Where the marks actually go
Unit A2 1 is 100 marks in 120 minutes, so budget just over a minute a mark. AO2, applying skills, knowledge and understanding through different contexts, and AO3, investigating, analysing, evaluating and communicating findings, each carry around 36 percent of the marks. AO1 recall is around 28 percent. Nine compulsory questions run across the paper, and three of them, 5(b), 7 and 9, are marked for Quality of Written Communication as extended, Level of Response answers worth close to 30 marks between them, close to a third of the paper.
Paper structure and timing
The paper mixes short technical recall worth around 17 marks in total, structured multi-point discussion worth close to half the paper at around 49 marks, two calculation questions worth around 5 marks, and the three extended QWC essays worth around 29. Do not let the short recall items eat into the time you need for the calculations and the essays. They are worth little individually and should take seconds each, not minutes.
The highest-yield technique: show full working and quote units
Calculation questions on this paper, mostly building heat flow using U-values, are marked for method as well as final answer. State the formula, heat flow equals U-value times area times temperature difference, before you calculate, show every step, and give your answer with its unit: watts for heat flow, \(\text{W/m}^2\text{K}\) for a U-value. A correct number with no working or no unit can lose a method mark even when the arithmetic is right. When you calculate wall heat flow, subtract any window or door area from the gross wall area first. Forgetting that step is one of the most repeated errors on this paper.
The second highest-yield habit is naming the specific process or directive rather than describing it in general terms. "It is bad for the environment" scores nothing where the mark scheme wants the EU Landfill Directive or the Waste Framework Directive by name. A steam reforming answer needs its operating temperature, 700 to 1000 degrees Celsius, and pressure, 3 to 25 bar, not just "high temperature and pressure". Learn the named figures and named regulations for each topic on your paper.
CCEA conventions to get right
The three QWC questions, 5(b), 7 and 9, are marked in bands, and a disjointed list of bullet points caps you in the lower bands regardless of content. Write these as structured paragraphs with subheadings implied by the question, using specialist vocabulary, biohydrometallurgy, phytoextraction, anaerobic digestion, correctly and distinctly. Question 9 in particular rewards wide coverage. Do not focus only on electric cars when the question is about transport system challenges more broadly. Heavy freight and fuelling infrastructure carry marks too.
Get your redox chemistry precise in fuel cell questions. Write the anode and cathode half-reactions as ionic equations, not molecular ones, and do not swap which electrode is which. The main by-product of a PEM fuel cell is water and heat, not a toxic emission, a distinction examiners check for directly.
Exam day plan
Work through the nine questions in order, since the paper builds from short recall to longer analysis and the numbering reflects that structure. Complete both calculation questions early while you are working carefully, writing the formula first every time. Save a genuine, undivided block of time for each of the three QWC questions rather than rushing the last one at the end. In your last few minutes, check that every calculation has a unit, and that every extended answer is in paragraphs, not bullet points.