Paper 1 Multiple Choice
- Duration
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Marks
- 40 marks
- Weighting
- 31% of AS; 15.5% of A Level
Forty four-option questions on AS content.
Cambridge 9701 and Edexcel IAL
Online A Level Chemistry tutoring for Year 12 and Year 13 learners in Qatar on Cambridge International AS & A Level Chemistry (9701) or Pearson Edexcel International A Level Chemistry. One tutor teaches one learner live over Teams, Meet or Zoom, working from the learner's own board and papers, with calculations and practical reasoning practised every week.
Chemistry at this level rewards exact working: a balanced equation, the right mole ratio, a well-placed curly arrow. Lessons build those habits paper by paper.
What we cover
Both boards teach physical, inorganic and organic chemistry, plus analysis and practical skills. Topic order and unit names differ, so the tutor follows your child's own syllabus.
The mole, reacting masses, gas volumes and titration arithmetic. Marks slip through cm³ to dm³ conversions, early rounding and careless significant figures.
Ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, molecular shapes and the forces between molecules. Boiling separates whole molecules, so full marks need the intermolecular force named.
Enthalpy, Hess cycles and bond energies first; lattice energy, entropy, Gibbs free energy and electrode potentials later. Sign errors and reversed cycle arrows cost the most marks.
Collision theory and Le Chatelier's principle, then rate equations, Kc, Kp, pH, Ka and buffers. Many learners predict a shift correctly, then lose the mark for the reason.
Periodicity, Group 2, the halogens and redox; Cambridge adds nitrogen and sulfur, Edexcel adds Group 1. Each trend needs its cause: nuclear charge, shielding or ionic radius.
Complex ions, ligands, colour, variable oxidation states and redox titrations. Ligand-exchange equations with correct charges, and colour from d-orbital splitting, are the usual sticking points.
Alkanes, alkenes, halogenoalkanes and alcohols first; carbonyls, acids, arenes, amines and polymers later. Reagents and conditions must be exact, and synthesis routes run to several steps.
Mass and infrared spectra first, then proton and carbon-13 NMR and chromatography. Questions combine several spectra, so learners practise deducing one structure from all the evidence.
Cambridge tests it in Paper 3, a laboratory exam, and Paper 5, a written planning paper; Edexcel in written Units 3 and 6, built on 16 core practicals.
How lessons run
Every lesson has one chemistry aim, drawn from the syllabus and from your child's latest marked work.
Step 1
First lessons confirm the board and syllabus year, then test foundations: a mole calculation, a bonding explanation, one organic mechanism. School tests and mocks show where marks go.
Step 2
Lessons fit around school days, Sunday to Thursday, or the Friday and Saturday weekend, in Qatar time (UTC+3). The plan tracks what the chemistry teacher covers next.
Step 3
Your child writes each calculation and mechanism while the tutor watches the working on camera or a shared screen, catching errors at the step: a missed mole ratio, a misplaced arrow.
Step 4
Real results tables, titration readings and spectra stand in for the bench, so your child processes data, calculates uncertainty and plans methods as the practical papers require.
Step 5
Timed past-paper questions close each topic, marked with the board's own mark-scheme wording. Families of learners under 18 receive short progress notes on what improved and what comes next.
In Ramadan, lesson times follow the official timings announced each year.
The exam
Cambridge assesses 9701 through five papers, three at AS and two more for A Level. Edexcel's 2018 International A Level has six units, three per stage. All papers are in English.
Exam board
Cambridge International AS & A Level Chemistry · 9701
AS papers can be sat in Year 12 and carried forward, or all five taken together.
Exam board
Pearson Edexcel International A Level Chemistry (2018 specification) · XCH11 (IAS), YCH11 (IAL)
Units are sat one by one; the IAS counts as half of the IAL.
Forty four-option questions on AS content.
Calculations, equations and explanations on AS content.
A laboratory exam: a quantitative task and a qualitative analysis problem.
How a tutor helps
Hands-on work happens at school. Online, the tutor rehearses results tables, graphs and deductions from the qualitative analysis notes in the paper.
Structured questions on A Level content, drawing on AS knowledge.
Planning experiments, analysing data and evaluating methods, in writing.
How a tutor helps
Your child practises writing ordered methods with variables and quantities, then graphing data and judging reliability in unfamiliar contexts.
Amount of substance, atomic structure, bonding, alkanes and alkenes.
Adds intermolecular forces, redox, kinetics, equilibria and spectra; uses the data booklet.
A written paper on the practical techniques of Units 1 and 2.
How a tutor helps
Questions reach beyond the eight core practicals, so the tutor covers each method, typical results and errors, then changes the context.
Kinetics, entropy, equilibria, acids, carbonyls and chirality; Section C is a data or calculation question.
Redox equilibria, transition metals, arenes, organic nitrogen compounds and synthesis.
A written paper on the practical techniques of Units 4 and 5.
How a tutor helps
Tests for ions, gases and functional groups return with preparations and titrations; the tutor sets data questions in this unit's style.
Cambridge 9701 runs in June and November. Edexcel's 2018 units run in January, June and October, so units can be spread across Year 12 and Year 13.
Cambridge grades AS a to e and A Level A* to E. Edexcel grades IAS A to E and IAL A* to E; an A* needs an overall A plus at least 90% of IA2 uniform marks.
What we look for in a tutor
Every tutor matched to an A Level chemistry learner meets these standards.
Enough depth to explain why a reaction happens, and to answer a curious Year 13 learner's next question.
Works confidently with Cambridge 9701 papers or Edexcel units and core practicals, and with each board's mark schemes.
Has taught Year 12 and Year 13 chemistry and knows where the step up from IGCSE causes trouble.
Builds from particles and electrons to equations and graphs, checking understanding before moving on.
Follows safe practice for online lessons with young people, and welcomes a parent who wishes to sit in.
Sends short progress notes and raises any concern early, well before an exam.
Common difficulties
These sticking points appear on both boards and across both years of the course.
A Level questions chain several conversions, and one wrong unit or ratio spoils every later step.
How a tutor helps
The tutor teaches one fixed layout: balanced equation, mole ratio, units converted first, sensible significant figures. Short weekly sets make it automatic.
Exam questions use unfamiliar molecules, and memorised diagrams stop working once the structure changes.
How a tutor helps
Each curly arrow is taught from its reason, an electron-rich centre attacking an electron-poor one, then applied to new molecules and synthesis maps.
Mark schemes credit specific points and terms, and a general answer can miss every one.
How a tutor helps
Answers are compared with mark-scheme wording and rewritten, practising ionisation energy trends, boiling points and equilibrium shifts until each point is precise.
Planning and data questions ask for methods, uncertainties and evaluations, sometimes in unfamiliar contexts.
How a tutor helps
The tutor uses real data to practise percentage uncertainty, variables, lines of best fit and clear, ordered methods.
pH, Ka, rate equations and electrode potentials need logarithms, rearranging and careful signs in one question.
How a tutor helps
The maths skill is practised alone first, then placed back into the chemistry, one idea at a time, until whole questions flow.
Questions learners and parents ask
Tell us the board, the school year and the exams ahead. A person reads each enquiry and replies with a tutor matched to that syllabus.