Notes on one page each covering all the tests for anions and cations for AQA GCSE chemistry, including the precipitation equations. Versions both in colour and in black and white for photocopying. With the positive ion tests, I’ve included model equations, both complete and ionic, for the precipitation reactions, with examples for a +2 and +3 ion. With the negative ion tests, there’s both a full and ionic equation for carbonate, sulfate and halide ion reactions to give students good models. To show the differences in formulas between compounds of metals that form +2 and +1 ions, there’s equations for both sodium and calcium carbonate too.

Notes on one page covering all the tests for cations for Edexcel iGCSE chemistry, including the precipitation equations, and links to videos of them being done. I’ve also included model equations, both complete and ionic, for the precipitation reactions, with examples for a +2 and +3 ion. Versions included both in colour and in black and white for photocopying.

This free resource shows how people tend to get their eye diverted by an eye-catching big diagram or graph or picture, and not read the text above it. I regularly show this to my students to help them understand that examiners write exams downwards, and that often the very start of the text before a picture or diagram hides vital information that they can easily skip over. It really helps them visualise what’s going on and the importance of looking everywhere for the information to solve questions. They often burst out laughing when they get the joke. This image was based on a popular meme distributed without copyright statement whose original author I have not been able to trace, so I’m making it available for free. A couple of different versions are included in colour and black and white.

Revision notes on the Arrhenius equation for the OCR A A-level chemistry specification on two pages. A lot of students by the second year of A-level have forgotten how to do things like find the equation and intercept of a straight line graph, so this set of notes has a lot of recap. There’s also a lot of detailed breakdown of the log equation and how it’s a straight line graph. I explain what ln(A) is and how to calculate it. Includes a lot of model calculations, recap of straight line graphs and explanation of the confusing units of the H432/01 2018 paper’s graph. Update, 13/05/24: a missing 0 in the explanation of the 2018 paper’s units has been corrected, my apologies for the glitch.

You get a much better response explaining cyclic AMP when you draw it as a hat that makes enzymes happy when they wear it! One-page revision notes on cAMP for the AQA specification, with links to YouTube videos of some of the processes discussed. I am thinking of expanding this into a more full set of notes including details of the adrenaline receptor and with more diagrams-please comment if that’s something you’d want. It’s offered for free in the meantime.

You get a much better response explaining cyclic AMP when you draw it as a hat that makes enzymes happy and working harder when they wear it! One-page revision notes on cAMP for the OCR specification, combining the different places it’s used on the course (adrenaline receptors, ADH in the kidney collecting duct, lac operon of bacteria). Also has links to YouTube videos of some of the processes discussed. I’m thinking of expanding this into a larger resource covering this topic-contact me if that’s something you’d particularly want. It’s offered for free in the meantime.

Some of the hardest questions for many GCSE chemistry students are the long answer written questions, explaining things like why the rate of reaction increases when you increase the temperature, and how the position of equilibrium shifts. So I’ve written a one-page set of notes for the Edexcel iGCSE chemistry course that covers all these questions, fitting them onto a single page. These notes cover: how temperature and concentration affect rate of reaction melting point of ionic, molecular and giant covalent chemicals equilibrium position conductivity It makes chemistry so much easier for students having everything on a single page. Particularly intended for iGCSE chemistry but I think it’s also pretty helpful for A-level students just starting the course who need to recap what they did last year, many will have forgotten these topics. This set of notes was written consulting current Edexcel iGCSE chemistry papers and mark schemes. Questions consulted included: rate: 1CR June 2019, question 5d bonding: 1CR June 2019 9a and 9b equilibrium: June 2019, 2C 7b and 2CR 7b conductivity: 2CR June 2019 and Paper 1CR June 2019 9c diffusion: 1C Jan 2018, 3c ii) Versions with colour pictures and without pictures for photocopying. I also have a version for the AQA GCSEs and a combined set for a range of courses.

