Hi A Level students
These are revision notes for Cambridge International AS & A Level Chemistry 9701, free and open to anyone. They follow the syllabus topic by topic — the twenty-two AS topics and the fifteen added at A Level — with a page explaining the data section of the syllabus, and a page for each of the two practical papers.
Chemistry at this level rewards two habits more than any amount of reading: writing equations and mechanisms until they are automatic, and doing the calculation rather than recognising it. Every page here therefore ends with a worked example, the specific mistake that costs marks on that topic, and six questions with full answers.
Please take note that although succinct notes are essential towards your revision, they should not be the only materials you cover — working through past paper questions is just as important, and in this subject so is time in the laboratory.
Happy revising. — Mr. Suta
🧭Start here
Which of the five papers you sit, what each is worth, the three routes through the qualification, and which syllabus version applies to your examination year. Then the data section: the tables of constants and chemical data that come with the syllabus, and how to use them.
📚The topics
The syllabus numbers its topics 1 to 37 and groups them into physical, inorganic and organic chemistry, with analysis last. The numbering is kept here, so a topic is exactly where the syllabus says it is. AS candidates study topics 1–22; A Level candidates study all 37, and the AS content is assumed knowledge throughout Paper 4.
Several A Level topics carry the same name as an AS topic — Chemical energetics is topic 5 and topic 23, Equilibria is 7 and 25. The A Level topic extends the AS one rather than repeating it, so read the AS page first.
AS Level — physical chemistry, topics 1 to 8
Atoms, the mole, bonding and the states of matter, then the three questions every reaction raises: how much energy it transfers, how far it goes and how fast. Almost every calculation in the course is built on topic 2.
AS Level — inorganic chemistry, topics 9 to 12
Periodicity across period 3, then Group 2, Group 17, and nitrogen and sulfur. This is where the physical chemistry of topics 1–8 is used to explain real trends, and the equations have to be learned.
AS Level — organic chemistry and analysis, topics 13 to 22
Naming, isomerism and the vocabulary of mechanisms, then one functional group at a time, then synthesis routes that join them together, and finally mass spectrometry and infrared.
A Level — physical chemistry, topics 23 to 26
Lattice energy and Born–Haber cycles, entropy and Gibbs free energy, electrode potentials, Ka, buffers and Ksp, and rate equations. The most quantitative part of the course.
A Level — inorganic chemistry, topics 27 to 28
Group 2 thermal stability and solubility, then the transition elements: variable oxidation states, complexes, colour, ligand exchange and stability constants.
A Level — organic chemistry and analysis, topics 29 to 37
Optical isomerism, arenes and phenol, acyl chlorides, amines, amides and amino acids, condensation polymers, longer syntheses, and then chromatography and NMR.
Practical assessment
Papers 3 and 5 assess AO3 and nothing else, and together they are 23% of the A Level. Paper 3 alone is 23% of the AS. They are the two papers students most often assume cannot be revised. They can: the mark schemes reward a small, stable set of skills.
🧩How to use these pages
Every topic page follows the same shape: what you need to be able to do, then the chemistry broken into the syllabus sub-topics, a worked example, six practice questions with full answers, and a clearly separated list of other people’s resources.
The worked examples end by naming the specific mistake that costs marks on that topic — writing an ionisation energy equation without state symbols, using the mass of the solution instead of the mass of water, forgetting that a hydrate’s formula mass includes its water. Those paragraphs are the most useful part of the page and the easiest to skip.
The objectives on each page are written in my own words from the syllabus. They are a faithful guide to what can be asked, but the syllabus document itself is the final authority — if a question ever seems to fall outside these pages, check the learning outcome.
🎓Official Cambridge resources
These are the documents that actually govern the course. Your school has access to all of them through the Cambridge School Support Hub, so ask me if you cannot reach one.
- The 9701 syllabus document — check you have the version for your examination years. The learning outcomes are listed sub-topic by sub-topic, and they are the definitive statement of what can be asked.
- The practical assessment section of the syllabus — section 5, with the expectations for Papers 3 and 5 and the qualitative analysis notes you are given in Paper 3.
- Examiner reports — the single most under-used resource. Examiners describe, in plain language, exactly what candidates got wrong last session.
- Specimen papers and mark schemes — written for the current syllabus.
📜A note on past papers
Past papers are the most valuable revision you can do in this subject, and your school can give you properly licensed ones. Ask me and I will get you past questions by topic.
Two warnings when you use them. First, mark your own work against the mark scheme rather than a model answer — chemistry mark schemes award specific points, and a calculation mark can depend on a unit or a significant figure. Second, the current 9701 content was first examined in 2022, and the only content change since then is an update to the reagents in two learning outcomes (15.1(c) and 16.2(b)), so papers from 2022 onwards are close to exact practice. Older papers are still useful, but check the odd question against the learning outcomes.