Chemistry is an exciting subject, full of interesting new concepts. In senior high school, these concepts can be a little tricky to conquer, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be scary or tricky! This guide is full of tips and tricks for all your assessments in the Chemistry curriculum, to help you stay on top of the content, make good study plans, and ace your assessments. Hope it helps!
Guide
How to get a 90+ in Chemistry: advice from a high-achieving student
By Natania - 10 minute readIn this guide, Natania goes through her top tips and tricks for getting a 90+ in Chemistry.
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Introduction
How do I study for my IAs
Internal assessments (IAs) make up 50% of your overall grade, and so it is equally as
important to focus on doing well in them as it is to ace your final essay.
As you may know, the IAs are split into three different assignments:
IA1: Data test
IA2: Student experiment
IA3: Research investigation
So, let’s break them down.
IA1: Data test
The main advice I can give here is to just do as many practice questions as you possibly can. This whole test is focused on your knowledge of all the maths, graphs and numbers involved in this subject, so reading about it all will only get you so far. Doing the equations or plotting points on the graph yourself will help you to become more comfortable with it all.
You can find practice questions in many different places from many different sources, including (but not limited to):
Your teacher
Ask them for resources and I’m sure they would be happy to provide you with some.
Past papers
Don’t forget to not only check QCAA, but the curriculum authority for the other states! While there are some differences in the content, there are many similarities, so make sure to use those similar questions for your revision. If you’re not sure what content is relevant to your test, have a look over the QCE curriculum or ask your teachers/peers.
Textbooks
The new textbooks that have been made, including the one you use in class, are full of specific, relevant questions that you can solve. This one is super important, especially because many of the authors of these textbooks are the people who contribute to writing the curriculum and exams.
Worksheets you’ve received throughout the semester
If your teacher has handed out sheets during class time that relates to that particular lesson’s content (perhaps as class work or homework), fill those sheets out in pencil the first-time round. Then in the test revision time, you can rub out the pencil and reuse the sheet as revision!
External resources
External resources like Studyclix, Atomi, Khan Academy, and Melissa Maribel’s videos can be helpful too!
IA2: Student experiment
High school experiments usually never go to plan, so it can be tricky trying to write up a report on an imperfect experiment. But the good thing about this assignment, is that the markers aren’t focused on how well the experiment went, but what you take from it. Your report should be detailed and critique every aspect – the positives and the negatives. Here are some tips to nail this one:
Create timelines for your group
As I mentioned earlier, the experiment itself can be a little trickier than expected. You accidentally didn’t record some of the results, or forgot some equipment, or the conditions weren’t right the first time, and you keep having to do the experiment over multiple days. This can happen to anyone, and it’s totally okay, as long as you give yourself enough time to fix it. Set a timeline of your own due dates, for example, when you’d like to:
Description Date to be completed Finish planning Start experiment Finish collecting data from experiments Finish different sections of the write up (e.g. rationale, evaluation) Complete any drafts Finish your full draft
Some teachers will accept partially completed reports as a draft, but you personally should aim to finish yours off. I made this mistake in year 11, and had to rectify it in year 12, because having a fully completed draft to show your teacher makes a huge difference. QCAA already limits how much feedback teachers are allowed to provide so try to take as much as you can. This is especially important as the later sections like the evaluation are usually the ones we are yet to finish, but these are some of the most important ones.
Make your research question and conclusion specific
This means including specific values for everything. Doing this will increase your marks for communication and for content. It will also keep you on track while you’re writing your report.
IA3: Research investigation
This assignment can be a lot of fun, depending on what topic you choose, what
resources you use, and how you pace your workload. Here are some tips to get on
top of the research investigation:
Make a full plan for the report
You’ll be provided with a variety of claims, pick one that intrigues you, and shape this into your research question. When you’re planning this out, make complete plans of multiple claims and research questions, using different sources of information and perspectives. Doing as much research as possible beforehand and setting it out in a legible plan helps in multiple ways such as:
- Being able to see all of your topic possibilities at once and making an educated decision on which one to pick.
- Having enough information (or at least the sources to find enough information) to use as evidence in your report.
- Doing the research before you start writing means that you will have an educated perspective. This means you won’t get halfway through and realise you don’t have as much useful evidence for the hypothesis you’ve decided (this has happened to me before, and it was quite a big
set-back to overcome, which is why I am a big advocate for preparation). - Sticking to the plan to help you stay within the word count and on topic.
Submit a complete draft on the draft due date
See IA2 section for all the benefits!
Choose the topic that interests you most
There are so many possible angles and specific ideas that can transform your assignment. Take the time to research and share ideas between friends, so that you have every opportunity to find a topic that fits your interests best.
Give yourself time to proofread
This assignment is super bulky, and you may get a little lost in the content. Try to avoid an all-night the night before its due, and finish writing it at least a day in advance, to give yourself time to edit, change, cut and finalise the report.
How do I study for my external assessment
The external assessment is worth 50% of your overall grade, so it’s super important to set yourself up for success with helpful study strategies.
Consider the many different ways you can study the content you’ve covered throughout the year. Everyone is different and learns in different ways, but I’ll share what worked for me. Use my ideas to create a plan that works for you!
Revising content
Try using multiple methods for the best results. Taking notes throughout the year - this is pretty self explanatory but during this time don’t worry about making your notes look pretty, just focus on getting the content off the whiteboard (plus any important information your teacher tells you!)
