OCR A-Level Chemistry Tutor
OCR A-Level Chemistry tuition.
One-to-one support for OCR Chemistry A — understanding the chemistry first, then learning how to turn it into marks. I'm Dr Jane Power, a PhD chemist and full-time tutor, and I teach the OCR specification one-to-one, online across the UK or in person in South Manchester.
Why OCR can feel hard
Knowing the chemistry isn't always enough.
The step up from GCSE is real: more content, more application, and questions that expect you to use what you know rather than just recall it. Plenty of students understand a topic in the lesson, then lose marks in the exam because the answer wasn't quite what OCR was looking for.
Doing well in OCR Chemistry really takes three things working together — understanding the chemistry, handling the maths, and answering the way OCR wants. We build all three.
The three challenges
- Understand the chemistry — the concepts, properly, until they make sense.
- Handle the maths — the calculations, step by step, with confidence.
- Answer the OCR way — the precision and phrasing the mark scheme rewards.
What we'll cover
The full OCR course, covered.
The jump from GCSE to A-Level Chemistry can be challenging — new terminology, greater depth, and a different way of thinking. OCR organises the course into six modules, from foundations and the periodic table through to advanced organic chemistry and analysis, with the skills building on each other as you go.
The topics below are just a selection of what we can cover — tuition can cover the full OCR Chemistry A specification, including the practical skills, mathematical skills and exam technique. For the complete module-by-module content, see the official OCR specification.
Foundations & the periodic table
Atoms and amount of substance · acids and redox · electrons, bonding, structure and molecular shapes · periodicity · Group 2 · the halogens · qualitative analysis · enthalpy · reaction rates · equilibrium
Organic chemistry & analysis
Basic concepts (with skeletal formulae from the start) · hydrocarbons · alcohols and haloalkanes · organic synthesis · aromatic chemistry · carbonyls, carboxylic acids and esters · nitrogen compounds · polymers · spectroscopy (IR, mass spectrometry, NMR) and chromatography
Physical chemistry & transition elements
Reaction rates · equilibrium (Kc and Kp) · acids, bases and buffers (pH) · enthalpy, entropy and free energy · redox and electrode potentials · the transition elements
My OCR approach
Understand it, practise it, apply it.
We start by finding the gaps and working through whatever isn't clicking — sometimes a concept is genuinely tricky, sometimes it just hasn't been explained in a way that lands for you. Then we practise: moving into OCR past-paper questions, working through the mark schemes together, and building the exam technique that turns understanding into marks.
You'll also have my own topic booklets and notes to work from between lessons, so you always have clear, structured OCR material to refer back to.
Say it the way OCR wants
It isn't enough to understand a topic — you also need the precision the mark scheme expects: the right definition, the right conditions, the correct observation, the units and significant figures. That's often where understood-but-lost marks disappear, and it's something we work on directly.
Whatever your stage
Year 12, Year 13, or resitting.
Year 12
Build strong foundations from the start of OCR A-Level, and stop small gaps quietly accumulating into big ones.
Year 13
Strengthen the harder topics while sharpening exam technique for the final push toward your target grade.
OCR resits
Find exactly where the marks were lost and build a focused plan to win them back.
A resource I recommend
Alongside our lessons, I recommend the CGP OCR A-Level Chemistry Exam Practice Workbook to my students — it's excellent for building exam confidence, with plenty of practice questions and full answers to work through between sessions.
If you buy through this link I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you — and you're welcome to buy it anywhere. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The maths in OCR Chemistry
You don't need to be a Maths student.
The maths in Chemistry isn't always about being "bad at maths". Students who take A-Level Maths, and are perfectly comfortable with algebra and rearranging equations, can still find calculations in Chemistry difficult.
Usually, the real difficulty is understanding the chemistry behind the calculation. Once the idea genuinely makes sense — what a mole represents, what an equilibrium constant is telling you — it becomes much clearer which equation to use and why. For other students the maths itself just needs more practice, and that's fine too.
The concept comes first; the maths then has something to attach to.
Alongside your other A-Levels
Many students take Biology, Maths or Physics alongside Chemistry — often for medicine, veterinary science, dentistry, pharmacy or other STEM routes — but I've taught students with all sorts of combinations. Whatever your other subjects, what matters is finding where Chemistry feels difficult and working from there.
The OCR exams
Prepared for all three papers.
OCR assesses Chemistry A across three written papers — Paper 1: Periodic table, elements and physical chemistry; Paper 2: Synthesis and analytical techniques; and Paper 3: Unified chemistry, which draws on the whole course — alongside the practical endorsement. I make sure you know what each paper expects and how to approach it, so nothing on the day comes as a surprise.
Is this you?
OCR tuition is a good fit if…
You get the lessons but lose marks in the exam
You understand the chemistry, but the questions don't go the way you expect. We fix the technique, not just the knowledge.
You've got gaps from Year 12
Something never quite landed, and it's making Year 13 harder than it should be. We find it and fix it.
You're stuck around a grade
You've plateaued and can't see what's holding you back. A fresh, expert eye usually finds it quickly.
You need a higher grade — or your confidence back
Whether it's for a university offer or just feeling on top of the subject again, we build steadily toward it.
Let's get OCR Chemistry making sense.
Arrange a free, no-pressure consultation and a 30-minute trial lesson. Tell me your year, your target and what you find hardest, and we'll take it from there.
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