Chem SL Test

[sillymissrachel]

I feel pretty prepared for the SL Chemistry test...except that I've never actually seen one, and have no idea what to expect! Would any of you mind explaining what each of the papers is like?

[Drake Glau]

Paper1, 30 multiple choice questions, 45min to do them. pretty simple

This is where they like to separate the 6s from the 7s. There will be random questions over the syllabus you barely touched on for more than 5min in class most likely. <-Warning

Paper2, 2 parts, you must complete all of part A and you have to choose one of the three questions from part b, you have 1h15min to do so.

There will almost, 99% chance, there will be some organic, somewhere. I don't know why, but they love organic.

Paper2 also includes a 5min reading time, paper1 does not.

[myreeka]

And Paper 3?

[Drake Glau]

Paper3 is over your options only (2 topics you or your teacher picked that have the letters instead of numbers) and is mostly all short answer. Questions can range from stuff like circle the ester group in some drug (if you did drugs and medicine of course) all the way up to some long explanation worth 5-6 points about something specific to your topic. There will be absolutely no MCQs and you have a total of 1 hour for SL or 1h15min for HL

Unlike paper2 you will need to do the whole test.

Small Warning: The packet you receive during testing will have EVERY option in it. DO NOT do the one you don't know. Pay attention to the section you are answering. If you answer more than 2 sections they will grade the first two. Example being if you were to do option E and D and A however you didn't mean to do A so you did 2-3 questions then moved on to E and D, there is a possibility they will grade A and D only because they are the first two which means you only do 2-3 questions of A will result in a massive lack of marks...and that's bad.

Paper3 does include the 5min reading time at the beginning also.

[Ray]

Small Warning: The packet you receive during testing will have EVERY option in it. DO NOT do the one you don't know. Pay attention to the section you are answering. If you answer more than 2 sections they will grade the first two. Example being if you were to do option E and D and A however you didn't mean to do A so you did 2-3 questions then moved on to E and D, there is a possibility they will grade A and D only because they are the first two which means you only do 2-3 questions of A will result in a massive lack of marks...and that's bad.

On the markscheme they state that:" 12. If a candidate has attempeted more than the required number of questions within a paper or a section of a paper, mark all the answers and use the marks of those answers that have the highest mark, unless the candidate has indicated the question(s) to be marked on the front cover." But don't know why you would do more than two.... Just make sure you do the right two.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Ray

[Guest Red XII]

Small Warning: The packet you receive during testing will have EVERY option in it. DO NOT do the one you don't know. Pay attention to the section you are answering. If you answer more than 2 sections they will grade the first two. Example being if you were to do option E and D and A however you didn't mean to do A so you did 2-3 questions then moved on to E and D, there is a possibility they will grade A and D only because they are the first two which means you only do 2-3 questions of A will result in a massive lack of marks...and that's bad.

On the markscheme they state that:" 12. If a candidate has attempeted more than the required number of questions within a paper or a section of a paper, mark all the answers and use the marks of those answers that have the highest mark, unless the candidate has indicated the question(s) to be marked on the front cover." But don't know why you would do more than two.... Just make sure you do the right two.

For people who get through Paper 2 really quickly and have enough time to try another question, they could optimize their score by attempting more and then leaving it up to the extra marks. Anyone who gets through the paper that quickly probably doesn't need to do that, though, and it's still risky in case they decide to just take the first two.

[Drake Glau]

Small Warning: The packet you receive during testing will have EVERY option in it. DO NOT do the one you don't know. Pay attention to the section you are answering. If you answer more than 2 sections they will grade the first two. Example being if you were to do option E and D and A however you didn't mean to do A so you did 2-3 questions then moved on to E and D, there is a possibility they will grade A and D only because they are the first two which means you only do 2-3 questions of A will result in a massive lack of marks...and that's bad.

On the markscheme they state that:" 12. If a candidate has attempeted more than the required number of questions within a paper or a section of a paper, mark all the answers and use the marks of those answers that have the highest mark, unless the candidate has indicated the question(s) to be marked on the front cover." But don't know why you would do more than two.... Just make sure you do the right two.

For people who get through Paper 2 really quickly and have enough time to try another question, they could optimize their score by attempting more and then leaving it up to the extra marks. Anyone who gets through the paper that quickly probably doesn't need to do that, though, and it's still risky in case they decide to just take the first two.

After doing paper2, you actually pick the questions you want graded on the cover sheet and the instructions explicitly state to pick 2. This creates an EXTREMELY high chance they will simply take the first 2 and call the 3rd a failure to follow instructions and leave it.

[Keel]

If the cover sheet does not state which questions are to be marked in that particular section, all questions in that section are to be marked. The two highest marks in that section will contribute towards the final mark and the lower one ignored. This is what examiners are instructed to do, whether this is done in practice no one really knows. Asking for a remark would be likely to solve the problem if you suspect that this rule has been ignored as they will pay more attention to the instructions (of course this means paying more money).

[Guest Red XII]

If the cover sheet does not state which questions are to be marked in that particular section, all questions in that section are to be marked. The two highest marks in that section will contribute towards the final mark and the lower one ignored. This is what examiners are instructed to do, whether this is done in practice no one really knows. Asking for a remark would be likely to solve the problem if you suspect that this rule has been ignored as they will pay more attention to the instructions (of course this means paying more money).

I don't know about the other examiners, but my physics teacher is an examiner and he says they actually follow the instruction to mark them all and take the highest two. Since the examiners are moderated, I'd imagine most of them follow the instructions.