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Chemguide Support for |
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Support for home-schooling parents Tell me about the book First, make sure we are talking about the same book. This is the book for exams prior to June 2019. This book covers the Edexcel International GCSE Chemistry syllabus which was examined for the first time in 2011. It replaces the old Longman Chemistry for IGCSE co-authored by Jim Clark and Ray Oliver. I am the sole author of the new version. The book will shortly be retitled (see top of page) because Edexcel are introducing a new syllabus for use in UK state schools. This new syllabus will be almost identical to the existing International GCSE which will be modified slightly in future to make the two identical. I have had to add only one small margin box to cover a trivial extra point about the non-biodegradability of some plastics in the revised syllabus. This will be taught in schools from September 2012, and probably examined for the first time in June 2013. Can the old (red) book still be used for the current syllabus? No! It doesn't match the new syllabus. If you have a copy, throw it away or send it to recycling or burn it, but please don't use it. Please don't try to sell it either - you would be putting the buyer at a major disadvantage if they tried to use it to prepare for the current exam. Can we just work through the new book starting from page 1? Yes! The content is in a logical teaching order, leaving tricky or boring stuff like calculations right to the end. The book doesn't follow the order of the syllabus, but all the syllabus is covered. If you want to check, you will find the syllabus statements for each chapter available on the CD accompanying the book. Download and print a copy of the syllabus from Edexcel, and cross things off when you have done them. What if I can't follow something in the book, or I disagree with an answer? I wrote the book with an eye on the needs of home-schooling parents with little or no chemistry, so I hope that you won't have too much trouble following the book. I have also tried to explain the answers in a way that doesn't assume any chemistry knowledge beyond what you might have acquired up to that point in the book. However, there is often a gap between intentions and results! If you find something that you don't understand, or if you think I may have got an answer wrong, please contact me via the address on the about this site page of Chemguide so that I can try to sort it out. An answer file can easily be corrected or rephrased, but only if somebody tells me about it. If something from the book needs further explanation, I can add it to this web page (or a link from this page) so that everybody can benefit. Please don't feel embarrassed in asking about things you don't understand, or pointing out problems to me. When I was teaching, I worked on the principle that my students had a right to understand things and, provided they weren't just day-dreaming, if they didn't understand something I taught them, it was my fault and not theirs. I still believe that. Can I make clear, though, that this service only applies to home-schooling parents (or teachers finding problems with the answers), and not to students themselves. I don't have the time or energy to serve as a personal tutor to thousands and thousands of individual students! (Chemguide as a whole is currently getting over two million visits a month (2017) - there is no way that I can cope with students asking me questions!) Where can I find answers to the questions in the book? They are currently available as pdf files from here, or from the Pearson site. Click on the links below to find complete answers section by section. Section A Section B Section C Section D Section EGo to links to further resources © Jim Clark 2009 (last updated July 2017) |