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Chemistry

Chemistry is the most important of the sciences.

Not that I am biased! Far from it. (Well, perhaps not that far). But chemistry involves the behaviour of atoms and molecules. And atoms and molecules make up both us and the real world around us. So their interaction is central to our experience of life.

What we can do with these atoms and molecules affects the quality of our lives. It is the function of chemists to investigate these interactions and to try to improve the quality of our lives.

Chemistry is taught as a separate subject from year 9 and onwards. Year 9 students study a course which is an extension of their years 7 and 8 course for 3 lessons per fortnight.

In their GCSE years (10 and 11), the students study AQA chemistry for 2 lessons per week. Some students will work for an award in "chemistry" and some will work for awards in "science " and "additional science". These 2 science awards contain about 2/3rds of the chemistry content that there is in GCSE "chemistry". GCSE Additional Science is an adequate preparation for A level chemistry but GCSE chemistry is better.

Some students carry on to study AQA A level chemistry. There are 9 lessons per fortnight in the L6 and 10 lessons per fortnight in the U6. This is one of the hardest A levels and the reasons for attempting it are various. The most common reason is that a good A level chemistry grade remains a prerequisite for entry into medical or veterinary studies at university. We have a good success rate with a 10 year average of about 50% grades A and 25% grades B.

Sciences specification and GCSE exam timetable (22Kb)