What should I revise for AQA A Level chemistry Paper 1 (2025)?

In preparation for the summer exams, I’m writing a short series of blog posts to help students plan their last few weeks of revision more effectively. In this post, we’ll look at the content for AQA A Level chemistry Paper 1, including the topics that always come up, predictions for 2025, and common areas that students find difficult.

You can purchase predicted papers and practice papers for AQA A Level chemistry using the link below.

Looking for last-minute revision classes and a more complete revision course? My A Level masterclass membership includes 23 recorded exam masterclasses covering essential chemistry topics and exam technique, as well as practice questions and the 2024 predicted papers and walkthroughs – all for just £5 per month. You can also join my 3 live pre-exam classes – classes that run 2 days before the final exam for paper 1, paper 2 and paper 3.

Topics included in A Level chemistry AQA Paper 1

Paper 1 focuses on physical and inorganic chemistry; You can get a comprehensive list of topics on the AQA website, but the topics that can be covered are:

• Atomic structure
• Amount of substance (mole calculations)
• Bonding
• Energetics (ΔH calculations, Hess’ Law)
• Equilibrium (Kc and Kp)
• Redox (including electrochemical cells)
• Thermodynamics (ΔS, ΔG)
• Acids and bases (including Ka calculations)
• Periodicity, groups 2 and 7 and period 3 elements
• Transition metals and their reactions

What are the most important topics for AQA chemistry A level Paper 1?

There are certain topics and types of question that are GUARANTEED to come up every year and are worth lots of marks in the paper. These are:

• Born Haber cycles
• Atomic structure, mass spec time of flight calculations
• Reactions of transition metals and complexes
• pH calculations
• Some sort of Kc or Kp calculation
• Amount of substance (mole calculations – especially titrations!)

Predictions for AQA chemistry A Level Paper 1 2025?

Looking through trends from the last five years of past papers, I have a few extra predictions that you should focus on for the 2025 paper:

• Definitions and general transition metal properties, including electron configurations
• Kc and Le Chatelier’s Principle
• Period 3 elements and their oxides
• Manganate titrations
• Electrochemical cells
• Lattice enthalpy and dissolving

The video below summarises my predictions for AQA A Level chemistry paper 1 for 2025 – remember these are just educated guesses, so make sure you revise thoroughly and check out the predicted papers and revision classes if you’d like some more support!