Cambridge IGCSE · syllabus 0620
Edunest pairs each Year 10 or Year 11 learner in Qatar with a chemistry tutor for live online lessons, one to one, on Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet. Lessons follow Cambridge syllabus 0620 at Core or Extended level, starting from the marks your child is losing in moles, explanations or the practical paper.
Many learners follow chemistry in class, then lose marks when they must calculate, balance equations or explain in exact exam terms. Lessons close that gap topic by topic.
What we cover
Syllabus 0620 lists twelve topics. Every learner studies the Core content, and Extended learners add the Supplement. Here they are grouped the way a tutor usually teaches them.
The school sets the teaching order; a tutor follows it and repairs earlier gaps as they surface.
Particle models, electron shells for the first 20 elements, isotopes and the three types of bonding. Marks slip on dot-and-cross diagrams and on explaining melting points through structure and bonding.
Formulae, equations with state symbols, relative masses and, for Extended, mole calculations: reacting masses, gas volumes at 24 dm³, concentrations, limiting reactants and percentage yield. One unit slip undoes an answer.
Electrolysis of molten and aqueous compounds, electroplating, fuel cells, and oxidation and reduction. Extended learners write half-equations and use oxidation numbers; many mix up the electrodes or the products from solutions.
Exothermic and endothermic change, reaction pathway diagrams, rate experiments and reversible reactions. Extended adds bond energies, collision theory and the Haber and Contact processes, where general answers lose marks.
Indicators such as thymolphthalein and methyl orange, pH, neutralisation, acidic, basic and amphoteric oxides, and making salts. Marks go on picking the wrong preparation method or muddling its steps.
Trends in Group I and Group VII, transition elements and noble gases, then metals: alloys, the reactivity series, rusting and its prevention, and extracting iron and aluminium.
Tests for water, treating tap water, NPK fertilisers, the composition of clean air, pollutants with their sources and effects, climate change and photosynthesis. Short recall questions here reward exact wording.
Homologous series from alkanes to carboxylic acids, naming, fractional distillation of petroleum, cracking, making ethanol, esters and polymers. Displayed formulae must be complete, and a missing hydrogen or bond costs the mark.
Apparatus, titration, paper chromatography, separation and purification, and the tests for anions, cations and gases, including flame tests. This block feeds straight into the practical paper, Paper 5 or Paper 6.
How lessons run
Each lesson has one purpose, set from your child's recent work. This rhythm repeats through the year and quickens as the exam series nears.
Step 1
The tutor reads a recent school test or past paper and sorts the lost marks into recall, calculation, written explanation and practical skill. That list, shared with you, sets the starting point.
Step 2
We book slots where the week allows: after school, Sunday through Thursday, or at the weekend, Friday and Saturday, in Doha time (UTC+3 all year). The plan tracks your school's topic order and exam series.
Step 3
Ideas are built on a shared screen: particle diagrams, electron shells, reaction pathways. Your child then answers aloud and in writing, using Cambridge command words such as explain, deduce and suggest.
Step 4
Mole problems are worked in a fixed layout with units and sensible significant figures. For the practical paper, learners read scales to half a division, draw results tables and plot best-fit lines.
Step 5
A lesson starts with quick recall questions on earlier chemistry, such as a flame-test colour or an ionic formula. After it, the family gets a brief written update on progress and next steps.
Each Ramadan, lesson slots are re-agreed with your family around that year's officially announced timings.
The exam
Three components make up a 0620 result: multiple choice, theory and one practical. Cambridge gives 50% for knowledge with understanding, 30% for handling information and solving problems, and 20% for experimental skills.
Exam board
Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry · 0620
A* to G grading. Syllabus 0620 is set for the 2026 to 2028 exam years, and Cambridge issued its version 2 in August 2026.
Exam board
Cambridge IGCSE (9–1) Chemistry · 0971
The same syllabus graded 9 to 1, offered in administrative zone 3, which includes Qatar. A learner cannot take both in one series.
