[A Levels] H2 CHEMISTRY SUMMARY NOTES + rant + future plans

So over the past few weeks of circuit breaker has given me too much time as a bored NSF, and I made a thing. Well, to be fair, I was planning to make this thing regardless, circuit breaker or not, but boy has it given me all I needed to make this.

I am going to go on a long rant in the next few paragraphs, so if you just clicked for the notes, here they are:

H2 Chemistry (9729) Summary Notes (2020 edition)

I’m just gonna say, I’m super proud of myself for being able to follow through and create this, because many of my other projects usually don’t go to completion. But I will also admit that these notes are inherently imperfect in the sense that I did not take Chemistry at A-Levels, not even at the H1 level (my subject combination was PFMg + H3 Physics). So if anyone more qualified than me is willing to give their opinion on the notes, you’re definitely more than welcome to do so. I was inspired by the positive response to my summary notes for H1, H2 and H3 Physics last year to create something similar for other subjects (scroll all the way down for links).

At this point you may be thinking: How in the world did you manage to compile notes for a subject you don’t even take? Well, some people may call me crazy, but yes I did ‘study’ the subject from scratch 2 months after my A-Levels last year. I took my friend’s lecture notes for both H2 Chemistry and H2 Biology (with permission of course) during a New Year’s Eve countdown party, before embarking on a month-long trip to Australia and realising I had forgotten to bring the notes. Oops.

So ten days before enlistment, I landed back in Singapore and finally started reading set after set of Chemistry notes, trying my hardest to cover one topic a day. But then enlistment hit and I couldn’t do that anymore. I tried my best to squeeze in some time during BMT (e.g. admin time and weekends) to read the notes, and by the end of the fourth week I had managed to finish the entire collection for Chemistry. For the second half of BMT, I was fortunate enough to have a section mate that took H3 Chemistry, so I persuaded him to give me his notes in exchange for my H2 F Math notes in camp. A few days later, a classmate in JC agreed to give me her H1 Chemistry notes. It was also around this time that I went to Popular and bought myself a copy of the H2 Chemistry Topical TYS to practice and for reference.

Now I didn’t really have the energy to finish the TYS, so these summary notes are not yet set in stone and I will probably edit them for greater clarity / elegance / presentation in the future. But for now, I am obsessed with getting the summary notes out for you guys ASAP so here they are.

After this, I have plans to release more notes in the future:

- H1 Chemistry: I already have the notes, and most of it can be copy-pasted over from H2 Chemistry. This will be my next notes release.

- H3 Chemistry: I already have the notes, but I am planning to do H2 Biology first because there is probably a greater demand for that.

- H2 Biology: I have the notes, but I don’t have the TYS and can’t get one during CB. The TYS will be crucial as it will tell me how much to elaborate for each point especially for an essay subject like this. Once I get the TYS I will start making the notes, but I will have no idea as to how long it will take since I haven’t received my NS unit posting yet and hence won’t know how much free time I will have. I will try to aim for October but I can’t make any promises.

- H1 Biology: I have read the syllabus document and (I think) it doesn’t have H1-exclusive content like Chemistry does, so it will probably be just a simple cut-n-paste exercise once I am done with H2. I will probably release both together, or maybe I will split them just so I could get that juicy, useless karma.

- H3 Biology: Okay this one is one that I don’t yet have the material to study. Unfortunately, almost no one takes it (only 2 girls in my school out of almost 900 students in my cohort), and DMing them for their nudes notes months after they had graduated would be nothing short of creepy (like that guy in Maroon 5’s Animals music video). So if any of you out there are willing to donate their lecture notes to this greedy boy here in exchange for early access to the summary notes I create, please feel free to DM me.

- H1/H2 Mathematics and H2 Further Mathematics: I do have thoughts of creating them at some point, but I can’t seem to find a (free) way to render math expressions in Google Docs without creating an ugly mess. If anyone knows how to do it please feel free to enlighten me.

- H1/H2 Geography: This is the only Arts subject which I am probably willing to make notes for, since I don’t really like studying Arts subjects all that much. I do take H1 Geography in JC and I still have the lecture notes (of course, why would I throw away precious knowledge, right?), but the potential amount of typing I have to do frightens me. Luckily for me I am on good terms with my geography teacher, so maybe I could blackmail persuade her into giving me the H2 lecture notes (if I ever get to finish the H1 summary notes).

- O-Level subjects: I do have old notes for Physics, Chemistry and Biology (all pure) from my O-level days lying around in my Google Drive somewhere, and I would just need to update and clean them up to get them ready for release. To all the combined science kids, I definitely won’t leave you out either, for I can just use the power of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. And just like for A-Levels, I could probably create notes for Mathematics / Additional Mathematics once I have the tools, and (elective) Geography once I have the willpower.

- Possible extension to N(A) and N(T) levels: Given the rarity of such notes out there, this seems like prime virgin land to conquer. I initially thought of going as far down as PSLE, but I figured that the main focus of PSLE is more of conceptual understanding and skills application rather than content recall, and this can’t really be achieved with my style of summary notes.

At this point you may be wondering why I am doing this, since I supposedly gain nothing from this, and to be honest, I don’t really know. Maybe I am afraid that serving NS will take away my love of learning and hoarding knowledge, and a desire to maintain a sense of continuity from my previous life of academic learning. Maybe I just feel that there are not enough free things in this world, and I just want to ease the financial burden on every Singapore student in the tiniest of ways possible. Maybe I’m just a sadist who longs to see the economy crash from there being too much free stuff in this world (the economy has probably already crashed LOL). Or maybe I have no friends and just want some validation from those who use my notes. Whatever it may be, just be glad that I exist to create notes for you.

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Okay that was definitely way too much drama. If you have made it this far, a big thank you for listening to this long rant of mine, and I hope you find this set of notes useful in your studying of H2 Chemistry. Cheers!

My Physics summary notes:

H1 Physics (8867) Summary Notes (2018 edition) (for those taking exam in 2020)

H1 Physics (8867) Summary Notes (2021 edition) (for those taking exam in 2021)

H2 Physics (9749) Summary Notes (2020 edition) (for both cohorts)

H3 Physics (9814) Summary Notes (2019 edition) (for both cohorts)

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why my notes are not on exams.sg. Don’t get me wrong, I think exams.sg is a wonderful place for people to post notes. But it doesn’t let me post links, and saving the notes as PDF doesn’t allow me to edit the notes as and when I want to, which I like to do a lot, and the people there probably don’t want to see a million different versions of the same notes. I even considered posting a PDF containing nothing but the Google Docs link, but that would definitely raise a few eyebrows. I would love for my notes to be on exams.sg one day, and if anyone knows a way to get around this problem, do let me know. Thanks.

EDIT: There were almost 900 students in my cohort, not over 900 as previously stated.