Required practicals
The 8 AQA required practicals — method, variables, the graph or calculation, and the marks students throw away. At least 15% of the marks come from practical work — these pages are built to bank them.
Making a pure, dry soluble salt
Prepare pure, dry crystals of a soluble salt (e.g. copper sulfate) from an insoluble base and a dilute acid.
Acid-alkali titration
Find the volume of acid needed to neutralise a known volume of alkali, and use it to work out an unknown concentration.
Electrolysis of aqueous solutions
Investigate what is produced at each electrode when aqueous solutions are electrolysed using inert electrodes.
Temperature changes in reactions
Investigate the temperature change of reacting solutions — for example how the volume of one reactant affects the temperature change in neutralisation.
Rate of reaction & concentration
Investigate how changing the concentration of a reactant affects the rate of reaction, measured by gas volume or by how long a mixture takes to turn cloudy.
Paper chromatography
Separate and identify the coloured substances in a mixture (e.g. inks or food dyes) and calculate their Rf values.
Identifying ions
Identify the ions in unknown compounds using flame tests, metal-hydroxide precipitates, and tests for carbonate, sulfate and halide ions.
Water analysis & purification
Analyse water samples for pH and dissolved solids, and produce pure water from a sample by distillation.
Practical marks are the easiest to bank
They repeat every year and reward method recall. Tell me which practical you're shaky on. Free intro call, then a free first lesson.
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Everything here stays free. If Chemistry is where the marks keep going, I teach it one to one from the mark schemes. Free intro call, then a free first lesson.