If you have any questions, PM user u/Silent-Cut5129 on reddit

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Resources

• Trying to understand the material for the first time
  • Textbook
    • The textbook i used was from Pearson (Third edition, 2023) and I really liked it. Even though I had Chem SL, the version I used was for HL, but i simply skipped any content labelled as HL. In my opinion this was the best one - it is clearly structured and organised. What i appreciate the most is that it includes syllabus statements directly from the guide at the beginning of each chapter. In addition it includes some multiple choice and structured questions at the end of each chapter, which i used to test my understanding of the chapter after studying it. However, it is quite detailed and in-depth - I used it only when studying something for the first time, but it would be too time consuming to do that every time.
  • Sirius revision and revision village videos
    • If i did not understand the content explained in the textbook, I usually turned to youtube videos. If I needed more detailed explanation Sirius revision was the way to go, but I only needed quick and brief explanation, I watched RV videos.
• Revision/review
  • Oxford IB Chemistry study guide (2023)
    • This course companion includes summaries of all that you need for your exams. However, it is summarised to the extent that you cannot study from it of you do not have previous understanding of the topic. Once you have a basic understanding it is amazing - it allows you to revise all of the content in a single day. In addition it includes IB - styled practice problems for each topic. In addition, i found it really helpful that it included some problems with worked solutions if i ever got stuck. Overall, i cannot recommend it enough for quick revision before your tests/exam.
  • Save my exams
    • This resource is not free, but it is very cheap. However, if you are reluctant to pay, ib docs has its free version. It works well for notes, but has several glitches if you use it for practice problems. I found their notes very useful, but i would not rely solely on them because I think they are not completely aligned with the syllabus on some topics. Despite this, i found their practice problems amazing, they have helped me so much throughout the course. It includes practice for both paper 1A, 1B and paper 2.
  • Past papers and Revision Town practice problems
    • In the IB, memorising theory in chemistry will not be enough - you have to be familiar with theoretical background and are required to apply it to problems and solve them. The exam will always have some questions that you think that you have no idea about - but when you think about it, you can always find a solution using your knowledge. This is best trained with practice problems and past papers. Even though there is new syllabus i still used past papers from previous one. The questions themselves are quite similar (the biggest difference is formatting of the exam), and you can always just skip things from the old syllabus. </aside>

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Tips and General Advice

• Participate in class
  • You can really learn so much in class if your teacher is good. Participating and listening in class can minimise work and studying you have to do at home. Take notes in class so that you do not have to do them at home from other textbooks/resources, which you can directly study from.
• Study for mocks or any tests you have
  • I think it matters a lot for chemistry. If you do not know the basics by heart, you will struggle in harder topics or later in the IB (for example, if you do not learn stoichiometry when you are supposed to, you will not understand many later concepts). IB Chemistry SL is not hard at all when it comes to content difficulty - just make sure that you do not fall behind.
• Exam
  • Personally, I had more than enough time in the exam. Especially in P2, I finished halfway through. So, take your time, go slowly and carefully so that you do not make any silly mistakes that you otherwise would not.
• Mind maps and diagrams
  • This helped me so much in Chemistry - it was easier to organise and understand concepts if i had a diagram in mind. This is especially true for organic chemistry and electro chemistry (voltaic cells, betteries…)!! Also, i made flasch cards to memorise equations for the required fuel cells and batteries :) </aside>

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Paper 1B tip

I know it sounds weird, but read your friends IAs before paper 1B. It is likely that one of your IAs will come up on the exam as experimental work. This happened to us - both practical questions in the exam were a part of my two classmates IAs.

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The IA

When it comes to chemistry IA, I think it is much harder to get a 7 in the IA than in the finals. If I were you, I would choose a simple SL topic that is kind of fool-proof, so that you save some time on the IA and use up that time to study for the actual exams. Do not be afraid if the topic sounds generic - from my experience IB prefers well executed basic and generic IAs over IAs that are complicated and hard to understand. No one expects you to be a scientist that develops new methods and has new findings. An experiment that has been done many times before (like the ones on Clastify) will work just fine.

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About me!!

Hello, I’m an M25 graduate as well who scored a 43/45 on the IB Diploma. I scored a 677 on my HLs (Language A lit, English B, Psychology), and a 777 on my SLs (Math AA, Biology, Chemistry). My EE in Psychology scored an B, and I received an B in TOK as well (2 points).

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