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Practice paper written from an analysis of every
O-Level Chemistry paper, 2009–2026
Paper 1 Multiple Choice
FORECAST PAPER · SET 6 Easy
For practice before the 2026 examination
1 hour
Additional Materials: Paper for your answers, numbered 1 to 40
Write in soft pencil.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
There are forty questions on this paper. Answer all questions. For each question there are four possible answers A, B, C and D.
Choose the one you consider correct and record your choice on a separate sheet of paper, numbered 1 to 40.
Each correct answer will score one mark. A mark will not be deducted for a wrong answer.
Any rough working should be done in this booklet.
A copy of the Periodic Table is printed on page 16.
The use of an approved scientific calculator is expected, where appropriate.
A forensic scientist separates the dyes in car paint by paper chromatography.
Which row describes how the experiment is set up?
| starting line drawn in | level of the solvent at the start | |
|---|---|---|
| A | ink | below the starting line |
| B | ink | above the starting line |
| C | pencil | below the starting line |
| D | pencil | above the starting line |
Solid carbon dioxide, called dry ice, is used to keep frozen food cold in a delivery lorry.
Dry ice changes directly into carbon dioxide gas.
Three statements about the particles of carbon dioxide during this change are listed.
Which statements are correct?
Three of the gases in the exhaust of a car are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane.
The gases diffuse through the air at the same temperature.
Which row shows the gas that diffuses slowest and the gas that diffuses fastest?
| diffuses slowest | diffuses fastest | |
|---|---|---|
| A | carbon dioxide | carbon monoxide |
| B | carbon dioxide | methane |
| C | carbon monoxide | methane |
| D | methane | carbon dioxide |
The diagram shows an atom of boron.
Which row describes this atom?
| number of protons | number of neutrons | number of electrons in the outer shell | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| B | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| C | 5 | 11 | 3 |
| D | 6 | 5 | 3 |
An ionic compound has the formula X3Y2.
The ions of X and the ions of Y both have the same electronic configuration as neon, 2,8.
The letters are not the chemical symbols.
What are the proton numbers of X and Y, in that order?
Sodium oxide is an ionic compound.
The diagrams show only the outer shell electrons.
Which ‘dot-and-cross’ diagram shows the bonding in sodium oxide?
Which ‘dot-and-cross’ diagram shows the bonding in a molecule of methane?
The diagrams show only the outer shell electrons.
Aluminium is used to make bicycle frames.
Which description of the structure of aluminium is correct?
Many parts of cars, trains and aircraft are made from alloys.
The diagrams show the arrangement of atoms in four materials.
Circles of different sizes are atoms of different elements.
Which diagram represents an alloy?
Rust on a car body can be removed with dilute hydrochloric acid.
The rust can be treated as iron(III) oxide, Fe2O3.
Which equation, including state symbols, represents the reaction?
Which statement defines the relative atomic mass, Ar, of an element?
Oxygen is needed to burn the fuel in a car engine.
A sample of oxygen contains 1.20 × 1024 molecules of O2.
How many moles of oxygen molecules are in the sample?
Some emergency flares used on roads and railways burn magnesium with a bright white flame.
What volume of oxygen, measured at r.t.p., reacts with 3.0 mol of magnesium?
A garage tests three liquids with Universal Indicator.
| liquid | colour of Universal Indicator |
|---|---|
| battery acid | red |
| distilled water | green |
| radiator cleaner | purple |
Which row describes the ions in the three liquids?
| battery acid | distilled water | radiator cleaner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | more H+ than OH− | H+ and OH− equal | more OH− than H+ |
| B | more H+ than OH− | no H+ or OH− | more OH− than H+ |
| C | more OH− than H+ | H+ and OH− equal | more H+ than OH− |
| D | more OH− than H+ | no H+ or OH− | more H+ than OH− |
A lorry carrying sulfuric acid crashes and the acid spills on to the road.
Which substance can be used to neutralise the spilt acid?
Four mixtures are made by adding together two aqueous solutions.
In which mixtures does a precipitate form?
A small piece of an alloy from an old aircraft is dissolved in dilute nitric acid.
The alloy contains only two metals. The solution formed contains aluminium ions and copper(II) ions.
Aqueous ammonia is added to the solution, a little at a time, until it is in excess.
What is seen at the end?
Lead is used in car batteries. Lead is made by heating lead(II) oxide with carbon.
Which statement about this reaction is correct?
Which half-equation represents a reduction?
The copper used for the cables of electric trains must be very pure.
