Cambridge A Level Chemistry Tutors Online

Cambridge A Level Chemistry is syllabus 9701. This page works from the syllabus for exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027. Exams are available in the June and November series, and also in the March series in India.

An A Level candidate sits five papers. Papers 1, 2 and 3 are the AS Level papers. Papers 4 and 5 are new at A Level, and candidates following an A Level route are eligible for grades A* to E.

The weighting splits almost exactly in half. Paper 1 at 15.5 per cent, Paper 2 at 23 per cent and Paper 3 at 11.5 per cent add up to half the A Level. Paper 4 at 38.5 per cent and Paper 5 at 11.5 per cent make up the other half.

Paper 1 is Multiple Choice. It lasts 1 hour 15 minutes, carries 40 marks and 40 multiple-choice questions, and is based on the AS Level syllabus content. It is worth 15.5% of the A Level.

Paper 2 is AS Level Structured Questions. It lasts 1 hour 15 minutes and carries 60 marks, also based on AS Level content, and it is worth 23% of the A Level.

Paper 3 is Advanced Practical Skills. It is a 2 hour practical test carrying 40 marks, worth 11.5% of the A Level, based on the experimental skills in the Practical assessment section of the syllabus.

Paper 4 is A Level Structured Questions and it is the paper that decides most grades. It lasts 2 hours, carries 100 marks and is worth 38.5% of the A Level. No other paper is close. Paper 4 alone carries more weight than Papers 1 and 2 combined.

Paper 4 is based on the A Level syllabus content and the syllabus states that knowledge of material from the AS Level syllabus content will be required. Nothing from the first year can be put down.

Paper 5 is Planning, Analysis and Evaluation. It lasts 1 hour 15 minutes, carries 30 marks, and is worth 11.5% of the A Level. Questions are based on the experimental skills of planning, analysis and evaluation, and the context may be outside the syllabus content.

Paper 5 is a written paper, and the syllabus says it will not require laboratory facilities. It is not a second practical exam. It asks candidates to design investigations on paper and to analyse and evaluate data they are given.

Chemistry publishes an exact mark guarantee for this paper, which is unusually specific. Planning has a minimum mark allocation of 12 marks, and analysis, conclusion and evaluation together have a minimum allocation of 12 marks. The remaining 6 marks are allocated across those skills, and the syllabus notes that their allocation may vary from paper to paper.

So the floor is 12 marks for planning and 12 for the analysis half, and the last 6 can tilt either way. A student who cannot plan an experiment has at least 12 marks locked away from them before the paper starts.

The syllabus also describes how Paper 5 can surprise candidates. It says some questions may be set in areas of chemistry that are difficult to investigate experimentally in school laboratories, possibly for reasons of cost or safety. It then reassures: no question will require theory or equipment beyond that expected of A Level practical work, and information candidates are not expected to know will be provided in the paper.

The paper consists of two or more questions totalling 30 marks. Candidates may be required to design an experimental investigation of a given problem, and the syllabus warns that such questions may not be highly structured. Answers may need extended structured writing illustrated with appropriate diagrams, flow charts, tables or equations.

Candidates may also be asked to express a prediction as a written hypothesis linking independent and dependent variables, or as a graph showing the expected outcome. They may be given experimental data and asked to analyse it, evaluate it and draw conclusions from it.

The assessment objectives work the same way across all three sciences. At A Level the qualification splits AO1 knowledge and understanding at 40 per cent, AO2 handling, applying and evaluating information at 40 per cent, and AO3 experimental skills and investigations at 20 per cent.

Per paper, Papers 1, 2 and 4 are each half AO1 and half AO2 with no AO3 at all, and Papers 3 and 5 are entirely AO3. So the whole experimental skills objective lives in Paper 3 and Paper 5, and the three theory papers reward knowledge and its application only.

The content is the part students underestimate. AS Level candidates study topics 1 to 22, and A Level candidates study all of those plus fifteen more, numbered 23 to 37. The syllabus adds that the content of the AS Level learning outcomes is assumed knowledge for the A Level components.

The fifteen additional topics are grouped in the same four branches as the AS content. Physical chemistry adds 23 chemical energetics, 24 electrochemistry, 25 equilibria and 26 reaction kinetics. Inorganic chemistry adds 27 Group 2 and 28 chemistry of transition elements. Organic chemistry adds 29 an introduction to A Level organic chemistry, 30 hydrocarbons, 31 halogen compounds, 32 hydroxy compounds, 33 carboxylic acids and derivatives, 34 nitrogen compounds, 35 polymerisation and 36 organic synthesis. Analysis adds 37 analytical techniques.

Read those titles against the AS list and a pattern appears. Energetics is topic 5 at AS and topic 23 at A Level. Electrochemistry is 6 and 24. Equilibria is 7 and 25. Reaction kinetics is 8 and 26. Group 2 is 10 and 27. The organic families run 13 to 21 at AS and reappear as 29 to 36. Analytical techniques is 22 and 37.

So most of the A Level is not a list of new subjects. It is the same families taken further, with calculations and mechanisms that go well beyond the first pass. A student who found energetics manageable at AS should expect topic 23 to be harder in kind, not merely longer.

Two of the additions really are new ground. Chemistry of transition elements at 28 is the only inorganic topic with no AS counterpart, and it is where complex ions, ligand substitution, colour and transition element redox chemistry sit. Organic synthesis at 36 is where routes of several steps have to be planned rather than single reactions recited.

There are three routes. Route 1 is AS Level only, taking Papers 1, 2 and 3 in the same exam series. Route 2 is the A Level staged over two years, with Year 1 as the AS Level and Year 2 completing the A Level. Route 3 is the A Level with all five components in one exam series.

On Route 2, Year 2 is Papers 4 and 5 only, and the AS papers are not retaken. Candidates carry forward their AS Level result rather than a grade, subject to the rules and time limits described in the Cambridge Handbook.

The syllabus sets the expectation for laboratory work as well. It asks that learners spend at least 20 per cent of their time doing practical work individually or in small groups, and states that this figure does not include time spent observing demonstrations of experiments and simulations.

That matters because the syllabus says candidates cannot be adequately prepared for Paper 5 without extensive laboratory work of A Level standard during the course. The paper is written, but the experience behind it is not.

The qualification is graded A* to E for an A Level candidate. The lower case a to e scale belongs to the AS Level route only.

This page is written for Year 13 students completing the A Level.