Playbooks
23 chapter playbooks behind 45.6 of the 50 questions
23 playbooks — one per chapter above 0.9 questions per paper. The subtopic split, the named reactions and formulas each chapter turns on, and its traps.
- Playbooks
- 23
- Questions covered
- 1,906
- of 50 q/paper covered
- 45.6
- Papers analysed
- 42
Read “q/paper” as a recent rate, not a lifetime share
Two different numbers appear on every card below and they do not measure the same thing. The question count is lifetime — all 2,074 questions across 42 papers and 5 years. The q/paper rate is measured on recent papers only (2024–2025), and that is the number the strands below are built on.
They disagree because the 2025 papers moved a few chapters. Structure of Atom carries 70 questions lifetime and halved in 2025; Green Chemistry carries 33 and rose to a question in every 2025 paper. A lifetime average hides both, which is why the catalog is built on the recent rate.
See the year-on-year driftRecall — answer on sight
Names, structures, uses, trends and counts: the descriptive chapters, about 2% HARD together. Each question takes seconds if the table is learned and will not come back with more time if it is not — so these go on the first sweep, and they are the marks that fund the Physics minutes.
9 playbooks · 569 questions lifetime · 13.6 of 50 q/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0–4% HARD
Biomolecules
88 q - 2.17/paper - 2% HARD. Sugars and their linkages, amino acids, and the bases of DNA and RNA.
88 q · 2.17/paper · 2% hard · 5 subtopics notesCoordination Compounds
88 q - 2.12/paper - 2% HARD. Counting — donor atoms, oxidation state, EAN, unpaired electrons.
88 q · 2.12/paper · 2% hard · 5 subtopics notesIntroduction to Polymer Chemistry
85 q - 2.04/paper - one HARD question in all 85. A monomer table and a uses table.
85 q · 2.04/paper · 1% hard · 4 subtopics notesTransition and Inner Transition Elements
76 q - 1.75/paper - 4% HARD. Configurations, the spin-only moment and lanthanoid contraction.
76 q · 1.75/paper · 4% hard · 5 subtopics notesChemical Bonding
64 q - 1.29/paper - 3% HARD. Count pairs for a shape and electrons for a bond order.
64 q · 1.29/paper · 3% hard · 5 subtopics notesElements of Group 16, 17 and 18
48 q - 1.29/paper - 2% HARD, and rising in 2025. Trends, oxoacids, interhalogens and xenon fluorides.
48 q · 1.29/paper · 2% hard · 3 subtopics notesRedox Reactions
44 q - 1.08/paper - 2% HARD. The oxidation number, including its structural exceptions.
44 q · 1.08/paper · 2% hard · 3 subtopics notesSurface Chemistry
39 q - 0.92/paper - never HARD. Adsorption types, colloids and the Hardy–Schulze rule.
39 q · 0.92/paper · 0% hard · 3 subtopics notesElements of Group 1 and 2
37 q - 0.92/paper - never HARD. Group trends and the lithium and beryllium anomalies.
37 q · 0.92/paper · 0% hard · 3 subtopics notes
Reactions — reagent to product
The organic reaction chapters. Recognise the reagent or the named reaction and the product follows; there is almost nothing to calculate. Learn every reaction in both directions — reagent to product, and product to reagent — because the paper asks both ways.
6 playbooks · 465 questions lifetime · 11.3 of 50 q/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0–5% HARD
Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers
126 q - 3.04/paper - 5% HARD. The heaviest organic chapter, and more than half of it is naming and classifying.
126 q · 3.04/paper · 5% hard · 6 subtopics notesAldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids
109 q - 2.54/paper - 3% HARD. The named-reaction chapter: learn each reaction both ways, reagent to product and back.
109 q · 2.54/paper · 3% hard · 5 subtopics notesAmines
81 q - 1.96/paper - 4% HARD. Basicity order, the Hinsberg and carbylamine tests, and diazonium chemistry.
81 q · 1.96/paper · 4% hard · 5 subtopics notesHalogen Derivatives of Alkanes
79 q - 1.83/paper - 3% HARD. Exchange and coupling reactions by name, SN1 against SN2, and a polyhalogen table.
79 q · 1.83/paper · 3% hard · 5 subtopics notesAromatic Compounds
35 q - 0.96/paper - 3% HARD. Aromaticity, directing groups and side-chain oxidation.