Impure copper is purified by electrolysis, using copper electrodes and aqueous copper(II) sulfate as the electrolyte.
At the positive electrode, copper atoms form copper(II) ions.
At the negative electrode, copper(II) ions are changed to copper atoms.
What happens to the blue colour of the electrolyte during the electrolysis?
A student makes four simple cells to turn the motor of a toy car. Each cell has two different metals as electrodes in dilute sulfuric acid.
Which pair of metals gives the highest voltage?
The table shows data about one particle of each of four different elements, W, X, Y and Z. Each particle is an atom or a simple ion.
The letters are not the chemical symbols.
| particle | nucleon number | number of electrons | charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | 40 | 20 | 0 |
| X | 32 | 18 | 2− |
| Y | 41 | 18 | 1+ |
| Z | 37 | 17 | 0 |
Which list shows the elements in the order in which they appear in the Periodic Table, starting with the first?
Magnesium is used in the alloy wheels of some racing cars.
A magnesium atom has a proton number of 12.
Which row shows the position of magnesium in the Periodic Table?
| group | period | |
|---|---|---|
| A | 2 | 2 |
| B | 2 | 3 |
| C | 3 | 2 |
| D | 3 | 3 |
A small piece of lithium and a small piece of potassium are added separately to cold water in two troughs.
Which row describes what is seen?
| lithium | potassium | |
|---|---|---|
| A | floats and fizzes steadily | sinks and fizzes more quickly |
| B | floats and burns with a lilac flame | floats and fizzes steadily |
| C | sinks and fizzes steadily | floats and burns with a lilac flame |
| D | floats and fizzes steadily | floats and burns with a lilac flame |
Which aqueous solution is coloured?
Four metal carbonates are each heated strongly in the apparatus shown. The same mass of carbonate, the same flame and the same volume of limewater are used each time.
Which carbonate makes the limewater turn milky first?
Steel crash barriers at the side of a road are galvanised to stop them rusting.
With which substance is the steel coated?
Hydrogen can be burned as a fuel in vehicle engines.
The enthalpy change, ΔH, for this reaction is −484 kJ / mol.
Which statement is correct?
Excess zinc lumps are added to 50 cm3 of 1.0 mol / dm3 dilute sulfuric acid at 25 °C.
Four changes to the experiment are listed.
Which changes make the reaction faster at the start?
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons. It is separated into fractions, which are used as fuels for transport and as a source of chemicals.
The table shows the boiling range of four fractions from crude oil, P, Q, R and S.
| fraction | boiling range / °C |
|---|---|
| P | 40 to 180 |
| Q | below 40 |
| R | above 360 |
| S | 180 to 360 |
Which fraction contains the hydrocarbon molecules with the greatest number of carbon atoms?
Propane is the fuel in the gas cylinders used by some taxis.
Which structure shows propane?
Petrol contains several different hydrocarbons that all have the molecular formula C8H18. These hydrocarbons are isomers of one another.
Which statement about these hydrocarbons is correct?
Large molecules in crude oil are cracked to make smaller molecules for use as fuels.
The structure of one of the hydrocarbons formed is shown.
What is the name of this hydrocarbon?
Butanol can be used as a biofuel in vehicle engines.
How many hydrogen atoms are there in one molecule of butanol?
Ethanol is mixed with petrol as a fuel for cars. Ethanol can be made by two methods.
Which row shows the substance used in each method?
| fermentation of | addition of steam to | |
|---|---|---|
| A | ethane | glucose |
| B | ethene | glucose |
| C | glucose | ethane |
| D | glucose | ethene |
Aqueous bromine is shaken separately with ethene gas and with a piece of poly(ethene) from a fuel can.
Which row shows the colour of the aqueous bromine after shaking?
| with ethene | with poly(ethene) | |
|---|---|---|
| A | colourless | orange |
| B | colourless | colourless |
| C | orange | orange |
| D | orange | colourless |
Which row shows the monomer used to make poly(ethene) and one use of poly(ethene)?
| monomer | use of poly(ethene) | |
|---|---|---|
| A | ethane | clingfilm |
| B | ethene | fishing line |
| C | ethene | plastic bags |
| D | propene | clingfilm |
Used plastic is collected by lorries and taken to a recycling plant.
Three statements about recycling plastics are listed.
Which statements describe disadvantages of recycling plastics?
Some air pollutants have natural sources and also come from transport or the burning of fuels.
