Organic Chemistry

Organic Chemistry covers crude oil and fractional distillation, alkanes and alkenes, cracking, combustion, and for Triple students alcohols, carboxylic acids, esters and polymers.

Start with fractional distillation and the properties of the fractions, since the trends in boiling point, viscosity and flammability are examined regularly and all follow from molecule size. Alkanes and alkenes are distinguished by the carbon-carbon double bond, and the bromine water test for unsaturation is expected knowledge. Cracking questions need both the reason it is done and a balanced equation. Students most often lose marks by writing formulae that do not balance, and by describing a homologous series without giving its general formula. Learning the first four members of each series by name and formula pays for itself repeatedly.