Doing VCE Chemistry 3/4 without 1/2: A Quick Guide

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-- Doing VCE Chemistry 3/4 without 1/2: A Quick Guide --

I did chemistry 3/4 this year without having the foundation of unit 1/2 from year 11, and told myself that if I 40+, I'll make a guide. Well, I ended up getting right on the dot, so here's a quick guide to anyone out there thinking of doing chemistry 3/4 without 1/2!

Chemistry is a common prerequisite for a lot of university courses, particularly those in the science/health sciences field, but unfortunately not many of us may have already figured out what we wanted to do in uni or as a career while we were still in year 10. This means that there's many cases of students realising much later that they need VCE Chemistry as a prereq. While some may say it's borderline impossible to pick up chem 3/4 without 1/2, it's actually not. Below are some of my tips on what you can do to play your cards right.

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1. Don't rush - make sure you know your basics well

Chemistry is rather heavy in content, so it may seem a bit overwhelming to start off. But I think the biggest and most important thing to keep in mind is that trying to dive straight into any VCE level content without knowing your basics is not realistic and will backfire on you.

When I decided to swap into chemistry for year 12, the first thing I did was to gather together all my chemistry resources from year 9 and 10 science classes. I flipped through everything and made a list of words that came up frequently - words such as molecule, element, compound, atom, mole, electron, charge, solution, pH, reaction, catalyst, bonding, acid, base, etc. It's almost like trying to learn a new language - the "chemistry" language. I also did a couple of textbook exercises from my year 9 and 10 science textbooks - not exactly because I was trying to learn the content - but rather just to give myself more exposure to the jargon.

I think getting used to chemistry jargon should be the first thing on your list if you plan to do chem 3/4 without unit 1/2. What I found in the first couple of weeks of chem 3/4 was that the most difficult part wasn't trying to learn the content itself, but rather trying to understand what on earth the question was asking me to do. There is really no cheat way to drastically improve in a short amount of time, just work on giving yourself more experience on dealing with the chemistry language, and slowly but surely you will see improvement.

Aside from the chemistry jargon, one other thing to expose yourself to is writing prac reports. This is particularly important if you aren't doing any other science subjects for VCE. Familiarise yourself with the basic structure of a science prac report as it plays a big role in VCE Chem (both for your practical investigation SAC and the final exam).


2. Stoichiometry is top priority!

Stoichiometry is the more 'maths' (quantitative) side of chemistry and having a solid grasp of stoich is crucial to mastering the subject. If you struggle with stoich, then no matter how well you understand the theoretical/qualitative content, you won't get anywhere.

Students who have studied 1/2 chemistry are most likely no strangers to balancing equations and doing some simple chemistry calculations. On the other hand, if you didn't do 1/2 then, speaking from personal experience, stoich will become your greatest nightmare. Unfortunately, stoich is required throughout both Unit 3 and Unit 4, so there's really no escaping it.

Thankfully, there will be plenty of opportunities throughout unit 3 for you to master performing chemistry-related calculations. However, that's not the case with the most basic part - balancing equations, which your school will most likely treat as assumed knowledge once year 12 begins. To prepare for that, the most foolproof method is just to print out a bunch of worksheets on balancing equations, and learn to balance them yourself. There are countless free worksheets for balancing equations online (such as this one).


3. So what are the key topics to learn yourself before you start 3/4?

The main topics that carry over from 1/2 (which you should definitely be learning yourself during the December/January holidays if you are serious about going into 3/4 chem) are:

   - Different types of bonding (covalent, hydrogen, dipole-dipole, dispersion): what they are, who can bond with who, how strong the bonds are in relative to each other etc.
   - Reactions: what types of reactions are there, how are they written etc.
   - Chemical formula and names of common compounds: memorise them! You wouldn't want to be losing marks over writing H₂SO₃ for sulfuric acid, like I did on my first chem SAC.
   - Basics of the periodic table: while you definitely don't need to memorise the whole thing, it's useful to know roughly where the common elements are located, their atomic number, mass, and what letter is used to represent them.
   - Properties of common elements and compounds: yet another chunk of content which you should do your best to commit to memory, because they will be really helpful in application questions that VCAA throws at you.
   - Redox: Know your redox pairs and make sure to get a lot of practice with writing and balancing redox half equations, and with combining two half equations.
   - Organic chemistry and IUPAC naming conventions of hydrocarbons: familiarise yourself with naming and drawing alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, carboxylic acids and non-branched esters.
   - The Data Book: this is your Holy Bible of VCE Chem. Print one out (you can find a PDF on the VCAA website) and make sure you become familiar with it.



I know this is an incredibly short guide but I really think this is all you need to do to catch up. Chemistry is somewhat demonised - and while there were most definitely times when I just wished to throw my textbook out the window, overall I found it to be an enjoyable subject. The bottom line is that while having completed 1/2 can be beneficial, it is by no means a handicap if you didn't.

Anyway, if you are a year 11 student who just found out that your dream course requires chemistry, know that picking it up in year 12 is an option! If anything, the hardest part would be getting the school's permission, not catching up on content.

I hope this is helpful, and if anybody has any questions or concerns, ask away!