Practical questions

You will complete eight required practical activities if you are studying GCSE Chemistry, and 21 if you are studying GCSE Combined Science: Trilogy.

There will be a number of different types of practical based questions. Some will be on the set required practicals, some will cover the working scientifically terms and some will be on other science practicals which you might have done in class. Use all the information given in the question particularly any diagrams to help you understand what the question is about.

There are no practical activities in the atomic structure and periodic table section.

Learn about practicals with Dr Alex Lathbridge

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Dr Alex Lathbridge answers questions about practicals.

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Sample question 1 - Foundation

Question

Rock salt is a mixture of sand and salt.

Salt dissolves in water. Sand does not dissolve in water.

Some students separated rock salt.

This is the method used:

place the rock salt in a beaker
add 100 cm³ of water
allow sand to settle to the bottom of the beaker
heat the contents of the evaporating dish with a Bunsen burner until salt crystals start to form

Suggest one improvement to step 2 to make sure all the salt is dissolved in the water.

[1 mark]

This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.

Sample question 2 - Foundation

Question

This question is about the experiment described in question 1.

The salty water in step 4 still contained very small grains of sand.

Suggest one improvement to step 4 to remove all the sand.

[1 mark]

This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.

Sample question 3 - Higher

Question

Describe how a sample of copper chloride crystals could be made from copper carbonate and dilute hydrochloric acid.

[4 marks]

This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.

Sample question 4 - Higher

Question

A student removed water from salty water using the apparatus in figure 1.

Figure 1

A bunsen burner heats salty water in a round bottomed flask. The evaporated water collects in a tube and drips down to a beaker.

Describe how the technique works by referring to the processes at A and B.

[2 marks]

This question is AQA material which is reproduced by permission of AQA.

Sample exam questions - atomic structure and the periodic table - AQAPractical questions

Practical questions