HSC Preliminary Chemistry

Course overview

This course is an accelerated course aimed at year 10 students to help prepare them for HSC. This course follows the NSW Stage 6 Syllabus topics and dot points. This course will cover modules 1-4; Properties of Matter, Introduction to Quantitative Chemistry, Reactive Chemistry and Drivers of Reaction. This course will teach students all the skills and content needed for HSC preliminary exams.

Term 1: Module 1 Properties of Matter

• The atomic model and developments
• Periodicity and the periodic table
• Hund’s rule, Aufbau principle, Pauli’s exclusion principle
• IUPAC naming and polyatomic ions
• Intermolecular forces and structures
• Lewis dot structure and VSEPR
• Separation techniques and percentage composition
• Strong nuclear force and radioactive decay

Term 2: Module 2 Introduction to Quantitative Chemistry

• Chemical reactions in relation to solids, liquids and gases
• Stoichiometry and the law of conservation of mass
• Mole theory; how to calculate moles and Avogadro’s constant
• Concentrations, dilutions and molarity
• Gas laws; Gay-Lussac’s Law, Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law, Avogadro’s Law

Term 3: Module 3 Reactive Chemistry  

• Indicators of chemical change
• Predicting synthesis, decomposition, combustion and precipitation, acid/base, acid/carbonate reactions
• Investigate ATSI detoxification methods of poisons
• Constructing balanced chemical equations
• Predicting reactivity of metals to water, dilute acid, oxygen and aqueous metal ions
• Analyse patterns in metal reactivity to ionisation energy, atomic radius and electronegativity
• Oxidation and reduction – redox reactions
• Constructing half-equations and predicting spontaneity of redox reactions
• Factors affecting chemical reactions
• Collision theory; Activation energy, collision and molecular orientation

Term 4: Module 4 Drivers of Reactions

• Temperature changes in combustion and dissociation
• Enthalpy changes in calorimetry
• Energy profile diagrams for enthalpy and activation energy
• Catalysts in reactions
• The law of conservation of energy
• Hess’s Law in quantifying enthalpy change and bond energy data
• Hess’s law in relation to heat of combustion, photosynthesis, and respiration
• Modelling entropy changes
• Explaining spontaneity using Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy
• Predicting spontaneity using Gibbs free energy formula and temperature