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AQA GCSE Chemistry revision

These activities are mapped to AQA GCSE Chemistry 8462. Forty-four of them, fifteen to twenty-eight minutes each, across all ten topic areas and all thirty-two sub-topics. Chemistry is the science with a topic area that is pure arithmetic. Quantitative chemistry is moles, limiting reactants, yield, atom economy, concentration and gas volumes, and a student who cannot do it loses marks in every paper. **Six activities cover it, which is more than any other topic on this site gets.** The limitation is what those questions ask. Twenty-six of the forty-two typed-number prompts across the whole set name the operation in words, so the student performs the sum rather than deciding which sum the situation calls for. That is set out below, including the awkward comparison with our own combined science content.

This page lists what we actually have for AQA GCSE Chemistry 8462. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

The topic that is entirely arithmetic

Every science has calculations in it. Chemistry has a topic area made of nothing else.

Quantitative chemistry, section 4.3, is conservation of mass, relative formula mass, moles, the limiting reactant, concentration, percentage yield, atom economy and gas volumes. It is examined on both papers, it underpins titration on Paper 1 and the industrial chemistry on Paper 2, and it is the reliable predictor of who is getting a grade 7 rather than a 5.

Six of our forty-four activities are built for it, which is the largest block of calculation activities on any one topic anywhere on this site: Mole Mountain, the Limiting Reactant Lab, Yield and Economy, the Concentration Calculator, the Gas Volume Gauntlet, and Mass Matters for relative formula mass. Titration Master sits next to them and uses the same arithmetic on concordant titres.

So the coverage is there. The question a chemistry teacher should ask next is what those questions actually demand.

What the calculation questions ask, and what they do not

Forty-two questions across the set ask the student to type a value rather than choose one. That is the right interaction: four options on a screen always leave an elimination route, and typing closes it.

Twenty-six of those forty-two prompts name the operation. They say "divide the mass by the Mr to find the number of moles", or "add the three values and divide by three to find the mean titre". The student then does one piece of arithmetic that any Year 11 can do.

Working out that this is a moles question is the part AQA examines. A prompt that supplies it has turned an AO2 question into a calculator exercise.

This is worth knowing rather than worth avoiding. Used as a first pass through a topic, these activities do what they should: they put the routine in front of the student in the right order, with the units attached. Used as the last thing before a mock, they will flatter a class.

The comparison we would rather not print

Our AQA Combined Science Trilogy activities do this better. Seven of their forty typed-number prompts name the operation, against twenty-six of forty-two here.

Same board. Same site. The combined-science students get the harder questions, and the ones taking chemistry as a separate science get the gentler ones, which is exactly backwards.

It is written down here because a teacher choosing what to set should know it, and because a claim on a page is harder to leave unfixed than a note in a backlog. If you want the more demanding versions of the shared topics, AQA Combined Science Trilogy has them.

What else the set covers well

Outside the arithmetic, the strongest run is rates and energy. Need for Speed, at twenty-eight minutes, is the longest activity on this page and takes collision theory through to the effect of a catalyst. The Heat Lab, Energy In Energy Out and Catalyst Corner sit with it.

The Chemical Detective covers chromatography and the tests that go with chemical analysis, and Atmosphere Story handles the historical argument in section 4.9, which is the one part of the specification that reads like a humanities topic and is often the worst revised.

Organic chemistry, polymers, electrolysis, the Haber process and using resources are all present, one or two activities each.

Using them

The three activities embedded further down are playable here without an account.

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. For how each is meant to be run, see ready-to-run revision activities. To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint and share one link. Everything else, by subject and board, is on the revision pages.

For the calculation practice this set does not supply, AQA's own papers in our past paper archive are free and unaltered, and their quantitative questions never say which operation to use.

What this page does not do

It does not make students choose the calculation, which is stated above in detail because it is the thing most likely to matter.

It does not cover the required practicals beyond what turns up incidentally. Chemistry's eight are examinable and are not represented here.

It is not a scheme of work. For a shape to drop these into, see how to structure a GCSE revision programme.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Chemistry activity for AQA

44 activities, all mapped to AQA GCSE Chemistry (8462).

Good for intervention (42)

Good for mock preparation (42)

Good for starter (2)

See all 44, by topic

Try it with your class

AQA Chemistry 18 minutes

Mole Mountain

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Intervention Mock preparation
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

What does one mole of a substance contain?

AQA Chemistry 16 minutes

Titration Master

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Intervention Mock preparation
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

When working out a titration result, which titres should be averaged?

AQA Chemistry 28 minutes

Need for Speed

16 steps, 11 interactive, 11 activity types.

Best used for
Intervention Mock preparation Cover lesson
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

The curve you have just completed is steep at the start and almost flat by the end. What is happening?

Common questions

Is quantitative chemistry covered?

Six activities, more than any other single topic on this site: moles, the limiting reactant, percentage yield and atom economy, concentration, gas volumes, and relative formula mass. Coverage is not the problem here.

Do they make students choose the calculation?

Mostly not, and this is the honest limit. Twenty-six of the forty-two typed-number prompts name the operation in words, telling the student to divide the mass by the Mr rather than leaving them to work out that this is a moles question.

Is that true of your other science content?

No, which is the odd part. Our AQA Combined Science Trilogy set names the operation in seven of forty prompts. Same board, same site, and the chemistry-only set is the weaker of the two on exactly the skill chemistry examines most.

How much is here?

Forty-four activities, fifteen to twenty-eight minutes, covering all ten topic areas and all thirty-two sub-topics.

Which should a class do first?

Mole Mountain, if quantitative chemistry is where they struggle, because it is the foundation the other five calculation activities stand on. Otherwise Need for Speed, which at twenty-eight minutes is the most demanding thing in the set.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

Create a free teacher account

Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

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