ChemSci Tutor

Exam Help 8: What to do when you have finished your exams? You have made it, your exams are over, so what do you do with all that free time?
1. Celebrate: go out with your friends and celebrate e.g. school or college prom, going to a party or attending a festival.
2. Summer job: obtain work experience, earn money and gain valuable life skills.
3. Volunteering can also be a great way to meet new people and help the local community.
4. Travel can help you explore new cultures and gain life skills. You may wish to travel overseas or plan your own expedition in the UK using campsites or youth hostels.
5. Re-organise your personal space. Now is a good time to tidy away all the signs of revision from your room. This should help you relax more as well as keeping your parents happy.
6. Plan Ahead for the future Attending sixth form transition days and taster sessions may be useful if you still are unsure about certain A level options or think that you may need to change options post results. University Open Days are often held at this time of year and are useful for students in Y11 and Y12.
7. Restart Hobbies If you have hobbies that you have put on one side to fit in more revision because they are time consuming, then now would be a good time to start activities that you enjoy again.

Written by Dr Helen Hart ChemSci Tutor Please like or follow this page for more information and stories.

Photograph public domain

Best wishes to my Y13 students taking Chemistry Paper 3 today for AQA and OCR A. This is your final Chemistry exam. You have worked hard this year and should be well prepared for the exam.
From ChemSci Tutor

Photo public domain

Best wishes to my students taking GCSE Physics Paper 2 tomorrow for separate and Combined Science. This is your final exam and after this you will be able to have some well-deserved rest.
From ChemSci Tutor
The photo shows a moving car which related to the Forces and Motion topic. This is not a question prediction.

Photo by Luke Miller on Pexels

Exams Help 7: What happens after the exam when you leave the exam hall? Do you join in with a discussion with your peers because you think it went well or try to escape as fast as possible because you think it went badly? If you think it went badly what do you do?
1. Try not to panic. You may have a different answer to others, but you have shown your working and will still receive some marks.
2. Perhaps you will find out that others also found the exam hard. That may mean that papers will be marked more generously which can benefit you.
3. Try not to focus on what you found most difficult. Many people think only about the areas that didn't go well rather than those that were actually OK.
4. How can this experience help in the future. Perhaps you wished you had revised more topics, or planned your answer better or worked out how much time to spend on each question. Use this to help you improve in future exams.
5. Talk to friends and family. They will help you put things in perspective.
6. Take a break and do something that you enjoy and relaxes you for a while before preparing yourself for the next exam.

Written by Dr Helen Hart ChemSci Tutor Please like or follow this page for more information and stories.

Best wishes to my students taking GCSE Biology Paper 2 tomorrow for separate and Combined Sciences. This completes all the Biology Papers. From ChemSci Tutor
The fossil image represents the AQA Paper 2 content and is not a question prediction.

Photo by Kvnga on Unsplash

Best wishes to my A level students taking Chemistry Paper 2 tomorrow.
This is the Organic Chemistry Paper for OCR A.
For last minute revision, I recommend reviewing all the reagents and conditions needed in Organic Synthesis.
From ChemSci Tutor

Science Laboratory Equipment Week 27: The Spotting tile is used for microscale experiments in Chemistry and Biology. It is a flat plate with small wells where a sample can be placed for testing. In GCSE Biology it can be used to test for starch in an experiment to test for enzyme activity. A drop of iodine solution is added to the well and then a drop of the enzyme and starch mixture is added. If starch is still present, a blue-black colour is seen. However, if the solution remains brown, the enzyme has broken down all the starch.
In Chemistry, it could be used for micro-scale experiments. For example, an indicator solution could be added to each well and different samples added to each well to check and compare the pH values.

Written by Dr Helen Hart ChemSci Tutor Please like or follow this page for more information and stories.

Exam Help 6: What happens when an exam is missed due to exceptional circumstances?
The second type of special consideration applies when due to serious accident, illness or other exceptional situations where you are unable to take an exam. This may also apply if your paper is lost and cannot be marked. For this to apply you need to have taken at least one paper, if there are 2 or 3 papers for that qualification e.g. GCSE Chemistry or A level Chemistry. The grade for the missing exams is worked out from your mark for the paper(s) that you have taken, how you perform relative to your year group and the percentage of that paper which counts towards the final grade. It is a common myth that mock exams and school tests are used for this purpose and this is not true. Your school or college should apply for this on your behalf. Please note that this procedure is only when you miss an exam due to a reason which is unexpected or an emergency.
Written by Dr Helen Hart ChemSci Tutor Please like or follow this page for more information and stories.

image by Freepiks

Best wishes to my Y13 students taking A level Chemistry Paper 1 today.
Hoping that all your hard work this year pays off. From ChemSci Tutor

image by Freepiks

Best wishes to my GCSE students taking Paper 1 Physics tomorrow for both Combined Science and separate Sciences.
The image shows an Electric Circuit which on the AQA Paper 1 syllabus. This is not a question prediction!

From ChemSci Tutor

Picture from Freepiks