach it. Throughout the year I experimented on what worked and what didn't work for me in terms of studying. I want to be able to help those who are in a similar situation as I was previously so without further ado, here are my tips on surviving and succeeding in chemistry
Firstly, I could not have done this without the
VCE Chemistry Question Thread and
Vaike’s guide to Chemistry so make sure to check those out and use them a lot!
**
Disclaimer: These are all very subjective and the following are what worked for me, so please don’t feel that this is the only way to approach chemistry. For any subject really, it’s difficult to say that doing x,y,z will make improve your score because everyone is different in their way of learning!**
The study design.
Here is the chemistry study designMany times your teacher or the textbook will go beyond the study design. While sometimes this may be beneficial, oftentimes it’s unnecessary. It’s most important to learn and master what is required rather than try to squeeze a plethora of facts in your brain that will not be needed.
My teachers based their SACs off of the study design so I annotated the crap out of my SD to ensure I have fully and properly covered the knowledge I will be tested on.
The exam is also built around the SD (I know this is a given). Pretty sure a bunch of people just get the SD and are instructed to write an exam based off of it. So if you’re up for the challenge, definitely make your own questions!
How I studied
Throughout the year I made sure I was ahead of the class content. This was so that I was less pressured in terms of homework and so that I can come into class knowing the content already.
Walking into class having already read the chapter and completed the review questions was beneficial for me. This was so I wasn’t there to learn a whole new concept but instead, I was able to solidify the content. I was lucky enough to get an amazing teacher who was able to really cement the information in my head.
In terms of actually studying I would briefly read the chapter and then complete the questions in regard to the chapter. I often had the answers open which was fine as I was only trying to get the gist of the information.
Here are some of my tips on studying:
Don't write notes (within reason)
My teacher gave us all the necessary notes so I spent absolutely 0 minutes writing notes. I feel like writing notes is redundant in chem. Chemistry is all about application, so re-reading notes will only waste your time. You’re better off to spend such time doing practice questions. This is what worked for me but it’s different for you! For some, the act of writing the notes will help cement the information in their heads. If you want to write notes do not let me stop you
If you are going to write notes let me advise you to do it
closed book. Don’t fall into the trap of simply recopying what the book is conveying, you will be more or less wasting your time. By doing it closed book you can pinpoint what you don’t know and the gaps in your knowledge. Furthermore, you will be able to convey it in your own words which shows you truly understand it.
Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions
This is singularly the best way to revise for chem. It allows you to apply your knowledge into new situations which is what VCE chem is all about. The more you are exposed to a wide variety of questions, the better you’ll be prepared for the exam!
Do these consistently and throughout the year!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT stress this enough!!!!!
In terms of obtaining these practice questions, you can try to get them online or take up the challenge of making your own. If you’re lucky, your school will provide them for you. I did not get a tutor so I spent a lot of money on commercial resources (partly because my school barely gave out any). I’ll cover these down below.
Really understand and grasp the concepts
The worst thing you can do in chem is rote learn. You need to understand what the reasoning is behind concepts.
For example in equilibrium (you might not understand this yet I’m sorry in advance). People are taught to know and they rote learn that when Q > K, the system favours the reverse process. But knowing why that is the case makes all the difference. In this case, when the Q (reaction quotient) is greater than K (the equilibrium constant), there are more products than there are reactants, creating a larger quotient. Thus, to attain equilibrium it will favour the reverse process or the formation of reactants to consume products to establish equilibrium.
This goes for any topic in chem and I cannot stress the importance of this!
Active Learning
The act of rereading notes as a form of revision is known as passive learning. It is not as effective as active learning.
Here are some examples of active learning:
> Doing practice questions (as covered above)
> Making mind maps
> Writing notes closed book.
> Making your own questions,
> Learning by teaching
The last one I haven’t really covered. Basically, when I want to revise what I know from previous topics I would whip out my SD, close the door and teach it to my plushies/teddies. Sounds ridiculous but trust me on this.