| Paper | Tier | Duration | Marks | Weighting | Calculator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Multiple Choice (Core) | Core | 45 minutes | 40 | 30% | Allowed |
40 questions, each with four options, on Core content alone. How a tutor helps The tutor trains quick elimination of wrong options and shows how distractors are built on common errors, such as confusing atoms with ions or mass number with proton number. | |||||
| Paper 2: Multiple Choice (Extended) | Extended | 45 minutes | 40 | 30% | Allowed |
40 four-option questions drawn from both Core and Supplement content. How a tutor helps Extended questions often hide a two-step mole calculation or an electrolysis prediction inside a single option. Timed practice builds the habit of working on paper before choosing an answer. | |||||
| Paper 3: Theory (Core) | Core | 1 hour 15 minutes | 80 | 50% | Allowed |
Written questions, short and structured, on Core content; grades C to G. How a tutor helps Lessons focus on complete, precise statements: naming a test and its result, giving word and symbol equations, and describing observations with colours and states of matter. | |||||
| Paper 4: Theory (Extended) | Extended | 1 hour 15 minutes | 80 | 50% | Allowed |
Structured questions across Core and Supplement, with multi-step calculations and organic structures. How a tutor helps The tutor rehearses long questions that link topics, such as a titration result leading to a formula, and marks answers against mark-scheme points to show what earns credit. | |||||
| Paper 5: Practical Test | Core and Extended | 1 hour 15 minutes | 40 | 20% | Allowed |
Timed bench work: learners carry out real experiments in their school lab. How a tutor helps Bench skills are built in the school lab. Online sessions rehearse the rest: reading a method in order, choosing apparatus, logging readings precisely and wording test observations clearly. | |||||
| Paper 6: Alternative to Practical | Core and Extended | 1 hour | 40 | 20% | Allowed |
A written paper on the same experimental skills, with no experiments. How a tutor helps Everything is on paper, so it suits online preparation: planning an investigation, naming variables, drawing tables headed with units, spotting anomalous results and improving a method. | |||||
40 questions, each with four options, on Core content alone.
How a tutor helps
The tutor trains quick elimination of wrong options and shows how distractors are built on common errors, such as confusing atoms with ions or mass number with proton number.
40 four-option questions drawn from both Core and Supplement content.
How a tutor helps
Extended questions often hide a two-step mole calculation or an electrolysis prediction inside a single option. Timed practice builds the habit of working on paper before choosing an answer.
Written questions, short and structured, on Core content; grades C to G.
How a tutor helps
Lessons focus on complete, precise statements: naming a test and its result, giving word and symbol equations, and describing observations with colours and states of matter.
Structured questions across Core and Supplement, with multi-step calculations and organic structures.
How a tutor helps
The tutor rehearses long questions that link topics, such as a titration result leading to a formula, and marks answers against mark-scheme points to show what earns credit.
Timed bench work: learners carry out real experiments in their school lab.
How a tutor helps
Bench skills are built in the school lab. Online sessions rehearse the rest: reading a method in order, choosing apparatus, logging readings precisely and wording test observations clearly.
A written paper on the same experimental skills, with no experiments.
How a tutor helps
Everything is on paper, so it suits online preparation: planning an investigation, naming variables, drawing tables headed with units, spotting anomalous results and improving a method.
Cambridge places Qatar in administrative zone 3, so every school here sits the zone 3 papers on the same dates. Syllabus 0620 runs in June and November; March entries are for schools in India.
The Extended route can reach any grade from A* to G. The Core route, with its papers set on Core content only, stops at C. Anything under G is reported as ungraded.
What we look for in a tutor
Standards a tutor must meet before teaching 0620 through Edunest.
Knows the subject far beyond exam level, so a question such as why molten salt conducts electricity gets an accurate, clear reply.
Knows the Core and Supplement split, the named reactions and conditions, and the practical contexts listed for Papers 5 and 6.
Has taught with past papers and mark schemes, and knows how theory and Alternative to Practical questions award their marks.
Moves from particles to symbols to equations in small steps, checking understanding before adding the next idea.
Follows safeguarding standards for lessons with under-18s, keeps lessons on agreed video platforms and welcomes a parent joining any lesson.
Sends short progress notes, raises concerns early and tells you when a Core or Extended decision is approaching.
Common difficulties
These patterns appear often in IGCSE Chemistry work.
Mole questions chain several steps, and one slip with units, ratios or cm³ to dm³ spoils the rest.
How a tutor helps
Every mole problem follows one layout: balanced equation, moles of the known substance, mole ratio, answer with unit. Repeated across reacting masses, gas volumes and titrations, it becomes automatic.
Questions ask for reasons in terms of particles, bonding or collisions, and general phrases like 'it reacts faster' earn nothing.
How a tutor helps
Your child writes an answer, checks it against mark-scheme points, then rewrites it, until key phrases come automatically: more frequent collisions, delocalised electrons, strong electrostatic attraction.
In aqueous solutions, ions from water compete at each electrode, so the products differ from those of the molten compound.
How a tutor helps
The tutor turns the rules into a simple decision chart, then applies it to sodium chloride and copper(II) sulfate, writing half-equations at each electrode for Extended learners.
Series differ by one functional group, and a displayed formula earns credit only when every atom and every bond is shown.
How a tutor helps
Learners build each homologous series from methane upward, then drill name, draw, react: from ethene to poly(ethene), from ethanol to ethanoic acid, and the isomers of butane and butene.
Marks depend on precise methods, readings at the right precision, units in table headings and sensible evaluation.
How a tutor helps
With Paper 6 style tasks, the tutor models headings such as time / s, scales that fill the grid, anomalous points set aside and improvements tied to a named source of error.
Questions learners and parents ask
Share your child's school, tier and exam session; someone on the team reads each enquiry personally and answers with a suitable chemistry tutor.