How to study for Chemistry exams

As your chemistry exam gets closer, I'm sure you've been "studying" hard, probably reading through your notes, making summaries, summarizing the summaries, putting important concepts on flash cards... and a whole lot more. But will any of that help you achieve a good result on a chemistry exam?

Probably not. So, put your notes away and read on.

Chemistry examiners are not interested in whether you have memorized the "facts" (definitions, formulae etc). It is most unlikely that the following question will appear on a chemistry exam paper,

Question 1: "State Le Chatelier's Principle"

Chemistry examiners are interested in how you apply chemical principles to solve problems. So the following question is much more likely to be found on a chemistry exam paper,

Question 2: "A student dissolves some solid FeSCN²⁺ in water in a test tube at room temperature and pressure, producing a mixture of reddish-brown FeSCN²⁺(aq), pale yellow Fe³⁺(aq), and colourless SCN^-(aq). The student observes that the test tube feels cooler as the solute dissolves.

(a) Write an equation to describe the process.

(b) Describe what colour change, if any, would occur if the test tube was placed in an ice-bath. Explain your answer"

Question 2 is asking you to apply Le Chatelier's Principle to a given chemical process.

The best way to study for your chemistry exam is to answer a variety of questions. AUS-e-TUTE Members have access to thousands of problems (with worked solutions and tutorials if you need some help). If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE member you can often find books of problems for a given course, and you probably have access to "past papers". 

Here's another question you might like to try,

Question 3: One step in the Ostwald process for manufacturing nitric acid from ammonia involves the production of nitrogen dioxide as shown in the chemical equation below:

2NO(g) + O₂(g) ⇋ 2NO₂(g)

A 10.00 L reaction vessel initially contained 2.50 mol NO(g) and 1.20 mol O₂(g).

0.50 mol NO(g) remained in the vessel after equilibrium was established.

(a) Calculate the equilibrium constant for this reaction.

(b) A second experiment was conducted using the same initial amounts of NO(g) and O₂(g) but in a reaction vessel of about half the volume. What affect would this have on the value of the equilibrium constant? Explain your answer. 

If you find these questions a bit tricky, then AUS-e-TUTE might help you become more familiar with exam-type questions and how to answer them. Join AUS-e-TUTE today

WA Chemistry Syllabus Study Guide

Do you live in Western Australia?
Are you a Year 11 or 12 student studying chemistry?
We have listed all the free tutorial links relevant to your syllabus in our syllabus study guide at https://www.ausetute.com.au/ssgwaatar2017.html

Where to Study Chemistry?

Are you thinking about studying chemistry at a university?
How should you choose which university?

For those of you who like lists ("The 10 most jocular jokes", "The 10 cutest cat videos", etc, etc), here is a list of the "best" universities: you can visit http://www.topuniversities.com



Now that you've got that "list thing" out of your system, it's time to think seriously about where you will study chemistry.It's probably a good idea to visit the website of the universities you are interested in and get a feel for what you will be studying, who will be teaching you, and what the research interests of the lecturers are.
I hesitate to suggest this next move, but I know you will have thought of it before me, so here goes...  lots of those lectures will be available on youtube, so you "can test and try and before you buy" so to speak. The reason I hesitate to suggest you do this is that quite a number (possibly a very large number) of these videos should never have been made (well, not without some professional film-making advice, and in a number of instances they would have been improved enormously by the substitution of the lecturer by a professional, or even amateur, actor), or having been made, should not have been released into the public domain. They are often just recorded lectures, no green-screen, no whiz-bang CGI, no bombs going off, no exciting car chases, just lots of information delivered by someone competent to deliver it. If the thought of that excites you, please go and view the videos (and you should certainly study chemistry!), if not, don't bother with the videos, but do visit each university's website.
You should also visit your Careers Adviser, he/she will have lots of information!

AUS-e-TUTE Update

The following resources have been added to AUS-e-TUTE:

• Neutralisation Reactions (tutorial, game, test)
• Acidic, Basic, Neutral Solutions (tutorial, game, test)
• Properties of Alkanes (tutorial, game, test, exam)
• Properties of Alkanols (alcohols) (tutorial, game, test, exam)
• Properties of Alkanoic (carboxylic) acids (tutorial, game, test, exam)
• Properties of Amines (tutorial, game, test, exam)

Syllabus Study Guides have also been updated.