35 q · 0.96/paper · 3% hard · 3 subtopics notesAlkanes
35 q - 0.92/paper - never HARD. Wurtz, decarboxylation and Grignard, and chain isomers.
35 q · 0.92/paper · 0% hard · 3 subtopics notes
Calculate — arithmetic, second sweep
The physical-chemistry chapters: most answers are numbers, and each chapter turns on one or two formulas. They are no harder than the rest of the paper, only slower — so they come after the first sweep, at about a minute a question.
8 playbooks · 872 questions lifetime · 20.8 of 50 q/paper on 2024–25 papers · 1–9% HARD
Solutions and Colligative Properties
131 q - 3.17/paper - 3% HARD. The heaviest Chemistry chapter; four of six pages are one idea — a colligative property counts dissolved particles.
131 q · 3.17/paper · 3% hard · 6 subtopics notesSolid State
130 q - 3.04/paper - 5% HARD. ρ = zM/(a³N_A) solved for a different unknown each time; packing efficiency holds the HARD.
130 q · 3.04/paper · 5% hard · 5 subtopics notesChemical Kinetics
125 q - 3.00/paper - 2% HARD. Three pages, 103 questions, no HARD: rates, rate laws and first-order half-life.
125 q · 3.00/paper · 2% hard · 6 subtopics notesIonic Equilibria
122 q - 2.96/paper - 2% HARD. Log arithmetic — pH, α, buffers, Ksp — with two recall pages to take first.
122 q · 2.96/paper · 2% hard · 6 subtopics notesChemical Thermodynamics
121 q - 2.96/paper - 3% HARD. The first-law page is 50 questions of signs and 100 J per dm³ bar.
121 q · 2.96/paper · 3% hard · 6 subtopics notesElectrochemistry
122 q - 2.88/paper - 9% HARD. The one Chemistry chapter with HARD load — ten Nernst questions on one page.
122 q · 2.88/paper · 9% hard · 5 subtopics notesStructure of Atom
70 q - 1.42/paper - 1% HARD, and halved in 2025. Bohr scaling, E = hc/λ and quantum numbers.
70 q · 1.42/paper · 1% hard · 6 subtopics notesSome Basic Concepts of Chemistry
51 q - 1.33/paper - 2% HARD, and rising. Mole arithmetic that every Calculate chapter reuses.
51 q · 1.33/paper · 2% hard · 4 subtopics notes
Why 23 playbooks and not 30
A playbook ships for every chapter at or above 0.9 questions per paper on recent weightage. 23 of the 30 chapters clear that line. The other 7 are named below rather than quietly dropped — between them they are 168 of the 2,074 questions in the bank, and one of them — Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry, the hardest chapter of any size — matters more than that share suggests. They are covered in the tail block on the strategy page.
Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry
Still live38 q lifetime · 0.88/paper on 2024–25 papers · 13% hard
Just below the line, and the hardest chapter of any size at 13% HARD. More important than its rate: electronic effects, intermediates and isomerism run through every Reactions chapter. Read its notes before them.
Alkenes
Still live35 q lifetime · 0.75/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0% hard
Never a HARD question. Markovnikov and anti-Markovnikov addition and ozonolysis carry it; drill it with the Reactions strand.
Green Chemistry and Nanochemistry
Still live33 q lifetime · 0.75/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0% hard
Rising: 0.67 a paper in 2023-24, 1.00 in 2025 — above the line on 2025 alone. Pure recall of the twelve principles, atom economy and nanostructures, never HARD.
States of Matter
Still live31 q lifetime · 0.67/paper on 2024–25 papers · 3% hard
The gas laws and PV = nRT — the same arithmetic as Some Basic Concepts. Drill with the Calculate strand.
Modern Periodic Table
Still live18 q lifetime · 0.42/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0% hard
Falling: 0.56 a paper in 2023-24, 0.23 in 2025. Periodic trends — worth an hour because every block chapter borrows them, not for its own marks.
Alkynes
Still live10 q lifetime · 0.29/paper on 2024–25 papers · 0% hard
Ten questions in 42 papers. Acidity of terminal alkynes and hydration to a carbonyl.
Elements of Group 13, 14 and 15
Still live3 q lifetime · 0.08/paper on 2024–25 papers · 33% hard
Three questions in 42 papers. Not worth a session.