Winning Strategies For A Level Chemistry

Sat amongst a myriad of papers covering the past three decades, from past exam papers to schematics to build my own PCR machine, a thought struck me. I have never clearly written down the secrets to success that some of my students have chosen to apply. How would I know this? What experiences have I gained in my life to allow me to succeed? I have been lucky to meet the right people at the right time and that includes my students. It is the habits they form that have allowed them to blossom into amazing individuals. I think it is essential that you know what it is about them and me that has allowed us to excel. The truth I that it is not difficult to do, its difficult to make the decision to do it. Their attainments have been remarkable, and even though you have purchased this book to learn chemistry, it is this first chapter, this primer that will equip you to astound, and yes I mean astound, not the people around you but yourself. My interaction with them rarely starts on a positive ground, they are either naughty or have attempted AS chemistry and found it demanding, discouraging, intimidating, and downright impossible! There are two life altering experiences for me, the first was to do with learning, I was always hard working at school and devoted to science, it brought me logic and a love of nature. At around the age of seventeen my sister, a very astute and articulate woman, obtained a position for me in the company that she worked for. I was to be a telesales representative. I finished my initial training and on my first day I managed to get.. no sales! I persevered, by the end of the week I managed to get no sales! After four weeks of sales and hitting those phones, I still managed no sales! I was despondent with work and went to the library to prepare for some exams, on the way out a stupid question popped into my head, my head being my head I had to get the question out. I walked up to a librarian and looking quite bashful I asked straining my voice through the stupidity of my question "Do you have any books on sales?". To my surprise the librarian not only pointed out a book but an entire section! I checked out a book on the Art of selling. Not only did I learn form the book I really enjoyed it. I have learnt the most through my own experiences, after graduating from Manchester I decided to head down to London. As a student I did not have limitless wealth. Roughly £70 pounds of wealth after paying £16 for a coach ticket. I managed to get a landlord who would take a post-dated cheque for rent and it left me with one mission, find work. This was not my first lesson in life but consideration brought it to the fore of my mind. It didn't matter if I was exhausted, uninterested, unwell, or upset I had to find work and I did in two days. Make the decision. Make a decision as Yoda said, "either do or don't do, there is no try". I have students who say all the right words to me yet they turn up late, or they have a Doctor's appointment or the car broke down! As harsh as this may sound, if you truly decide to make the sacrifices necessary to succeed at A level Chemistry, then these are not excuses but challenges placed in your path to test your resolve. So resolve it. Be honest with yourself, because if you are not willing to truly make those sacrifices then stop write now. Put this ebook down and quit your course. You will not be doing yourself justice. Manage your time. Analyse your time. There are many books on time management, read one! But if you do not have the time the most empowering effect of time management is that one would think that putting effort into time management would reduce the amount of time that you would have. The converse is actually true. It is amazing how the creation of a time management plan is also the implementation of it. This may sound strange but once you are aware of the amount of time you have and where you use it your habits automatically change.

This is a tool that you want to use through university and into your working life. For me, the most effective way of producing a time management plan is to use an excel file.

Time Activity 6:00 AM get ready 6:15 AM 6:30 AM travel to work 6:45 AM

My excel file is broken into 15 minute slots and my activities colour coded. This shows me where I can insert activities such as writing this ebook through to spending time with family and training the dogs.

The art of the lesson.

A class lesson is not just a point in time when a teacher imparts all that chemistry stuff in your head and the job is done! There is a method in using a lesson, to simply walk in and feel that's the job done will place you in the bracket of 90% of pupils who never shine. Your teacher will give you one of two things, either a teaching sequence for a term or month. If not you get a text book with a breakdown of what you need to learn. 70% of the lesson content will be easily accesable by any student and for this reason you must learn that lesson topic prior to the lesson. Personally I find it best to learn it the day before.

I hope this helps as teh first in a series of articles.