A Level Chemistry

Foundations in Chemistry

The ideas that underpin everything. Building directly from GCSE, work explores atomic structure and isotopes, quantitative chemistry and the mole, the reactions of acids and bases, oxidation number and redox — developing the bonding, structure and volumetric techniques on which the whole course rests.

Periodic Table & Energy

Patterns and properties. Work extends structure and bonding into periodic trends, then studies Group 2 and the halogens as typical metal and non-metal groups — developing redox further, and the qualitative test-tube skills used to identify unknown ionic compounds.

The chemistry of carbon begins. Work introduces nomenclature, functional groups, isomerism and reaction mechanisms with curly arrows, applied first to the alkanes and alkenes, then to two new functional groups — alcohols and haloalkanes — with practical skills in preparing and purifying organic liquids.

The physical chemistry of energy. Work explores enthalpy changes and how they are determined through enthalpy cycles and experiment, the rates of reaction, and reversible reactions — considering how energy and yield can be balanced to improve the sustainability of industrial processes.

Making and identifying molecules. Work develops organic practical skills — distillation, reflux and purification with Quickfit apparatus — alongside responsible use of organic chemicals, before infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry are introduced as instrumental tools for identifying organic compounds.

How conditions drive a reaction. Work explores activation energy, the Boltzmann distribution and catalysis, the dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium and how conditions shift its position — bringing enthalpy, rates, catalysts and equilibria together to increase yield and cut energy demand.

Aromatics, Carbonyls & Acids

The range of functional groups widens. Work explores aromatic compounds and the central role of delocalisation in arenes and phenols, directing groups and their importance to synthesis, the carbonyl compounds — aldehydes and ketones — and carboxylic acids with their acyl chlorides and esters.

Physical chemistry, made quantitative. Work develops equilibrium constants Kc and Kp, acid–base equilibria including pH, Ka and buffers, and the energetics of ionic bonding through lattice enthalpy and Born–Haber cycles — before entropy and free energy predict whether a reaction is feasible, using logarithms and exponents throughout.

Synthesis, in full. Work explores amines, amides and amino acids, chirality and optical isomerism, and condensation polymerisation set against addition — stressing carbon–carbon bond formation and multi-stage synthetic routes, with NMR spectroscopy combined with earlier techniques to determine molecular structure.

Inorganic chemistry deepens. Work extends redox through volumetric titrations and electrode potentials, then explores the transition elements: ligands and complex ions, stereochemistry, precipitation, ligand substitution and redox — whose vivid colour changes enrich the toolkit of qualitative inorganic tests.

The final stretch. Revision is active: the modules revisited, practical techniques and mathematical skills sharpened, and past papers worked through — turning two years of chemistry into confident, exam-ready understanding.