What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 0620 Chemistry papers and filtered to polymers. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
Start practising practice questions →
What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on polymers, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Drawing a repeat unit with the double bond still in place.
- Leaving off the bonds that extend through the brackets.
- Saying water is lost in addition polymerisation. Nothing is lost; the polymer is the only product.
- Giving one monomer for nylon or PET. Each needs two, or a monomer with two different groups.
- Confusing the linkages: -COO- is the ester linkage, -CONH- is the amide linkage.
- Saying plastics are burnt to make them biodegradable, rather than naming the toxic gases produced.
- Calling a protein a polyester. It is a natural polyamide.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Polymers revision notes.