VCE Chemistry Exam Discussion and Solutions (in progress)

[Joseph41]

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SECTION A (supplied by keltingmeith, annoy him if you have concerns, not Joseph, alternatively message in the thread)
1 D
2 C
3 D*
4 B
5 B
6 C
7 B
8 A
9 C
10 C/D**

11 C
12 C
13 A***
14 D
15 C****
16 A***
17 C
18 A
19 D*****
20 D

21 Missing from scans
22 Missing from scans
23 A
24 C
25 C***
26 A
27 A
28 B
29 D
30 C******

*Question 3 is weird. A hydrolytic reaction is one which requires water to take place. A and B are examples of condensation reactions (create water), so definitely wrong. C is the definition of a condensation reaction, and so shouldn't be right either. D is not the only example of a hydrolytic reaction, however it's the only answer that is definitely a hydrolytic reaction, so that's the answer I've gone with.

**Question 10 is also weird - A and B aren't the answer because they only carry one charge. There's no reason to believe that C or D a preferable answer, because they're both in a zwitterionic form. Potentially, C is the preferred answer, because all ionizable groups and ionized. But, D could be preferred because it's charge balanced - indicating what it would look like without the influence of any acids or bases. So, I'm not really sure which VCAA would want.

***Unsure, as a product of not seeing a text book since the new study design. Feel free to debate this.

****Once again, funny question. It's not D, since denaturation doesn't affect the primary structure, and it's not A for the same reason. The mody metabolises alcohol, so it's not B.  C is what's left, but I don't think that's technically true, because not all of the bonds are necessary going to be affected, but it's the closest to being true, so.

*****Q19, tbh, is just totally up for debate. Their use of the word qualitative is poorly chosen - qualitative in what sense? B and C are out because they're not appropriate (not necessarily reliable sources), and I only chose D over A because A seems like it's not qualitative beyond "this one has higher numbers".

******I hate electrochem, and this is one damn tedious question. I think silver and gold should produce the most amount by mole based on the fact that aluminium and tin require 3x and 2x the amount of electrons to become solid. Since gold is also the heaviest metal of the four, I think this should be answer, but I am very ready for you guys to debate against me here.

[HaeIII]

That was a really messed up exam

[malyy768]

And we couldn’t even bring a dictionary, “feastabilily”

[KANYEWEST]

it was suprisingly more theory based?? little to no calculation.. weird!

[gemmaruffin]

it was suprisingly more theory based?? little to no calculation.. weird!

Yeah there was hardly any calculations?
Everything was super straight forward except for the feasibility of Mars...

[reecepempeit]

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/nasa-rocket-fuel-mars

lucky i was reading this few days ago when i was procrastinating studding, haha

[thushan]

Does anyone have a copy of the exam?

[Pandable]

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/nasa-rocket-fuel-mars

lucky i was reading this few days ago when i was procrastinating studding, haha

XD SAME!!!
But the exam only had 5 caculation short answers that was awkward

[Rusten]

Not much stoich . Most of it was pretty simple though except I thought mc wasn't great.

[ringring]

what was the independent variable supposed to be for the titration experiment...? That was so confusing

[Rusten]

what was the independent variable supposed to be for the titration experiment...? That was so confusing

Ahh yes haha I had no idea, could have sworn they weren't changing anything lol

[JaeSunRyoo]

I wrote down that it was the source of tartaric acid (from the commercial sample). It doesn't make any real sense to me, but at the time, it seemed like the best thing to write down.

I'm quite disappointed that there weren't many calculations. Multiple choice was a bit harder compared to last year's. The last MC, when it talked about which metal would deposit a greater amount than lead also befuddled me as well.

There seem to be a greater trend towards these writing/lengthy explanation questions. They did that for the Bio exam, and now, they're doing it for the Chem exam.

God knows what they'll do for Physics.

[Quantum44]

Disappointing number of calculations, was expecting a less qualitative exam.

The first 8 short answers were pretty straight forward but I thought the last 2 were strange and troublesome. MCs weren't too bad.

Not sure if I should have spent 10 mins drawing the full structural formula of the triglyceride 

[Jessiah]

And we couldn’t even bring a dictionary, “feastabilily”

Feasibility

[JOHNSMITH II]

I think question 9 was honestly to be expected. 10, ive never seen a question like that before on a chemistry exam. I. Frickin. Loved it. Which I realize might be a strange opinion, but come on, that was an interesting question, more fun than the constant need for the recitation of theory or calculations that were bombarding me prior to that question. I did, however, run out of time so i kind of rushed that question...

Also, for the independent variable, question 9, i chose the actual purity of the acid (though I think i said concentration, I actually meant purity). I realise the student isn't selecting values for it, but the way I saw it (and honestly this is very likely wrong), the value that is dependant on something else was the volume of the titre itself, and the variable that affects that would infact be the concentration. It also helps that the student was trying to figure out the purity of the commerical acid in the first place