What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9701 Chemistry papers and filtered to group 2. 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 group 2, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Getting the two solubility trends the wrong way round. Hydroxides become more soluble down the group; sulfates become less.
- Saying magnesium reacts vigorously with cold water. It is very slow, and only fast with steam.
- Giving Mg(OH)₂ as the product with steam. Steam gives MgO, not the hydroxide.
- Explaining thermal stability by ionisation energy. The reason is polarisation by the cation.
- Forgetting to acidify before adding barium chloride in the sulfate test.
- Saying barium compounds are safe because barium sulfate is used medically. It is safe only because it is so insoluble.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Group 2 revision notes.