This is so effective and here’s why. If you are unable to explain it, chances are you don’t know it too well. Do you know those times when you know it, but you don’t know how to explain it on paper? Well, this helped me significantly in terms of what to say on paper. I highly highly recommend teaching as a form of learning. Do it within your study group or if you prefer to study alone, do it to your teddies
What to do throughout the year
Apple your knowledge into new situations
Some legendary ATARNotes lecturer named Jack once told us during a lecture that
‘VCAA is assessing whether or not you can apply your knowledge into new situations’ and that singularly helped me boost my SS.
Chemistry, as I have said before, is all about applying your knowledge into new situations. If you did not do exam questions consistently, or if you simply rote learned you are failing to prepare yourself for your sacs and exams. In practising to apply your knowledge, new questions won’t alarm you as you will know how to approach it.
You will often be exposed to questions you have never practised or come across before and that’s ok! All you need to do is realise that the concepts are there, just presented in a different way that needs a different approach. This mentality is key to succeeding in chemistry. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve turned the page and went
what
? but that was okay because remembering this helped me out significantly in every question that I attempted.
This is why consistently doing questions will benefit you in chemistry. In doing so, you can practice applying your knowledge and you’ll have an idea on how to approach new/unfamiliar questions.
I wish I could meet him (Jack) again and thank him because he single-handedly saved my study score because remembering this advice helped me out so much.
Experimental Design
Do not neglect the experimental design component of chem. I did and I certainly paid for it. My extended investigation sac (the poster one) got 76% and I thought I kissed my chances of raw 40 goodbye. Thankfully I was wrong. But still, I revised this very late and I can tell you that the bulk of my mistakes are from that difficult experimental design from this year’s chem exam.
Make sure you know how to evaluate an experiment. Make sure you can answer:
Is the method valid? Are the results valid?
Are there any errors (systematic and random)? If so, how did they impact the results
Was it accurate or precise? Was it both?
What are the IV/DVs? What are the controlled?
What are some modifications would you make? Justify this.
It’s one of the hardest things in chem imo and you need to ensure you’ve properly covered it!
I think the reason why I neglected this is simply because I had no way of covering it. My school provided meagre help in this area and neglected to guide us students which really jeopardised us. Please, please, cover this area properly.
Calculations
I’m sure you’re aware of how important maths is in chemistry. I think what’s more important is how you set up your work. My strength, I realised, was on calculations, partly because my teacher indoctrinated us the importance of setting up your work.
SO SET UP YOUR WORK. Not only will it be clearer to the examiners to allocate you the marks, but it will also be easier to see where you’ve made your mistakes.
Make sure to identify what species/substance you’re calculating the mole or mass of. For example, if you’re calculating the mole of sodium hydroxide, write n(NaOH) = m/M. Always include the formula you’re using.
Examples of setting up calculations are attached down below!
Keep a logbook of your mistakes
You’ll find that you make the same mistakes sometimes and it’s great to see where you’re struggling and not doing so well in. I wish I did this earlier as I’ve only started doing this once I did practice exams.
Especially keep a lookout for those silly errors. Keeping track of them helps you be aware of them come sac/exam time!
Did you miscopy 102g as 120g? Did you misread the question? Did you mistype into the calculator? Did you forget to put the equilibrium arrows? Did you put the answer in the wrong sig figs? (those are just some from my long, long list of my stupid mistakes)
Consistency
I’m confident that if you are consistent with the revision and practice questions and if you put in the effort into this subject it will all be worth it in the end! Make sure you are consistent with your chemistry studies, don’t leave it all until October
or November!
Commercial Resources
FreeKhan Academy
They were the reason why I got a grasp of electrolytic and galvanic cells along with NMR spectroscopy. Make sure to watch youtube videos to help you learn, it is soo much easier to grasp the content than traditional textbook reading.
$$$
I blew a lot of my money on commercial resources for practice questions. I compiled a summary and ratings of all my commercial resources so that I could save some of you all some $$ and time. Again, I did not buy notes (such as A+ and AtarNotes etc) as I feel that practice questions will help consolidate content better than rereading notes.
These are obviously very subjective and will vary from person to person.
