Utter Misery

Up to our ears in hot water

Stewing in a cauldron full of worry, anxiety and hyper-panicking

Season generously with skull-busting Edexcel A-Level questions

Top off with a sprinkling of sleep deprivation

Garnish with some *what-the-hell-were-they-thinking?!* moments and

VOILA

You've cooked up the perfect recipe to describe us Edexcel A-Level students right now.

Oooooohhhh we are all so dead right now.

Or maybe it's just me.

The Maths C3 paper yesterday was bad enough. Product rule, quotient rule, exponential functions, advanced trigo and calculus galore. How much worse could it get?

Apparently a lot.

The Econs paper was reasonable..not that easy, but at least it was do-able.

The Chem 3B was another story.

This dumb person here wasted 1 mark for Question no.1.

I know it. Really. But I made the same mistake before, and I did it again.

Question: Observations when you mix sulphuric acid (A) with KI (B)

I: Steamy fumes of HBr (correct)
II: Effervescence (WRONG!)

It's apparently black solid (I2), purple vapour (I2) or yellow solid (S).

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Wasted.

And that's not it. The piece-de-resistance is in Question 3

3a. Identity of impurity in the reaction mixture before distillation

Answer: Conc sulphuric acid. Maybe.

b. Identity of black solid in reaction mixture.

(Huh, huh? What black solid? They didn't mention no black solid.)

Answer: Soot. Apparently. Anyway, put it this way. It's the only black solid we know. Someone suggested benzene ring. Whhhhaaaaattttt??? That's next term's work!

c. Why does the presence of the black solid reduce the yield of cyclohexene?

Answer: Errrrrr....reduces purity of cyclohexanol?

d. Cyclohexene is collected from the separating funnel. Name the 4 steps needed to purify it.

WTH?

Tembak sahaja la.

Step 1: Add anhydrous CaCl2 to absorb the moisture
Step 2: Filter
Step 3: Collect the filtrate
Ste 4: -blank-

Is that the performance of an 'A' student?

You be the judge. But it's a pretty *duh* thing right.

Only bright spot on the horizon: Chelsea 4 Southend 1

Yes! We're through to the 4th round of the FA Cup. Next, a date with Ipswich Town.