A-Level Chemistry Revision Notes

A-Level Chemistry has three strands — physical, inorganic and organic — and they demand genuinely different skills, which is why most students are noticeably stronger in one than the others.

Organic chemistry is the largest and the most learnable, because it is built on mechanisms that repeat. Once you understand why a nucleophile attacks where it does, you can reason about reactions you have never seen rather than memorising each one separately. Students who try to memorise organic chemistry reaction by reaction find it expands beyond what anyone can hold.

Physical chemistry is the most mathematical, and the most common losses are procedural: mole calculations that go wrong at the unit conversion, or equilibrium questions where the initial and equilibrium amounts get confused. Set the working out in a consistent format every time.

Inorganic chemistry rewards patterns — trends down a group and across a period — rather than isolated facts.

These notes cover all three strands, plus analytical techniques, with worked examples throughout.