[KR1995]

Sorry for been greedy but I desperately need to post this seperately.

I have never ever touched science in my entire life until 5th year. I'm doing biology and chemistry for my leaving cert next year
I know a lot of the people say chemistry is easy enough to do well in if you do it correctly..
May I ask, what way is considered as 'correctly'?
And what is the best way to study for chemistry? I find chemistry quite tough.. but I want to acheive an A1 in it..

Please help me out, Thanks

[JeaicMaG]

• Experiments - Know them well
• Definitions - Know these like the back of your hand

Important topics:

• The first few chapters of the book are quaranteed in Q5
• Also Fuels and Heats of Reaction is Q6
• Q4 The short questions is a nice Q also

That's 6 out of 8 of your questions covered. The rest will be random apart from a guaranteed Organic Q which I tend to shy away from.

[3raser10]

do try to enjoy chemistry!...though learning notes is essential but do understand whatever u'll do..trust me it'll make chem a lot more easy! if u won't have any interest in chemistry u'll get confuse very easily & I think in chem understanding the course is much more important then learning it.Infact once u'll understand wat u r doing it will b much more easier for u to learn it (I guess)

[ash2012]

hey i'm just finishing 5th year and was wondering is it too late to pick up chemistry?? is it hard and would i have enough time to achieve a high grade ? thanks

[partyatmygaff]

It's a short course but you need to both enjoy it and be willing to work hard for your grade. The easiest way to study it I found is to stop and think. Don't just blindly read the book or learn algorithms for answering questions. Stop, think and make sure you understand everything.

[3raser10]

Originally Posted by ash2012

hey i'm just finishing 5th year and was wondering is it too late to pick up chemistry?? is it hard and would i have enough time to achieve a high grade ? thanks

I don't think you are allowed to change your subjects in 6th year. are you?

[ash2012]

yeah but i will have to change form class and and wont have extra study periods :/

[Hayezer]

Learn your experiments like mad. Try to do the 3 experiment questions.
Question 4 is random bits from all over the course, should be grand.
Theres always a chemical equilibrium question which is pretty much the same every year.
Theres always an organic question which isnt too bad.
The rest is pretty random to my understanding, fuels normally getting a question too.

So in general:Do the experiments,Q4,chemical equilibrium,organic, and two more questions! Not too bad

[wayhey]

Originally Posted by partyatmygaff

It's a short course but you need to both enjoy it and be willing to work hard for your grade. The easiest way to study it I found is to stop and think. Don't just blindly read the book or learn algorithms for answering questions. Stop, think and make sure you understand everything.

I couldn't disagree more with this, at least in the sense of wanting to obtain a high grade.

Obviously understanding the subject helps. You need to look at previous marking schemes though. Repeated questions come up all the time and in relation to certain topics there are key words and phrases that examiners are looking for to simply tick and hand you marks. Understanding helps, but there is a definite exam technique of repeating papers again and again and looking at marking schemes.

The paper is really lovely and if you've worked hard you'll have so much choice.

The experiments are absolutely crucial, you only have to answer 2 but you should aim to answer 3. Knowing Organics inside out is key to a good grade. You have to practice calculations from the book and old papers and mocks to ensure you can get full marks on those calculations. Beyond that, cover the Atomic History and Theory well for the short questions, as well as Gases. I don't think you should leave anything out, it's not a huge course. Option question (11 I think?) is lovely if you have time

You can do it in a year, but you will have to commit to working hard and being confident enough in your other 5 subjects that you can balance it. Doable though!

[Gordon Gecko]

I took it up for a repeat year and got an A2 in it. The secret really is to work off good notes, as all the books are rubbish, and practice exam questions (with the all important marking schemes) ad nauseam. If you put all your definitions and experiments onto flashcards and look over them every day then attempt and correct past paper qs you'll breeze an A it really is as simple as that.

[partyatmygaff]

Originally Posted by wayhey

I couldn't disagree more with this, at least in the sense of wanting to obtain a high grade.

Obviously understanding the subject helps. You need to look at previous marking schemes though. Repeated questions come up all the time and in relation to certain topics there are key words and phrases that examiners are looking for to simply tick and hand you marks. Understanding helps, but there is a definite exam technique of repeating papers again and again and looking at marking schemes.

If you know the "marking scheme" but don't know the course properly and the examiners decide to put on completely novel questions you'll do absolutely terribly. If you know the course, you'll have plenty to write for everything. If you know the marking schemes, you'll have a few key words to write for a few certain questions.

[Gordon Gecko]

Originally Posted by partyatmygaff

If you know the "marking scheme" but don't know the course properly and the examiners decide to put on completely novel questions you'll do absolutely terribly. If you know the course, you'll have plenty to write for everything. If you know the marking schemes, you'll have a few key words to write for a few certain questions.

Bahahaha, completely new and novel questions? In the leaving cert? In chemistry? Someone get me a corset, I think my sides have split.

[paddzdaman]

Everyone in this thread is going on about how hard chemistry is, everyone goes on about how difficult chemistry is. Everyone is trying to advise me not to chemistry next year but i see it being useful to me.

[ChemHickey]

Originally Posted by paddzdaman

Everyone in this thread is going on about how hard chemistry is, everyone goes on about how difficult chemistry is. Everyone is trying to advise me not to chemistry next year but i see it being useful to me.

It's not hard. it's only hard if you don't enjoy it. For the first few months it is harder than other subjects- But- everything falls together and it ends up being one of the nicest and easiest subjects to do and study.

[plumpote]

everything falls together

Yes,but

one of the nicest and easiest subjects

I don't think so