Chemistry

Course summary

The A Level Chemistry A Level course offered at TRC is taught in modern dedicated chemistry laboratories and offers a broad introduction and insight into the three branches of chemistry: organic, inorganic, and physical. Module 1 – Development of Practical Skills Chemistry is a practical subject and experimental work helps to develop important practical skills needed to collect and analyze experimental data, as well as enhance your understanding of chemical theory. It also covers the fundamental skills of planning, implementing, analysis, and evaluation. Module 2 – Foundations in Chemistry This module acts as an introduction to the course, covering a wide range of basic chemical concepts, each of which will be studied in more detail in later modules. This module covers atoms, ions, compounds, equations, amount of substance, acids, redox reactions, electrons, bonding, shapes of molecules, and intermolecular forces. Module 3 – Periodic Table and Energy The focus of this module is inorganic and physical chemistry. It covers trends in the periodic table, reactivity trends in Group 2 and the halogens, enthalpy changes and their determination, rates of reaction, and equilibria, including how these concepts are applied in everyday life and industrial processes. Module 4 – Core Organic Chemistry This module provides an introduction to the world of organic chemistry and its application, particularly in the reactions of and synthesis of a wide range of organic compounds, which is incredibly important in the pharmaceutical industry. You will study the basic concepts of organic chemistry, the properties and reactions of alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, and haloalkanes, followed by organic synthesis and spectroscopy. Module 5 – Physical Chemistry and Transition Elements The content of this module builds upon the knowledge and understanding from Modules 2 and 3. In this module, you will cover in more detail rates of reaction, equilibria, acids, bases and pH, buffers and neutralisation, enthalpy, entropy, redox reactions, electrode potentials, and transition elements. Module 6 – Organic Chemistry and Analysis This module builds upon the content studied in Modules 2 and 4. It introduces several new functional groups, including aromatic compounds, carbonyls, carboxylic acids, amines, amides, amino acids, and polymers. It emphasizes the importance of further organic synthesis, investigating different ways of producing organic compounds and multi-step synthetic pathways. It also studies analytical techniques such as chromatography and NMR spectroscopy, which are used in organic and forensic analysis.