About

Chemrevise.org is run by Neil Goalby, Head of Chemistry at Bancroft’s School, an independent school in NE London. I have been teaching A-level Chemistry for 26  years and have marked A-level chemistry exams for both Edexcel and AQA.

The site was first made to host my revision guides that are written for AQA  A-level Chemistry. The site has  now extended  to cover other exam boards. (OCR and Edexcel) and AQA GCSE

The next project that is in progress is to write a more detailed e-textbook that is less syllabus specific and contains extension material and questions to answer.

71 thoughts on “About”

  1. David A.

    Just a quick note to say thank you for putting together such a comprehensive site and notes. I can’t imagine the number of hours that has gone into this or how many revisions you have done over the years.

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  3. Hannah

    In your OCR guides, you note that an acyl chloride + 2NH3 will form NH3Cl as a byproduct to the organic product, however an alternate reaction would be the production of HCl when only one mole of NH3 is added. The secondary reaction is what is written in the OCR textbook, perhaps you want to add this? Very helpful guides, thank you very much. (it wouldnt let me comment this on the OCR guide page)

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  4. chemrevise Post author

    It is ok to link directly to my website. It is not acceptable to download , alter , use portions of notes and /or repost on another website. That is theft. Sorry to be difficult but I’ve had several people do and it isn’t acceptable.

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  5. Jan Jones

    Phew!; needed to revise A level chemistry after 25 years working; interview for new job! Wish I had had these the first time round!

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  7. Josephine Akoro

    Thanks so much for taking the time to produce these amazing notes! They have helped me so much with revision so far and hopefully they will help me get the A* that I need! Thanks again 🙂

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  8. Md.Sabir

    Hello,

    Really appreciate your work from the bottom of my heart.Keep up the great work.

    With lots of love and thanks from Bangladesh.

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  9. Joe

    Thank you for your notes, they are properly awesome!! You have no idea how much they are helping me and my class work our way through the chemistry spec! Thank you.

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  10. Claire Rickard

    Hi Neil, I just wanted to say that one of my students stumbled across your notes a couple of years ago and I have used them and your web site ever since (always crediting you of course). You have no idea how much time you’ve saved me and as a Head of Science, a Head of Chemistry and a Mummy to a 16 month old girl – time is something that is priceless to me. I am hugely grateful so thank you. if by any chance you ever sell your presentations then i for one would definitely like to purchase them!

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  11. Jay

    Would just like to say I’m grateful for your notes. Have helped me endlessly for last year and will be one of my main resources for this year too! Thank you so much your work is appreciated 🙂

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  13. Student

    Hi,

    Thanks for the chemistry notes. I think there is an error on 3.4 alkenes chapter page 3 i think there is one too many carbons in the stages of the mechanism for electrophilic addition and hydrolysis.

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  14. Keerthi

    Hi! Thank you ever so much for these amazing notes – gutted to only just have discovered them! I have a question though: To achieve an A* at A level do you need to know information before the specification? Can they actually ask anything beyond this? My biology teachers have been teaching us stuff not on our current specification but on previous ones as they claim they are likely to be asked as “suggest” type questions. Do you know if this is the case? Thanks again!

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      Suggest questions generally do not require factual knowledge of non -specification points. They are generally applications of syllabus points to new situations. The better you know the subject the more likely you will have the confidence to spot what the syllabus point the question is referring to.

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      These are not written for the international A-levels but there will be overlap with them. You will have to look at the syllabus and compare

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  18. whycantieverromember@gmail.com

    Hi,

    You should set up some sort of donation system for those of us whom wish to contribute to this amazing resource. With out this I wouldn’t have been able to get an A last year.

    Thank you!

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    1. Thomas

      Yes. I use your resources regularly, and they are great! I would love to donate some money towards this to help ensure its long term (ad-free) existence. Like Wikipedia 😉

      Tom

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  19. Ryan Yeo

    Hi, I am actually from Singapore and I am curious of the differences between AQA, Edexel and OCR, since I thought the A-Levels are administered by Cambridge University.

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      These are revision guides for the national A-level. The international A-levels are different syllabuses. I’m sure many topics will be similar but I have not looked to see

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  21. Miss Richardson

    These notes have been absolutely brilliant and really helped me to make sure that I haven’t been missing any loopholes in the specification! Now if only I had this sort of thing for my other subjects, I’m sure I’d be finding June a lot less terrifying…

    Thanks again for the time and effort that must have gone into these.