Which row is correct?
| pollutant | natural source | source from human activity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | nitrogen oxides | lightning | internal combustion engines |
| B | nitrogen oxides | volcanoes | internal combustion engines |
| C | sulfur dioxide | lightning | burning fossil fuels |
| D | sulfur dioxide | volcanoes | incomplete combustion |
Limestone is mainly calcium carbonate. A limestone statue beside a busy road is slowly damaged by acid rain.
Which gas is given off when acid rain reacts with the limestone?
Group | |||||||||||||||||
1 | 2 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |||||||||
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| 1 H hydrogen 1 |
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| 2 He helium 4 | ||
3 Li lithium 7 | 4 Be beryllium 9 |
| proton (atomic) number atomic symbol name relative atomic mass |
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| 5 B boron 11 | 6 C carbon 12 | 7 N nitrogen 14 | 8 O oxygen 16 | 9 F fluorine 19 | 10 Ne neon 20 | ||
11 Na sodium 23 | 12 Mg magnesium 24 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 Al aluminium 27 | 14 Si silicon 28 | 15 P phosphorus 31 | 16 S sulfur 32 | 17 Cl chlorine 35.5 | 18 Ar argon 40 |
19 K potassium 39 | 20 Ca calcium 40 | 21 Sc scandium 45 | 22 Ti titanium 48 | 23 V vanadium 51 | 24 Cr chromium 52 | 25 Mn manganese 55 | 26 Fe iron 56 | 27 Co cobalt 59 | 28 Ni nickel 59 | 29 Cu copper 64 | 30 Zn zinc 65 | 31 Ga gallium 70 | 32 Ge germanium 73 | 33 As arsenic 75 | 34 Se selenium 79 | 35 Br bromine 80 | 36 Kr krypton 84 |
37 Rb rubidium 85 | 38 Sr strontium 88 | 39 Y yttrium 89 | 40 Zr zirconium 91 | 41 Nb niobium 93 | 42 Mo molybdenum 96 | 43 Tc technetium – | 44 Ru ruthenium 101 | 45 Rh rhodium 103 | 46 Pd palladium 106 | 47 Ag silver 108 | 48 Cd cadmium 112 | 49 In indium 115 | 50 Sn tin 119 | 51 Sb antimony 122 | 52 Te tellurium 128 | 53 I iodine 127 | 54 Xe xenon 131 |
55 Cs caesium 133 | 56 Ba barium 137 | 57–71 lanthanoids
| 72 Hf hafnium 178 | 73 Ta tantalum 181 | 74 W tungsten 184 | 75 Re rhenium 186 | 76 Os osmium 190 | 77 Ir iridium 192 | 78 Pt platinum 195 | 79 Au gold 197 | 80 Hg mercury 201 | 81 Tl thallium 204 | 82 Pb lead 207 | 83 Bi bismuth 209 | 84 Po polonium – | 85 At astatine – | 86 Rn radon – |
87 Fr francium – | 88 Ra radium – | 89–103 actinoids
| 104 Rf rutherfordium – | 105 Db dubnium – | 106 Sg seaborgium – | 107 Bh bohrium – | 108 Hs hassium – | 109 Mt meitnerium – | 110 Ds darmstadtium – | 111 Rg roentgenium – | 112 Cn copernicium – | 113 Nh nihonium – | 114 Fl flerovium – | 115 Mc moscovium – | 116 Lv livermorium – | 117 Ts tennessine – | 118 Og oganesson – |
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lanthanoids | 57 La lanthanum 139 | 58 Ce cerium 140 | 59 Pr praseodymium 141 | 60 Nd neodymium 144 | 61 Pm promethium – | 62 Sm samarium 150 | 63 Eu europium 152 | 64 Gd gadolinium 157 | 65 Tb terbium 159 | 66 Dy dysprosium 163 | 67 Ho holmium 165 | 68 Er erbium 167 | 69 Tm thulium 169 | 70 Yb ytterbium 173 | 71 Lu lutetium 175 |
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actinoids | 89 Ac actinium – | 90 Th thorium 232 | 91 Pa protactinium 231 | 92 U uranium 238 | 93 Np neptunium – | 94 Pu plutonium – | 95 Am americium – | 96 Cm curium – | 97 Bk berkelium – | 98 Cf californium – | 99 Es einsteinium – | 100 Fm fermium – | 101 Md mendelevium – | 102 No nobelium – | 103 Lr lawrencium – |
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The volume of one mole of any gas is 24 dm3 at room temperature and pressure (r.t.p.).
The Avogadro constant, L = 6.02 × 1023 mol-1