AQA Chemistry Paper 1 covers the first five topics of the specification: Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table; Bonding, Structure and Properties of Matter; Quantitative Chemistry; Chemical Changes; and Energy Changes. It is worth 50% of your Chemistry GCSE: 100 marks in 1h 45m for Triple, or 70 marks in 1h 15m for Combined Science. In 2027 it falls on Monday 17 May, 9:00am, six days after Biology Paper 1.
The full Paper 1 topic list
Topic 1: Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table. Atoms, elements and compounds, separation techniques, the history of the atom, electronic structure, the development of the periodic table, and Groups 1, 7 and 0.
Topic 2: Bonding, Structure and the Properties of Matter. Ionic, covalent and metallic bonding; states of matter; the properties of ionic compounds, simple molecules, giant covalent structures, polymers and metals; diamond, graphite, graphene and fullerenes; and nanoparticles, Triple only.
Topic 3: Quantitative Chemistry. Relative formula mass, conservation of mass, moles, reacting masses, concentration, and for Triple, atom economy, percentage yield and gas volumes. This is the maths-heavy topic: at least 20% of chemistry marks are mathematical and most of them live here.
Topic 4: Chemical Changes. The reactivity series, extraction of metals, reactions of acids, making salts, pH and neutralisation, strong and weak acids at Higher tier, and electrolysis of aqueous solutions.
Topic 5: Energy Changes. Exothermic and endothermic reactions, reaction profiles, bond energy calculations at Higher tier, and for Triple, cells and batteries and fuel cells.
Every specification point above has its own page in the free Chemistry notes.
If it is rates of reaction, equilibrium, organic chemistry, chemical analysis, the atmosphere or resources, that is Paper 2.
The required practicals on Paper 1
- Making salts, preparing a soluble salt from an insoluble oxide or carbonate
- Electrolysis, investigating the electrolysis of aqueous solutions
- Temperature changes, investigating energy changes in reactions such as neutralisation
- Titration, Triple Chemistry only, strong acid against strong alkali
Practical questions test variables, errors, improvements and calculations from results. Around 15% of marks across the GCSE relate to practical work. For electrolysis especially, learn the rules for predicting products: at the cathode, hydrogen unless the metal is less reactive; at the anode, oxygen unless a halide is present. It is one of the most reliably examined ideas on the paper.
The three things that come up every year
- Electronic structure and bonding diagrams. Drawing dot-and-cross diagrams and explaining properties from structure. These questions appear every single year.
- Moles and reacting masses, at Higher tier especially. If you can confidently convert mass to moles to mass, you unlock the hardest-marked questions on the paper.
- Explaining, not describing. "Explain why graphite conducts electricity" earns nothing for "it has delocalised electrons" alone. You have to link structure to property to function, in steps. This is the single most common reason a strong student loses marks on this paper, and it is what the live classes drill.
Work through the past papers by topic to see the same question shapes repeat.