How should my child study for HSC Chemistry in Year 12?
HSC Chemistry marks two different skills, calculation and written explanation, and most students practise only one. What the paper looks like and how to prepare for both.
Chemistry is the HSC course where a student can understand every lesson and still underperform in the examination. The reason is that the paper rewards two different skills. One is calculation: stoichiometry, equilibrium, titrations, all done accurately under time pressure. The other is written explanation, where the chemistry has to be put into precise sentences. Most students lean toward one. The strong mathematician skips the writing practice; the strong writer avoids the drill. The paper is built so that both are needed.
NESA examination specifications for the Chemistry Stage 6 Syllabus (2017). 3 hours plus 5 minutes reading time. A data sheet, formulae sheet and Periodic Table are provided.
Modules 5 to 8 ( Equilibrium and Acid Reactions, Acid and Base Reactions, Organic Chemistry, and Applying Chemical Ideas ) carry roughly equal weight, and Working Scientifically questions run through the whole paper. NESA provides a data sheet, a formulae sheet and the Periodic Table in the examination. That has a practical consequence: your child should practise with the same sheet from the first week of Year 12, so that in the examination they know where every constant sits and never spend reading time hunting for it.
The syllabus timing is also worth knowing. NESA's new Chemistry syllabus is taught from 2028 and first examined in the 2029 HSC, a year later than Biology and Physics. Students sitting the HSC in 2027 and in 2028 are both on the 2017 syllabus, so recent HSC papers and their marking guidelines are directly relevant practice for both cohorts.
The marking guidelines published with each HSC paper show how the marks for each question were allocated.
Calculation marks depend on working. A student who writes only the final number gives the marker nothing to award if that number is wrong, and long Chemistry calculations have many places for a small slip. Setting out each step, with units, is both how marks are protected and how errors are caught. The habit has to be built in practice, because nobody starts doing it under examination pressure.
- 1Drill one calculation type a dayTen to fifteen minutes on a single type, for example titration or equilibrium constant questions, until the method is automatic.
- 2Learn each module from the syllabusNotes organised by syllabus content, with the reactions and equations for each module collected in one place.
- 3Write explanations, not only notesTwo or three short written answers a week, checked for whether they answer the verb, not only whether the chemistry is right.
- 4Use the data sheet every timeEvery practice question done with the same data sheet and formulae sheet the examination provides.
- 5Sit papers in one goFrom Term 3, full papers in 3 hours and 5 minutes, marked against the marking guidelines before reading the solutions.
Two months before the HSC, what is the most useful way for your child to use a past Chemistry paper?
See the HSC Chemistry notes and free sample pages.
Edward MaDirector, MA99 Education