Some of the hardest questions for many GCSE chemistry students are the long answer written questions, explaining things like why the rate of reaction increases when you increase the temperature, and how the position of equilibrium shifts. So I’ve written a one-page set of notes for AQA that covers all these questions, fitting them onto a single page. These notes cover: how temperature and concentration affect rate of reaction melting point of ionic, molecular and giant covalent chemicals equilibrium position conductivity It makes chemistry so much easier for students having everything on a single page. A version with colour pictures is included. Particularly intended for GCSE chemistry but I think it’s also pretty helpful for A-level students just starting the course who need to recap what they did last year, many will have forgotten these topics. This set of notes was written against the current AQA GCSE science specifications. Past paper mark schemes consulted include: ionic bonding: 4.3 from 8464/C/2H, 2018, specification reference 5.2.2.3. giant covalent bonding: 5.1 from 8464C1H 2018, specification reference 5.2.3.1 3.4 from 8465/3H 2019, specification 4.8.1.1 simple molecular bonding and intermolecular forces: 4.4 from 8464/C/1H 2019, 5.1.2.6 and 5.2.2.4 7.1 from 84644C2H specimen, 5.2.2.4 concentration and rate: 5.5 from 8464/C/2H 2019, specification reference 5.6.1.3 temperature and rate: 6.4 from 8465/3H 2019, reference 4.7.4.3 metallic conductivity: 2.6 from 84643C1H specimen paper, reference 5.2.1.5/5.2.2.8 equilibrium: 4.3 from 8465/3H 2019, 4.7.4.8 4.7.4.10 7.2 from 84644C2H specimen, 5.6.2.4

One page revision notes for AQA explaining the idea of error bars. I include model answers for a range of types of question and explanation of what p < 0.05 means. I list a couple of past paper questions which have good questions to practice from, all from the current specification. AQA want you to say that differences are significant if error bars don’t overlap, even though in reality it’s more complicated than that. I clearly explain this and say that this idea shouldn’t be used if students go on to degree-level statistics. Questions and mark schemes consulted in writing these notes included: significant difference: 74022 2020 2.4 differences that are not significant: 74012 2019 1.2 range error bars: 74023 2017 2.5 no error bars: 74022 2020 7.2 probability and chance: 74021 2019 4.4 Update, 2024: Following feedback from a student, added scale to clarify that the error bar shows mean ± SD. Clarified that the comments on probability/significance are when comparing means (so e.g. wouldn’t apply to the chi-squared test).

Notes and diagrams on epigenetics for the AQA course, starting from some simple analogies to the real world. I also give the core definition AQA have asked for of epigenetics, which isn’t clearly stated in the textbook but came up on a specimen paper. There’s links to tons of YouTube videos explaining how epigenetics works, and a mnemonic for remembering euchromatin and heterochromatin. Length is two very well-filled pages: you could print it double-sided as a resource for students to keep. Could also be useful for students taking OCR as extension material.

Here’s a one-page diagram of reverse percentages, showing and explaining the idea that you have to find the single percentage change that turns into old into new and reverse it. Both % increase and % decline are covered as examples. Suitable for students to glue into their book as an example or for putting as a poster in a classroom.

One of the hardest questions the examiners can ask at A-level is how to predict the second and third ionisation energy. It’s not clearly labelled in the textbooks how to do this. So here’s a three-page set of notes on how to do this, working through some exam-style questions. Specification references include: OCR A 3.1.1, AQA 3.1.1.3

Revision notes on trigonometry: all the equations with all the rearrangements. Covers trigonometry of a right angle triangle, the sine rule and the cosine rule. Also explains when you can use the sine and cosine rule equations (e.g. that you can work out an angle using the cosine rule when you know all the sides). Suitable for all the GCSE maths specifications.

