Required practicals checklist
Online work, including this checklist and the walkthroughs, never counts towards the practical endorsement: only your teachers can award it, by watching you work in the lab.
Your checklist
- 0/15Done in the lab
- 0/15Written up
- 0/15Revised for the papers
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Required practical 1: Make a standard solution and carry out an acid-base titration
AT aAT dAT eAT fAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Concentration from a mean of concordant titres and the mole ratio
- Rinsing the pipette and burette with the right solution, and why
- Percentage uncertainty in burette, pipette and balance readings
Required practical 2: Measure an enthalpy change
AT aAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- q = mc∆T with the mass of the solution, then kJ per mole with a sign
- Extrapolating a temperature-time graph to the time of mixing
- The direction of the error from heat exchange with the room
Required practical 3: Investigate how temperature affects the rate of a reaction
AT aAT bAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- A fair comparison: same amounts, same volume, same end point
- 1/time as a measure of rate, and when that is valid
- Explaining the trend with the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
Required practical 4: Test-tube tests for inorganic ions
AT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Reagents and observations for Group 2 ions, ammonium, halide, hydroxide, carbonate and sulfate ions
- Why the acid added before silver nitrate or barium chloride is chosen
- Ionic equations for each precipitate
Required practical 5: Distil a product from a reaction
AT bAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Thermometer at the side arm, water into the condenser at the bottom
- Collecting the fraction at the right temperature
- Reflux compared with distillation
Required practical 6: Tests for alcohols, aldehydes, alkenes and carboxylic acids
AT bAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Full reagents and the observation for each test, positive and negative
- Which tests two groups share, so one result is not enough
- Designing a sequence of tests for an unknown
Required practical 7a: Rates: initial-rate method
AT aAT kAT l
Written papers ask you to:
- Orders from experiments where one concentration changes at a time
- Rate equation and the units of k
- Why a clock reaction must stop at the same extent each time
Required practical 7b: Rates: continuous monitoring
AT aAT kAT l
Written papers ask you to:
- Rate from the gradient of a tangent to a concentration-time curve
- Constant half-life as the sign of a first-order reaction
- A tangent at a point is not the average rate over an interval
Required practical 8: Measure the EMF of electrochemical cells
AT jAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Salt bridge and high-resistance voltmeter, and what each does
- Conventional cell representation and E(cell) = E(right) minus E(left)
- Why a platinum electrode is needed for some half-cells
Required practical 9a: pH curve: weak acid with strong base
AT aAT cAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Equivalence above pH 7 and choosing phenolphthalein
- pH = pKa at half-neutralisation
- Calibrating the pH meter and adding small volumes near equivalence
Required practical 9b: pH curve: strong acid with weak base
AT aAT cAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Equivalence below pH 7 and choosing methyl orange
- Reading the equivalence volume from the steep part
- Why a weak base gives no sharp change at high pH
Required practical 10a: Prepare a pure organic solid and test its purity
AT aAT bAT dAT gAT hAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Recrystallisation step by step: minimum hot solvent, hot filtration, cooling, filtration under reduced pressure
- Melting range compared with the data-book value
- Percentage yield and where product is lost
Required practical 10b: Prepare a pure organic liquid
AT bAT dAT gAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Separating funnel: which layer is which, and why
- Washing, then drying with an anhydrous salt
- Redistilling and using the boiling point as purity evidence
Required practical 11: Test-tube tests for aqueous metal ions
AT bAT dAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Colours of precipitates with a little and with excess NaOH and NH3
- Carbonate with 2+ and 3+ ions, and why they differ
- Balanced equations with the right water ligands and charges
Required practical 12: Thin-layer chromatography
AT iAT k
Written papers ask you to:
- Pencil baseline above the solvent, lid on, solvent front marked
- Rf = distance moved by the spot / distance moved by the solvent
- Comparing Rf only under the same conditions
What the AT codes mean
- AT a
- Measure mass, time, volume of liquids and gases, and temperature
- AT b
- Heat with a water bath, electric heater or sand bath
- AT c
- Measure pH with charts, a meter or a pH probe with a data logger
- AT d
- Titration, distillation and reflux, test-tube tests, and filtration including under reduced pressure
- AT e
- Make a standard solution in a volumetric flask
- AT f
- Choose and use acid-base indicators
- AT g
- Purify a solid by recrystallisation and a liquid with a separating funnel
- AT h
- Use melting-point apparatus
- AT i
- Thin-layer or paper chromatography
- AT j
- Set up electrochemical cells and measure voltages
- AT k
- Handle hazardous substances safely
- AT l
- Measure rates by initial-rate and continuous-monitoring methods
How many marks are practical?
- At least 15% of the marks across the three papers assess practical skills.
- Paper 3 (90 marks, 2 hours) has 40 marks on practical techniques and data analysis, 20 marks across the course and 30 multiple-choice marks.
- The practical endorsement is reported separately as Pass or Not classified and does not change your grade.
The practical endorsement
The practical endorsement is assessed by your teachers, who must see you work in the lab across the course against five competencies (the CPAC): following written instructions, applying investigative approaches, working safely, making and recording observations, and researching and reporting. Ticking every row here does not show those competencies, and nothing done online counts towards the endorsement.
Questions people ask
How many marks are the practicals worth in AQA A-level Chemistry?
At least 15% of the marks across the three written papers assess practical skills, and Paper 3 has 40 marks on practical techniques and data analysis. Practical questions also appear on Papers 1 and 2. The practical endorsement is separate and carries no marks.
Can I do the required practicals online?
You can revise the methods, data and written questions online, which is what the walkthroughs here are for. The endorsement needs a teacher to see you work in a real lab, so online work never counts towards it.
Why are RP7, RP9 and RP10 split into two?
AQA requires both parts of each: an initial-rate method and a continuous-monitoring method for RP7, both titration pairings for RP9, and both a solid and a liquid preparation for RP10.
Are questions only about the 12 practicals I have done?
No. Paper 3 in particular sets unfamiliar experiments and expects you to apply the same skills: choosing apparatus, processing data, spotting errors and judging uncertainty.
How we work this out
What it does
All 12 AQA A-level Chemistry required practicals, with both parts of RP7, RP9 and RP10. Tick off what you have done in the lab, written up and revised for the exam.
The 12 required activities in the AQA A-level Chemistry (7405) specification, split into 15 rows so that both parts of RP7, RP9 and RP10 are tracked separately, as AQA requires.
Method
- Each row lists the activity, its apparatus and technique (AT) codes from the specification and the written-exam skills questions on it test.
- Three ticks per row: done in the lab, written up in your lab book, and revised for the written papers.
- Where a walkthrough lesson exists on this site, the row links to it.
Limits
- Your school may use different methods for the same activity. AQA allows that, and the written skills are the same.
- The skill summaries are ours. Check your teacher's guidance for anything your school does differently.
The ticks show what you have covered. They are your own record, kept on this device. It cannot award or record the practical endorsement. Only your school or college can, by watching you work in the lab over the course (the CPAC criteria).