Apparatus & Setup
Apparatus selection, diagram quality, and setup precision for practical and data-collection questions.
This route helps when you keep missing the same type of question across different topics. Use it to combine lesson notes with linked practice and tools in one place.
Notes and Hubs in This Route
- Simple and fractional distillation
Recover a solvent or separate miscible liquids by vaporisation, condensation and repeated enrichment in a fractionating column.
- Choosing a drying agent for a gas
Remove water vapour without removing the gas: compare calcium oxide, concentrated sulfuric acid and fused calcium chloride.
- Paper chromatography and Rf values
Set up paper chromatography, compare unknown and reference spots, calculate Rf and explain the limits of the evidence.
- Preparing Insoluble Salts
Prepare an insoluble salt by precipitation: choose soluble ion sources, collect the residue, wash away dissolved impurities and dry the product.
- Preparing Soluble Salts
Prepare soluble salts using excess insoluble solid or titration, then separate and crystallise the product. Explain how each step protects purity.
- Reading Reaction-Rate Graphs
Read gas-volume and mass-loss graphs, calculate average rates over intervals and estimate instantaneous rates using tangents.
- Measuring Reaction Rate
Choose a fixed end-point, gas-syringe or mass-loss method, plan a fair rate comparison and recognise measurement limitations.
- Collecting gases and measuring their volumes
Choose gas collection apparatus from the task, water solubility and density, and measure gas volume without losing the product.
- Using evidence to assess purity
Purity tests: use melting-point and boiling-point data to identify substances and assess purity, and explain why purity matters in food and drugs.
- Drawing practical apparatus diagrams
Apparatus diagrams (Paper 3): draw clear line diagrams, correct labels, and correct positions (e.g., thermometer bulb) and explain how the arrangement makes the method work.
- Measurements & Experimental Techniques
Chemistry experimental techniques hub: measurement, gas collection, purity, and separation. Includes Paper 3 skill lessons, exam traps, and quizzes.
- Measuring time, temperature, mass and volume
Choose and use apparatus for time, temperature, mass and volume, including correct scale readings, units, meniscus technique and precision.
- G3 Pure and O-Level Chemistry Practical (Paper 3)
Chemistry Paper 3 practical hub: planning, measurements, tables/graphs, titration, evaluation, and qualitative analysis. Practise the topic with its check.
- Choosing separation methods
Separation techniques: choose filtration, crystallisation, distillation, separating funnel, or chromatography based on solubility and boiling points.