How the Chemistry optional paper is built
Each of the two Chemistry optional papers carries 250 marks and runs for three hours. Paper I covers physical and inorganic chemistry. Paper II covers organic chemistry and spectroscopy.
Eight questions, five to attempt
A paper has eight questions in two sections, four in Section A and four in Section B. Questions 1 and 5 are compulsory. From the other six you choose three, with at least one from each section. Every question carries 50 marks.
What a question looks like
The compulsory questions are usually five short parts of 10 marks each. The others are split into three or four parts, most worth 10, 15 or 20 marks, and they mix theory with a derivation, a mechanism or a numerical.
Time per mark
Set ten minutes aside to choose questions. The remaining 170 minutes for 250 marks works out to about 7 minutes for a 10-mark part, 10 minutes for 15 marks and 14 minutes for 20 marks.
A 10-mark answer that runs to 12 minutes takes its time from a 20-mark one. Practise with the clock from the first solved paper.