Chemistry - Year 13

Chemistry Overview

Term 1: Equilibrium, enthalpy, redox, pH and buffers

This module builds upon knowledge from Modules 2 and 3 that students covered in year 12 and focuses teaching on: lattice enthalpy and Born–Haber cycles, acid–base equilibria including pH, Ka and buffer solutions, electrochemical cells and redox chemistry. This section also allows learners to develop practical quantitative techniques involved in the determination of reaction rates and pH. There are many opportunities for developing mathematical skills, including use of logarithms and exponents, when studying the content of this section and when carrying out quantitative practical work.

  1. End of topic assessments; 45 mins
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Term 2: Transition metals and advanced organic chemistry

This section provides learners with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the periodic table that they learnt in the year one content, within the context of the transition elements. This section includes the role of ligands in complex ions, stereochemistry, precipitation, ligand substitution and redox reactions. The colour changes and observations in these reactions increase the toolkit of qualitative inorganic tests for identifying unknown ionic compounds. We also continue the work on advanced organic chemistry started in year 12. This section focuses on organic nitrogen compounds, including amines, amides and amino acids. We introduce concepts such as chirality and optical isomerism as well as condensation polymerisation, which we compare with addition polymerisation that is covered in year 12. The important carbonyl compounds, aldehydes and ketones, are then studied. Finally, carboxylic acids and their related functional groups, acyl chlorides and esters, are studied; with an emphasis on the importance of acyl chlorides in organic synthesis.

  1. End of unit assessments; 45mins.

    Mock exams- Paper 1 A level chemistry mock Periodic table, elements

    and physical chemistry 2hr 15mins

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Term 3: Advanced organic chemistry, aromatic compounds and spectrometry

We revisit the aromatic compounds that were first introduced in year 12, with a focus on the central role of delocalisation within the chemistry of arenes and phenols. Directing groups are also introduced, including their importance to organic synthesis. This section also develops and complements the spectroscopic areas of organic chemistry previously encountered. It shows how analytical techniques introduced in Module 4 (infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis) may be used in combination with NMR spectroscopy to provide evidence of structural features in molecules. This section also looks at how unknown organic functional groups can be analysed and identified using simple test-tube tests.

  1. Students will be assessed via a 40 mins online quiz based on the topics covered this term.
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Term 4: Mocks and revision

Pupils will have this time to focus on areas of difficulty coupled with focused teaching based on previous end of topic assessments. They will also start to prepare and look at how to answer questions on Paper 2 synthesis and analytical techniques and the Paper 3 Unified chemistry exam.

  1. Paper 2 Unified chemistry mock 2hr 15 mins.

    Paper 3 Unified Chemistry mock 1hr 30 mins

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Term 5: Revision

Focused teaching based on areas of misconceptions and difficulty from the term 4 mocks.

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Term 6: Exams

Pupils sit A level exams.

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