Scoring 1A in SPM Chemistry

Article by: Chong

Someone asked me how to score 1A in SPM Chemistry. Let me start this post with my own experience in SPM Chemistry from grade 4C to 1A. Last year, I scored 4C in Chemistry in my mid year examination. I didn’t even know how to write a correct chemical equation. I started worrying that I might get bad result in SPM Chemistry. From that moment, I studied very hard and finally scored 1A in SPM Chemistry. You should start revising each and every chapter in the syllabus now. How? Follow these tips:

• Master basic but important concepts
• Memorize important facts and processes
• Practise past-year SPM papers
• Practise all trial papers

Master basic but important concepts – You must at least know how to write correct chemical equation, do simple calculation and understand basic chemical concept likes Mole Concept. Note that there are only a few types of calculations in Chemistry compared to Physics so please master all the calculations. Try to learn them yourselves reading the reference books first. If you really couldn’t understand them, you should seek help from your class or tuition teacher.



Memorize important facts and processes – Memorize the colours of chemical substances, understand the salt preparation process… It works effectively although some might argue that memorizing facts is the wrong way of learning. I personally agree that you can surely get a 1A in SPM Chemistry if you could memorize all the facts. However, I strongly recommend you to understand each concept and fact before you start memorizing them. Learning Chemistry becomes more exciting and enjoyable using this method.

Practise past-year SPM papers – Past-year SPM questions will repeat from time to time because of the limited scope covered in SPM Chemistry syllabus. This is no secret that most SPM candidates realize it. Practice makes perfect. Try every question and learn from your mistakes. For essay questions, get the marking schema from your teachers so that you can see how the marks are allocated and which points or keywords deserve full mark, etc. Learning from the essay marking schemas is a highly effective method! Practise all trial papers – After SPM trial examinations, try to get other states’ SPM trial papers and practise them. Try Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) SPM trial papers too! You can either exchange SPM trial papers with your friends from other states or get them online through certain websites. I was lucky because my Chemistry teacher collected other states’ SPM trial papers for us last year. Sometimes, one or more exact or similar questions will come out in the actual SPM Chemistry paper. SPM question leaks do happen every year.

In conclusion, you have to study and understand every chapter carefully. Believe me, you won get 1A if you have read only a few topics and focus on only certain chemical concepts. Like it or not, read-understand-memorize all topics is the only way to guarantee a 1A in SPM Chemistry.

Sumber: http://www.malaysia-students.com/2006/06/scoring-1a-in-spm-chemistry.html