A lot of students have trouble with the idea that there’s two ways to use a divide sign: when you want to split something up between a group of known size, and when you want to split something up into units of known size but an unknown number of units. So here’s a poster covering that which explains it by telling a happy story. Could look good on a wall of a classroom or to give students to put into their books. Because people have a lot of trouble learning this, this could be useful for KS1, KS2, KS3 and weaker GCSE students who need a bit of help.

A famous painting proves a jumping-off point for examining ecology and national heritage in this worksheet for students applying to study biology, environmental sciences and geography at university. There’s two formats: a worksheet for students to take home, but also if you want to replicate the format of a university interview with an interviewer posing questions, a sheet containing the painting to show the student as stimulus material and a set of questions and answers for the interviewer, with some possible extra hints if the student’s struggling. There’s questions about experiment design and statistical test to choose too. On a difficulty scale, I’d put this as about a three out of five: it’s an interesting case study with a nice, evocative stimulus material to get students thinking, but doesn’t really go beyond the A-level courses.

One-page poster and revision notes showing how to work out the formula of ionic chemicals. Includes a list of common ions, and the three scenarios: swap and drop, the ions have the same charge, and there’s more than one of an ion made of more than one atom so you need brackets. Versions both in colour and carefully converted into black and white. Then there’s also a question sheet working out the formulas of 21 chemicals, and the answers on a separate sheet. Suitable for both GCSE and A-level students-I find it really helpful as a recap for A-level students to recap the topic, since they’ve often forgotten it from GCSE. September 2023 update: based on feedback from students, I’ve explained more about what iron(II) and iron(III) are, and turned the part about when you use brackets into a checklist of questions to ask. I’ve also created an additional version of the questions split into two sets so one can be homework. The questions in the homework set 2 are similar at each level but the hardest questions are in set 1.

It’s a real difficulty for students that the AQA A-level biology textbook doesn’t include a diagram of an ELISA. So here’s notes on one page covering the ELISA stages, with a diagram of the specific type of ELISA on the AQA course (an indirect ELISA), and explaining how it links to other things students may know about like pregnancy tests and COVID lateral flow tests. There’s an explanation of what monoclonal antibodies are, explanation of artificial passive immunity as an extension, and links to some good videos. 9/3/2024 update: new version! Clearer numbering of the stages to link diagram to text, shortened URLs, brighter colours and better paragraphing. Also added a version tuned to print better in black and white.

Notes on the tests for anions for AQA GCSE chemistry courses on a single page. A lot of work went to squeezing everything in! There’s both a full and ionic equation for carbonate, sulfate and halide ion reactions to give students good models. To show the differences in formulas between compounds of metals that form +2 and +1 ions, there’s equations for both sodium and calcium carbonate too. There’s versions of the resource for colour and black and white printing. This set of notes was particular written targeting the AQA GCSE chemistry course, but it’s suitable for most GCSE courses as well as recap for students coming in to A-level.

Notes on one page covering all the tests for cations for AQA 9-1 GCSE chemistry, including the precipitation equations. I’ve also included model equations, both complete and ionic, for the precipitation reactions, with examples for a +2 and +3 ion. Versions both in colour and in black and white for photocopying and links to videos of the tests.

Some of the hardest questions for many GCSE chemistry students are the written questions, explaining things like why the rate of reaction increases when you increase the temperature, and how the position of equilibrium shifts. So I’ve written a one-page set of notes that covers all these questions, fitting them onto a single page. These notes cover: how temperature and concentration affect rate of reaction melting point of ionic, molecular and giant covalent chemicals equilibrium position conductivity It makes chemistry so much easier for students having everything on a single page. Particularly intended for GCSE chemistry but I think it’s also pretty helpful for A-level students just starting the course who need to recap what they did last year, many will have forgotten these topics. Purchase includes a “general” set of notes not written for any particular exam board, and specific versions for students taking Edexcel iGCSE and the AQA 9-1 GCSEs. Changelog: a missing ‘no’ has been added in conduction. My apologies for the glitch.