What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 0654 Co-ordinated Sciences papers and filtered to atoms, elements and compounds. 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.
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What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on atoms, elements and compounds, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying electrons are shared in ionic bonding, or transferred in covalent bonding.
- Saying a solid ionic compound conducts.
- Saying "the electrons are free to move" for molten ionic compounds. It is the ions that move.
- Saying isotopes have different chemical properties.
- Saying an ion has a different number of protons from its atom.
- Saying covalent bonds are weak. The bonds are strong; the forces between molecules are weak.
- Forgetting that diamond does not conduct even though graphite does.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Atoms, elements and compounds revision notes.