Writing a separate notebook of content – here you are able to make your notes as colourful as you’d like, draw diagrams, and add detail as you progress through the units. Not only will you be able to look over these notes for revision but the process of making them will be part of your revision too. Make separate sections for each topic and unit, and add more detail as you learn it, but just aim to get onto it as soon as possible.
A set of flashcards – you can either do these handwritten, or using online programs such as Quizlet, Cram or Brainscape. When writing these cards, don’t add lots of detail, just focus on the main idea of the content. Your goal is to become very familiar with the content on these cards; if you reach this point and want to learn more detail, turn to your pages of notes.
Make study groups amongst friends and classmates – sharing and learning with other people make it all a little less daunting and a little more enjoyable for everyone. Plus, when you’re doing questions and studying cards, having other people there can keep you accountable.
Doing practice questions
Use as many resources as you can – using a variety of types of questions will help you be prepared for everything and anything the external could throw at you. See the IA1 section for information on where to find questions.
Mark your work or ask your teacher/tutor too – this might seem a little obvious, but many people can fall into the trap of just doing questions without focusing on how to improve their answer when they’re wrong. Make sure you spend just as much time going through your answers as you spend doing questions, you’ll learn more from your mistakes. Also, I recommend getting a teacher or tutor to mark work sometimes, because not only will they correct for you, they will give you further feedback on how too improve the answers you did get right.
Practice with a combination of untimed and timed study sessions – start your study journey with untimed questions, focusing on recalling content and getting equations correct. As you approach exam time, you should be doing mostly timed work, so you can become more comfortable with the pressure you’ll experience on test day.
Exam day
Use the full reading time you are provided to go through every question – even though you can’t write, you can still try to work some questions out in your head or decide what information to include. This is especially helpful for multiple choice questions.
Base how much you write on the number of marks that question will earn you – time is one of your biggest stressors, especially for the end of year exam, so don’t spend more time on questions that you need to. If a question is worth one mark, give a succinct answer that directly solves it. If a question is worth three marks, it means there are three components you need to include to get the full answer, no more, no less. So include only the relevant amount of information, you’ll save a lot of time!
Have a structure for how you go through the test – this is mostly focused on making sure you don’t get bogged down on a particular question, and tries to get as many marks as possible. I’ll show you what I did on the day; see if you can adapt it to suit your style of learning!
When I was able to start my test, the first thing I did was write down a table on my scrap paper. After my first time going through, I filled the table in. For example:
| Done | Partially | Not Completed |
| 1,2,3,4,5,8,19 | 6,7,9,10,11,16,17,18 | 12,13,14,15 |
The ‘Done’ column represents the questions I answered in a way that I believe addressed all the points required (to make up for all the marks that question was worth).
‘Partially’ was where I believed I had gotten some but not all the marks yet.
‘Not complete’ was for all the questions I hadn’t answered at all.
This first run through was for writing down what I knew without stressing my brain too much. Then in my second run through, I went to the questions under the partially and not complete columns first, to try and obtain as many marks as possible. As I fill out more questions, I can move questions to the column to the left. My third time is a final run through, where I check all my answers, regardless of what column the question is.
This method was a way for me to get as many marks as I possibly could, from as many questions as I possibly could. It may not work for everyone, so try it and adapt it while you do some practice tests, and see what works best for you!
Some Final Tips
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Use external resources
Some resources include:
- Studyclix videos and notes
- Atomi
- Khan Academy
- ATAR notes
- LumenLearning
- Online creators such as Melissa Maribel and The Organic Chemistry Tutor
- CrashCourse videos
- TED-Ed videos
- Bozeman Science
- And more!
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Ask questions in and after class
Your teachers are more than happy to help you with any problems you come across.
Always ask them for help, whether it be during the PowerPoint lesson in class or during your own study time. Aim to build a good relationship with your teacher so that you feel more comfortable reaching out throughout the year.
Aim to understand first
Chemistry is quite content heavy, and can be tricky to wrap your head around, but rote learning is not going to help. Your main goal should be to understand basic concepts initially, and build off it. Asking questions and studying throughout the year, not just before exams, will further develop this understanding.
Final Tips
Here are some final tips from Natania on how to get a 90+ in Chemistry.
Use external resources
Some resources include:
- Studyclix videos and notes
- Atomi
- Khan Academy
- ATAR notes
- LumenLearning
- Online creators such as Melissa Maribel and The Organic Chemistry Tutor
- CrashCourse videos
- TED-Ed videos
- Bozeman Science
- And more!
Ask questions in and after class
Your teachers are more than happy to help you with any problems you come across.
Always ask them for help, whether it be during the PowerPoint lesson in class or during your own study time. Aim to build a good relationship with your teacher so that you feel more comfortable reaching out throughout the year.
Aim to understand first
Chemistry is quite content heavy, and can be tricky to wrap your head around, but rote learning is not going to help. Your main goal should be to understand basic concepts initially, and build off it. Asking questions and studying throughout the year, not just before exams, will further develop this understanding.
By Natania
Natania is a passionate student who recently graduated with a 98.05 ATAR. She enjoyed studying English and pushed to work at it in high school. She has now moved onto university, studying a degree in Medicine at Monash University.