MATSEC IM Chemistry

The one published for the year in which your final assessment is scheduled. The board states that a syllabus' year is the year in which the final assessment is scheduled, so if you sit the examination next year, download that year's IM Chemistry syllabus from the Syllabi page rather than relying on an older printed copy.

The board lists subject syllabi for four levels: SEC (Secondary Education Certificate), SEAC (Secondary Education Applied Certificate), IM (Intermediate Matriculation) and AM (Advanced Matriculation). IM Chemistry sits at the Intermediate Matriculation level, between SEC and AM in demand, and is generally taken after completing SEC-level chemistry.

Go to the Syllabi page on the MATSEC section of the University of Malta website and open the folder for your examination year; each year from 2011 to 2029 is listed with a 'Find out more' link. The IM Chemistry document there sets out the topics, practical work and assessment structure you are examined on.

Yes. The MATSEC navigation lists Past Papers and Marking Schemes and Exemplars as separate sections alongside Syllabi, Regulations and Guidelines and policies. Use them after you have covered the syllabus content, so that you are practising recall and structured written answers rather than reading questions before you understand the underlying chemistry.

Start from the syllabus document and tick off each listed topic, beginning with the physical chemistry that underpins later work - amounts of substance, bonding, energetics, equilibrium, rates and redox - then inorganic patterns and organic functional groups and reaction types. Add the prescribed practical work, then move to timed past-paper practice under exam conditions.

Typical losses come from weak mole calculations and unit handling, unbalanced or state-missing equations, describing observations vaguely instead of precisely (colour, precipitate, gas), muddling organic reaction conditions and reagents, and writing explanations when the question asks for a definition or calculation. Reading the command word and the mark allocation before answering prevents most of these.

The syllabus document for your year specifies the practical content and how it is assessed, so read that section rather than assuming. Treat the prescribed experiments as learning content: know the apparatus, the observations expected, and the calculations behind each one, because written papers frequently test experimental reasoning and data handling.

The board's public pages do not set out a retake policy, so confirm the position for your session directly with the MATSEC Examinations Board. In practice candidates normally re-enter in a later session using that session's syllabus, which is another reason to check the syllabus year before restarting preparation.

Phone +356 2340 2814/5/6, email [email protected], or write to MATSEC Examinations Board, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta. The board also publishes a Frequently asked questions page and a Guidebook, and directs syllabus enquiries through its contact page.