Chemistry

All about Chemistry. 
In short, how to excel in chemistry? It is hidden within the subject name itself--> CHEM.IS.TRY. Hahaha that was what our teacher told us (kinda lame). Chemistry is my most loved subject after math. It is super cool and super fun, the troubles only come when teachers set the questions in a way such that you have no idea what they are trying to get you to do. Yeap, that's the latest trend. It's like finding the hidden message (topic) behind the question. Of course, there are questions that mixes up different topics together, that would be in the O levels.

My Chemistry Teachers. 
Mr Goh is my school teacher. He has his own notes which he makes all his students print for lesson use. I personally find them too detailed but wells, that saves the effort of writing your own for some people. Chemistry worksheets are provided by the school, but he marks them really strictly and even do the corrections for everyone in the class-.-" Reason: He has major OCD (oppressive compulsive disorder), in other words, he can't stand seeing mistakes in the paper. Weird but well, that saves us the corrections too! He has tons of his own worksheets, but he only gives out after prelims. We are drilled lesson after lesson by doing hundreds of mcq papers. My fastest record of completing one full mcq paper: 15 minutes.

Mrs Kang is my tutor. She is THE  BEST. Really, but I heard she is migrating to New Zealand. So one less capable teacher in Singapore coaching students, what a pity.

How to excel in Chemistry? Study tips, you would call them. 
1. Pay attention in class
2. Read the notes or textbook after the lesson before doing the worksheets to make sure you understand
3. Write your own notes
4. Do the worksheets given
5. Do tys topical worksheets or assessment papers (when i was sec 3, I found the tys too difficult for chemistry because olevel tends to mix up topics and some questions are out of syllabus)
6. Do corrections if necessary
7. Update your notes on important things you need to take note of in the chapter.
8. DO NOT SCREW UP YOUR SPA EXAM. IT CAN COST YOU THE A1 THAT YOU DESERVE.

It can be difficult to do this when you are in secondary 4 because of all the time constraints. So I recommend using your school notes/tuition notes for tests. Before a major exam, compile everything and write your own notes. It is possible, because I did this before each major exam. I re-write my notes to help me memorise.

ONLY TOWARDS OLEVELS TIPS
1. Do the yearly TYS after you are taught ALL the topics. Ask your school for the answer key because according to my tutor, the publisher answer keys might not be very accurate. (my tutor provides her own answer key to the tys)
2. Keep practising MCQ questions. Do other schools prelim papers, do assessment book mcq questions, find your school worksheets to do, do the tys mcq. Trust me, 70-80% are the same once you have done enough. Do so much that at one glance you know what the question is asking for already. To secure an A1 in olevels, the minimum you should get for mcq is 35 marks according to my teacher. I scored 39/40 in olevels, one question i didnt read carefully enough. Remember to read every single word in olevels when you are checking, I was over confident with that question and so I got cheated of that one mark.
3**. Paper 2 Section B. First question is always source based question. It can get really difficult because it is definitely a no-repeat-question in the olevels. You have to extra information you need from the source they give you and answer the question. So, in order for you not to lose your confidence in the paper, start by doing the second questions, then the either/or question, then go back to that first question. At least you would not panick from not knowing how to do a 10 marks question.
4. Once you are nearing the olevels, you should already know that there is a certain part of the chapter that exams like to test. Focus on that part. Unless you have a super power memory bank, do not try memorising all the little details of the chapter. Yes, that is risky but worth it. Why worth 1/2 marks on little details when most important parts are worth 5-6 marks?

My experience in olevels
Unfortunately, chemistry paper 2 fell on the same day as my e.geog paper (geog students were just so unlucky) My geog is weaker than my chemistry, so i spent friday studying chem, sat and sun studying only geog. After the geog paper, tried to memorise more chem stuff. My poor brain was so tired so i only looked at the set of concise notes my tutor gave me.

During the paper, there was this question: How does the catalyst help to lower the activation energy of the reaction? [2 marks]    (not exact due to poor memory)
I totally didnt have a single idea how to do it. It was the first time I saw this question. And I am pretty sure you wouldnt be able to find the answer in the textbook. So i just crapped an answer out. It turned out that the topical notes my tutor gave actually had the answer right in it. I figured that out when i was studying for my chem paper 1. Just this one small paragraph in one entire stack of chemistry notes. I wasn't even angry at myself for not reading it. Seriously.

In the end, I still managed to score an A1 in chemistry. Chemistry may be my favourite science, but my chem results have always been 75<x<85. So yeah, study the important parts, those are the ones that will give out most of the marks.


That's all for this post. I do realise that my tips for chemistry is rather short compared to humanities, but that is because the key to science is to understand and practice. No magic formulas in science. Maybe just some hidden agenda in the questions. Till then~

**Paper 2 Section B last question is always an "either/or" question, meaning you can choose the question you want to do. My friend once asked my teacher, can they put it an "neither/nor" for a change?