External assessment
Grade Awarding
This page describes the whole process leading up to how the final grade awarded to each student in chemistry is arrived at. It includes what happens to “at risk” candidates and also the role of the teacher...
External assessment
Commenting on the exams
The importance of feedback by teachers on each exam paper is stressed. All the comments are discussed at the examiners' grade award meeting and can influence the outcome of that meeting. Pertinent comments...
External assessment
Marking the papers
This page describes how the exam papers are marked by a team of assistant examiners after a standardization meeting and how each examiners' marks are ultimately moderated by the principal examiner for...
External assessment
Predicted grades
The reasons for giving predicted grades - both for the IB and also for university applications - are given together with advice on how to arrive at a fair and as accurate as possible predicted grade for...
External assessment
Setting the exam papers
This page explains how the paper setting team is made up and how the examination papers are written initially and then refined and finally go through a thorough checking process. Although Chemistry has...
External assessment
FAQs about external assessment
Ten frequently asked questions with answers. Obviously most of the options material has now disappeared so Section B of Paper 3 is no longer relevant although you may be able to use some of the material...
External assessment
Areas of difficulty
After setting, marking and grading Paper 2 examination papers for many years, certain areas of chemistry that students seem to have the most difficult with become apparent. This section lists ten particular...
External assessment
Teaching standard reduction potentials correctly
This pages considers the difficulties many students have with using the standard reduction potentials given in the electrochemical series to determine overall redox reactions, identifying the oxidizing...
External assessment
Factors affecting the rate of nucleophilic substitution reactions
This page explains how the nature of the halogen and whether the halogenoalkane is primary, secondary or tertiary affects the rate of substitution reactions of halogenoalkanes with nucleophiles such as...
External assessment
'Curly arrows'
The correct use of ‘curly arrows’ to represent the movement of a pair of electrons can prove problematic to students particularly when using them in two-dimensional diagrams. This covers the common errors...