Heinemman Student Workbook
Rate: 5/10
I completed this book after learning about a topic in class. It was pretty good in that it helped me consolidate the topic. I recommend using this before going straight to exam style questions in order to help consolidate learning. The questions aren’t particularly difficult and but they are presented as activities which are more engaging than textbook questions.
Cambridge Checkpoints
Rate: 8/10
I had the latest edition and it was a pretty good resource in terms of SAC preparation. I also used this for constant revision throughout the year whenever I needed to refer to a specific topic I needed to revise. It had a pretty good structure in which easy questions were first and the questions gradually increased in difficulty. As well, they include VCAA exam questions from previous exams so it’s a great way to slowly introduce yourself to VCAA exam questions.
But it will spoil some VCAA questions for you so bear this in mind if that bothers you!
NEAP SmartStudy Questions
Rate: 8/10
These questions were separated by area of study and provided a large number of original questions. I used these religiously on the leadup of SACS along with revision throughout the year. It was a pretty resource in terms of practice questions, though I found them on the easier side!
NEAP SmartStudy Exams
Rate: 7/10
This included 4 exams in it. I did these exams first before VCAA exams which proved to be beneficial. Some questions were absolutely great, some were just meh. If you already have a plethora of exams or don’t have enough time, I suggest not spending $25 on this.
ATARNotes Topic Tests
Rate: 9/10
Amazing resource in preparation for SACS. It strongly adheres with the study design and has original VCAA style questions as well as VCAA exam questions. This was a valuable resource for me on the lead-up to SACS.
ExamPro Chemistry Exams
Rate: 7/10
This includes 8 trial sacs and 3 trial exams. This was a great resource prior to sacs. These were very difficult (much more difficult than my school sacs and VCAA) and relied on your ability to apply your knowledge. I found that some questions were unnecessarily difficult and some are very unlikely to appear on VCAA exams so just be aware of this! It also includes a lot of experimental design questions which was amazing given that I struggled to find these types of questions. The solutions booklet is also absolutely great as it goes into great depth.
VCE Units 3&4 Chemistry Exams (A+)
Rate: 2/10
Honestly, I completed 2 (i think) exams and they were a waste of my time. I found them way too easy and oftentimes they did not adhere to the study design. The questions asked often required regurgitation of facts, not application of knowledge. The questions asked are most definitely not VCAA style questions.
The exam
The exam is singularly the most important thing in chemistry (alongside your internal ranks). My exam performance saved my study score so make sure you are working towards the exam the entire year.
How to start revising
I started to do practice exams once I completed the entire course (so early September). That being said you should revise consistently and throughout the entire year, not just when you’ve finished the course. Here’s how I did that.
I set up an excel sheet which had Chapters 1-17 (based off on the Heinemann textbook, you can base it on the study design or your own textbook) on the left-hand side. So here’s what I’ll do.
If for example, today I revised Chapter 5 (which is galvanic cells). Today I found Chapter 5 really hard and struggled with it. So I will go down to Chapter 5 and write today’s date and colour it red. It so happened I also did Chapter 7 and I did really well on that I will write today’s date next to Chapter 7 and colour it green. I also did Chapter 16 and did 'okay, could be better' so I wrote today’s date and coloured it yellow.
This works well because of two reasons. It tells you which topics you’ve revised recently and which ones you’re struggling with. Once your log is filling up, simply clear out the earlier logs.
(photo attached below)
This works well on all subjects, but as you can see from the image, I abandoned this system once I started doing practice exams. Using this as a revision resource, you will see which areas of the course you’re struggling with and which areas of the course you haven’t revised in a while. In terms of
revising I would do
practice questions and/or watch youtube videos. Sometimes I would ‘teach’ it or if I’ve really forgotten it, I would revisit my teacher’s notes. This really depends on your learning style and method!
Practice Exams
Be selective of what practice exams you do. I would assume most of you will do chemistry in Year 12 as opposed to Year 11 so remember that you have 3-4 other subjects that you’ll be juggling. When doing exams quality >>>>>>> quantity.