    From a (hopeful) future medical student (just need to get those A grades!)

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  22. Grateful A-level Retake

    Dear Mr Goalby,

    I cannot thank you or express my gratitude enough for the help and clarity your work has brought upon me. I am resitting both my A2 Edexcel units this year as last year I completely flopped them -unexpectedly I might add. With your ‘to the point’ notes (in my opinion) I have a newfound interest in chemistry. I absolutely love staying up late reading these and taking it all in like a sponge. Once again I would like to thank you tremendously for creating these.

    Many thanks,

    Prospective Chemical Engineering student

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  24. John

    what you’re doing is so great and i appreciate it but I was just wondering if you have or intend to make notes for OCR Salters Chem (spec B)

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  25. Emilie

    This website has been an absolute life saver, thank you so much! Do you have any notes for biology \ do you know of any helpful revision websites?

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  26. Student

    the halogen group link has disappeared on unit 2 chemistry, can you please put it back on when possible. thank you 🙂 these notes are really good

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  27. Kandy

    I was trying to send an email pointing to an error in Disproportionation detailed notes.
    KClO5 – oxidation number of chlorine if such a compound exists should be + 9 not +7
    You are probably refering to KClO4 not KClO5

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      I can’t guarantee that. I do believe the notes have all the factual content you need to get an A but it’s how well you understand it and can apply it that will count.

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  31. nj

    A massive thank you for these resources. I have converted the pdf’s and adapted them. (Crediting you and the site) I have found these particularly useful with my weaker students to have as a handout whilst I am teaching.
    Thanks again!

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  32. Student

    Your notes are the absolute best. I was wondering whether there are notes for A2 unit “5.5 – reactions of inorganic compounds in aqueous solutions”? Thank you!

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  35. Reginald

    Sir,
    I find your Chemistry notes very helpful. Thank You.
    Do you by any chance do Physics revision notes or know a website which does good A-Level Physics revision notes.

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  39. Student

    Hi! You’re revision notes are great – I’m a little confused on this energetics question, wondering if you could help? :

    (c)​In a similar experiment, the enthalpy of combustion of butanone, C4H8O, was found to be –1290 kJ mol–1. A data book value for the same reaction is ΔHc = –2430 kJ mol–1.
    (i)​Suggest one reason why the experimental value is very different from the data book value.
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
    (ii)​This data book value of ΔHc for butanone (–2430 kJ mol–1) refers to the formation of carbon dioxide gas and water in the gaseous state. How would this value differ if it referred to the formation of water in the liquid state? Explain your answer.
    Difference ……………………………………………………………………………………………
    Explanation …………………………………………………………………………………………
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………​​(3)

    For part 1 the answer is heat loss – we’ve been told about heat loss and incomplete combustion – how do I know which one it would be in this case?

    And for the second question I’m completely lost :
    difference: more negative/more exothermic
    Explanation – heat released when water vapour condenses

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      In part 1, heat loss is the major reason for the difference and should be always be given first. If you asked for two reasons then give the incomplete combustion- this has less of an effect.
      The part 2 is a difficult question and I remember discussing this with pupils of mine in the past. I don’t really like the explanation the examiner wants. Imagine the reaction occurs giving out steam producing an exothermic -2430 Kjmol-1 and then imagine the steam condensing to liquid water. The process of condensation gives out heat because making bonds is exothermic. Now combine the two stages together both giving out energy so the value will be more exothermic.
      I can’t imagine many candidates got that question correct.

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  40. student321

    Could you please tell me if it is possible for you to make some one page summary sheets on naming hydrocarbons and mechanisms. This would be extremely helpful.

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    1. chemrevise Post author

      I don’t think I can condense naming organic any more than I already have. It is a good idea to put all the mechanisms you need on one piece of paper. I might do it at some point. You could do it yourself more quickly though and it would have more value. You learn them by drawing them out lots of times.

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    1. Sarah

      Hi,
      Is there any chance I could have a copy of your ppts on powerpoint so I can adapt them? I will of course credit your work.

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      1. chemrevise Post author

        I was originally going to put up the editable versions of the powerpoint but decided in the end to only share the pdf versions.

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