How I Revised A-Level Chemistry: 5 Game-Changing Strategies

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A-Level Chemistry can feel like chaos. One moment you’re sketching out electron configurations, the next you’re buried under redox titrations, NMR spectra, and organic curly arrows that look like they belong in a cartoon. At GCSE, you could just memorise, but now examiners want you to apply ideas in new ways – and that’s where so many students stumble.

The good news is that Chemistry is much more predictable than it first seems. The specification tells you exactly what can be tested. Past questions on Chemistry Revision – PMT repeat again and again. And if you ditch the “pretty notes” in favour of active recall and practice, you’ll actually be ready for how the exam works.

So if you’ve ever thought, “I’m just bad at Chemistry,” remember this: it’s not about natural talent, it’s about training the right way. Follow the five strategies above, lean on the best resources, and you’ll find that Chemistry exams stop feeling like traps – and start feeling like opportunities to show what you’ve practised.

1. Let the specification set the agenda

If you’re not using the specification, you’re basically guessing what to revise. The examiners build their questions straight from it, line by line. Most students revise Chemistry by flicking through notes, rewriting them all down, trying to cover everything, and spending hours upon hours on content that may never appear. 

So instead, start with the specification and use it. Go through each point and tick what you’ve got covered and star what still feels fuzzy. Then test those starred areas with topic packs from Physics & Maths Tutor. You’ll quickly see that the same questions keep popping up – sometimes almost word-for-word.

Students who revise this way often find their workload shrinking. Suddenly, it’s not “all of Chemistry,” it’s a checklist you’re working through one piece at a time. If it says “be able to interpret spectra to deduce structure.” It’s not enough to know what chemical shift means – you need to apply splitting patterns and integration to a brand-new compound.

2. Stop making pretty notes – start testing yourself

One of the biggest traps is spending hours rewriting notes in rainbow pens. It feels productive, but come exam day, neat handwriting won’t get you marks. What matters is whether you can pull knowledge out of your head and apply it.

That’s where active recall comes in. Instead of rereading:

• Use flashcards (Anki, Quizlet) to test definitions and equations.
• Do “cover and recall” for mechanisms or processes like esterification. Draw them from memory and then check.
• Set yourself mini-tests on Revisely or Seneca – fast-fire questions on your topic that force your brain to work.

The struggle is the point. If recalling feels hard, that means your brain is working. And the more you practise pulling information out, the easier it becomes to do under exam pressure. You can turn that time writing aimlessly into structured, productive revision and minimise that precious time where you can kick back and relax.

It isn’t magic what these top A* students are doing. It’s this small trick that creates the difference between you and them. 

3. Turn mechanisms from panic into patterns

Organic Chemistry is where lots of students start to panic. Too many curly arrows, too many conditions, too many reagents. But mechanisms aren’t random – they follow patterns.

Electrophiles are drawn to electron-rich double bonds. Nucleophiles attack electron-deficient carbons. Free radicals form from homolytic fission and react without restraint. Once you spot these “personalities,” the arrows stop feeling like chaos.

Instead of trying to memorise 30 separate reactions, group them into families:

• Substitutions
• Eliminations
• Additions

Now you’re not learning isolated examples, you’re seeing variations on a theme. Tutors at Medentors Academy sometimes turn this into silly “stories” – nucleophiles as “electron hunters,” electrophiles as “bond lovers.” Sounds odd, but it makes the logic memorable when you’re under pressure.

And because mechanisms show up again and again in papers, getting fluent here gives you an edge most students never build.

4. Don’t dodge the tough topics

Everyone has their “safe areas.” Some stick to organic, others hide in periodic trends. The problem? Exams always mix in the awkward bits, and if you’ve ignored them, your grade swings wildly.

That’s why it’s so important to tackle these topics early and so you can make these weak spots part of your weekly plan. For most students, that means things like:

• Spectroscopy (especially NMR): At first, it feels impossible, but if you practise early and break it into steps, you’ll start to see patterns in peaks, splitting, and shifts.
• Transition metals: Heavy on detail, but examiners recycle the same ligand exchange and colour-change questions again and again.
• Redox and electrode potentials: Intimidating at first, but easier once you slow down calculations into clear, step-by-step working.

The key to making this sustainable is balance. Don’t spend an entire week buried in spectroscopy – mix it with something you’re confident in, like energetics or bonding, so revision doesn’t become demoralising. Pairing a “hard” topic with an “easier” one keeps momentum up while still forcing you to chip away at weaknesses.

Use Chemistry Revision – PMT or Revisely filters to hammer these areas directly. The truth is, your overall grade doesn’t rise by polishing your favourites. It rises when your weak spots stop dragging you down.

5. Take practicals as seriously as content

Lots of students treat practicals like background knowledge. Then Paper 3 drops a titration question or even worse, a question on aspirin. Here comes the panic. The reality? Practicals are some of the most predictable marks in Chemistry. Once you know the steps and the reasoning behind them, you can bank those marks every year.

To train for them:

• Go through every required practical and write out why each step is done. (Why rinse a burette? Why reflux with anti-bumping granules? Why wash a precipitate?)
• Redo past practical questions from Physics & Maths Tutor Paper 3.
• Practise the calculations – mean titres, enthalpy change from calorimetry, Rf values.

Do this consistently, and practical questions stop being curveballs — they become one of the most reliable places to pick up marks, whichever paper you’re sitting.

Final Thoughts

A-Level Chemistry feels overwhelming when you treat it as one giant wall of content. But broken down, it’s manageable:

• Follow the spec, so you’re training for what will actually come up.
• Revise actively, not by making pretty notes.
• Learn to see mechanisms as patterns, not random chaos.
• Confront your weak topics instead of hiding from them.
• Drill practicals until they feel automatic.

Do this, and Chemistry stops feeling like a monster subject. It becomes a set of puzzles you already know how to approach. And if you want to cut out the trial and error, Medentors Academy can match you with a tutor who’s been through your exam board and knows how to turn practice into real results.

Amazing YouTube Channels:

• AlleryChemistry – Full A-Level Course that covers all bases
• MaChemGuy – Exam-focused videos with worked examples suited to you
• MrERintoul – Explores how to use efficient exam technique in past paper questions

Topic-By-Topic Revision & Questions:

• Physics & Maths Tutor – Perfect website for topic questions and past papers
• Chemguide – For topic explanations and questions
• Chemrevise – If you need to knuckle down hard on the content by topic
• Exam-Mate – Perfect for questions by topic