Be especially careful when doing other company’s exams. While some might be great, they are not VCAA exams. Many do not ask questions to the same standard/difficulty while others stray away from VCAA ‘style’ questions. Once you do VCAA chemistry exams you’ll realise they have a distinct ‘style’ that many companies stray away from. Make sure you have a go at
all VCAA Exams (including NHT exams). The exams of the previous study designs are still beneficial as long as you select the appropriate questions.
I advise not wasting time on:
TSFX, LisaChem, TSSM
Do these when VCAA exams are exhausted:
STAV, NEAP, Exampro (but be selective of the questions you do!)
Looking back, I definitely wasted my time and energy attempting to complete as many exams as possible. Ultimately, you can do very well doing just the VCAA exams.
Do them timed
I know this is a given but please do try to complete exams under the time frame given on the actual exam. If 2 hours and 45 minutes is far too long, split up the exam in segments.
When I was starting off, I did the multiple choice first, aiming to get them done in 30 minutes or 35 minutes. This was so that I can get the timing right. Then I did two-three questions at a time allocating a mark a minute (so if the two questions were 20 marks altogether I would set a 20 min timer).
In due time I upped the number of questions until I was able to do a full exam. My speed in completing them went quicker and quicker. At some point, I was able to do VCAA exams with 40+ minutes to spare, but then I realised that it was futile trying to finish an exam as soon as possible as I overlooked stupid mistakes.
So, on the actual exam, I decided not to have time to double-check in the end, but instead take time to go through each question slowly, as if double-checking as I go. I think it worked. In short, how you pace yourself is totally up to you.
How you go about answering the exam is also up to you. You can begin with the multi-choice or the short answer... it doesn't really matter as long as you attempt all questions and finish within the given time frame.
Answer in context of the question
VCAA likes to give questions that trip up students in this manner. They take advantage of the fact that many students simply regurgitate a memorised answer.
For example (I forgot what year this question sorry!), the question specifies a specific structural design of the lithium battery which allows it to be rechargeable. The question then asks what made the battery rechargeable. Most of the state answered with the general answer that it was because the products were in the vicinity of the electrodes or something along those lines. However, the answer called for the structural design as specified in the question.
Moral of the story: ANSWER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE QUESTION.
Learning from practice exams
Of course, doing practice exams is futile if you do not learn from them. Make sure you track your mistakes and keep a log of them to redo them and to ensure you do not make them in the future!
Make sure you study the VCAA exams meticulously (sounds ridiculous I know) and get familiar with the type of questions they ask and the structure of the exam.
Structure of the exam
I wanted to point your attention to the fact that there is a trend with recent exams. For the second last question it is generally an experimental design question (usually pretty difficult so make sure to prepare for this!) The last question is generally an extended response (usually a four/five marker!) from an area of study. For example, last year’s was on biodiesel, the year before it was on triglycerides and GI. They are totally random and it’s pretty hard to get full marks (imo).
Exam Reports
Another great resource. I used this to see how examiners give their marks so that I know what to show them during calculations, what they’re looking for in responses and what the state usually gets wrong. A mistake I made was not using them to see what they’re looking for in short answers and how they give the marks...make sure to have a look at them!
Enjoy it
I attribute my success in this subject to my passion for it and the fact that I truly did enjoy and love it (sometimes it made me want to bash my head onto a wall but that's ok). Chemistry is a great subject where it pulls all your knowledge together from across all study designs and challenges you to apply it in a new situation. It's difficult, yes, but you might as well enjoy it while you're are it.
I didn’t do absolutely amazing in chemistry as shown by my ss. I made so many silly errors that I overlooked and that I couldn’t rectify. I knew my stuff, but I couldn’t translate that onto paper. My advice is to ensure to
eliminate any silly errors you make. This will definitely differentiate your ss from a 45 to 50. Unfortunately, I can’t give you advice on that as I struggle with that myself
I apologise for the length but I just wanted to say that my messages are open throughout the year. Feel free to message me personally or down below if you have any queries or if I've missed something
Here’s a summary
- Study smarter, not harder
- Apply your knowledge into new situations
- Do practice/exam questions consistently
- Do not rote learn
- Make sure to be able to answer the ‘why’ component of concepts.
- Be consistent
- Enjoy it
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