What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9701 Chemistry papers and filtered to the periodic table: chemical periodicity. 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 the periodic table: chemical periodicity, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying atomic radius increases across a period. It decreases.
- Explaining the melting point trend with one mechanism. It changes with structure, and silicon is the peak.
- Saying Al₂O₃ is basic or acidic. It is amphoteric, and the mark is for saying it reacts with both.
- Saying SiO₂ is basic because it is insoluble. It is weakly acidic and reacts with hot concentrated alkali.
- Saying magnesium reacts vigorously with cold water. It is very slow with cold water and fast only with steam.
- Forgetting that covalent chlorides hydrolyse rather than dissolve, and that the fumes are HCl.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: The Periodic Table: chemical periodicity revision notes.