Chemistry

Course summary

Chemistry is an amazing subject to study and is highly respected by universities and employers alike. It shows a depth of learning that requires numerous skills of its pupils; maths, scientific reasoning, written and spoken communication and practical skills among many others. It is for this reason that Chemistry is considered a highly academic subject that keeps many of life’s “doors” open to pupils. The course is divided into three areas of chemistry: physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry. Physical chemistry refers to the application of the theories and ideas in physics to the proper material stuff of chemistry, including the study of the atomic. Put simply, physical chemistry is the study of how matter behaves at the smallest level. Inorganic chemistry is the study of any compounds without carbon in them - which is the exclusive domain of organic chemistry (see below). In inorganic chemistry, pupils will learn about halogens, transition metals and alkaline earth metals, as well as testing reactions of ions in aqueous solutions. And finally, organic chemistry is the study of those compounds that are largely based on carbon. This is the only distinguishing feature of the two fields.