Edexcel GCSE Chemistry required practicals: A complete guide

If you're on the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Chemistry (1CH0) specification and searching for "required practicals", you've probably noticed the Edexcel documents don't use that phrase. Edexcel calls them core practicals, and there are 8 of them on the Triple Science route at Higher tier. The content overlaps a lot with AQA Chemistry, but the terminology, the numbering, and some of the specific procedures all differ.

This guide covers all 8 Edexcel GCSE Chemistry core practicals, where each one sits on the specification, how practical skills are examined across Paper 1 and Paper 2, and how to revise them so you can handle any practical-skills question in the written papers. If you're on the Combined Science route, you'll cover a reduced list, flagged in the article.

As with Biology, you won't be asked to physically carry out an experiment. You will be asked to describe the method, identify variables, suggest improvements, and interpret or extend results. For the full Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification beyond practicals, see our complete guide to Edexcel GCSE Chemistry.

Edexcel numbers each core practical against a specification point. You'll see them written as 2.11, 3.6, 3.17 and so on. The "C" suffix on 5.9C, 9.6C and 9.28C marks Chemistry-only separate-science content, which Combined Science students don't study.

For each core practical you need to know the method, the variables, the main risks, and the expected results. Here's a walkthrough of all 8.

Two separate techniques for one practical. Simple distillation is used to separate a solvent from a solution, for example extracting water from an ink. You heat the mixture in a round-bottomed flask; the solvent boils off, passes through a condenser, and is collected as a pure liquid.

Paper chromatography separates the dyes within an ink. A pencil baseline is drawn on chromatography paper (always pencil – pen ink would dissolve in the solvent), spots of ink are added, and the paper is suspended with the baseline just above the solvent. Dyes travel up the paper at different rates. You calculate Rf values using Rf = distance travelled by substance / distance travelled by solvent. Exam questions commonly ask why pencil is used or how to interpret the chromatogram.

A fixed volume of dilute hydrochloric acid is measured into a conical flask, and the starting pH is recorded. You add powdered calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide in small, measured amounts, stirring and reading the pH after each addition until no further change. Independent variable: mass of base added. Dependent variable: pH. The pH rises slowly at first while acid is still in excess, then rises sharply around the point of neutralisation, and finally levels off at an alkaline pH once excess calcium hydroxide is present.

This one tests your understanding of neutralisation and how pH changes as a reaction progresses.

You add copper(II) oxide (an insoluble base) to warm dilute sulfuric acid, stirring until no more dissolves. Excess copper oxide is filtered off. The copper sulfate solution is then evaporated on a water bath until a saturated solution forms, left to crystallise slowly, and the crystals filtered and dried.

A water bath is used (not direct heat) because the final evaporation stage needs gentle heating, so the solution doesn't spit and the crystals don't lose their water of crystallisation. Exam questions often ask why you add excess base, how you'd know when no more will react, and what the crystals look like.

Two scenarios: inert carbon electrodes, or copper electrodes. With carbon electrodes, copper is deposited at the cathode and oxygen is produced at the anode. With copper electrodes, copper is deposited at the cathode and the copper anode dissolves (this is how copper is purified industrially).

You'd measure the mass change at each electrode before and after electrolysis. Exam questions commonly ask you to predict the products at each electrode, explain the mass changes, and write half-equations for the processes at the anode and cathode.

A pipette is used to transfer a precise volume (typically 25.0 cm³) of alkali into a conical flask with a few drops of indicator (methyl orange or phenolphthalein, depending on the acid-base combination). Acid of known concentration is run in from a burette, swirling the flask, until the indicator changes colour at the endpoint. The initial titre is a rough; subsequent titres aim for concordant results within 0.10 cm³.

You calculate moles using n = c × v (in dm³), use the balanced equation to find moles of the unknown, and then rearrange for its concentration. Exam questions on titrations are a maths-heavy favourite – expect to show working.

Edexcel bundles two methods into one practical. Method a measures gas production in the reaction between hydrochloric acid and marble chips (calcium carbonate). You collect the carbon dioxide in a gas syringe or over water and plot volume against time. Method b observes the colour change in the sodium thiosulfate and hydrochloric acid reaction – a cross is drawn on paper beneath the flask, and you time how long it takes for the cross to disappear as sulfur precipitates out.

Independent variable: concentration (or surface area, or temperature, depending on what you're testing). Dependent variable: either rate of gas production or time taken for cross to disappear. The two methods between them cover every rates-of-reaction scenario Edexcel can ask about.

This uses the ion tests from specification points 9.2C to 9.5C. Flame tests identify Group 1 and Group 2 cations (lithium crimson, sodium yellow, potassium lilac, calcium orange-red, copper green-blue). Sodium hydroxide identifies transition metal cations by the colour of the precipitate formed. Anion tests use silver nitrate for halides, barium chloride for sulfates, and dilute acid for carbonates. Ammonium ions are detected by warming with sodium hydroxide and testing with damp red litmus (turns blue).

Exam questions give you a set of observations and ask you to deduce which ions are present. Memorising the colours and expected observations is non-negotiable.

Ethanol, propanol, butanol and pentanol are each burned in a spirit burner beneath a copper calorimeter containing a known mass of water. You measure the temperature rise and the mass of alcohol burned, then calculate energy released per gram using q = mcΔT (energy = mass of water × specific heat capacity × temperature change).

As the chain length increases, more energy is released per mole because there are more bonds to break and form. Common exam targets: identifying heat loss to the surroundings as a source of error, suggesting improvements (insulating the calorimeter, using a lid, shielding from draughts), and comparing experimental values with theoretical ones.

There's no separate practical exam. Core practicals are examined through two written papers, Paper 1 (1CH0/1H), covering Topics 1 to 5 and Paper 2 (1CH0/2H), covering Topic 1 and Topics 6 to 9, each 1 hour 45 minutes and worth 100 marks. Topic 1 is common to both papers; the current practical list sits in Topics 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9, so Topic 1 practical-style questions can still appear on either.

AO3 ("analyse information and ideas to interpret, evaluate, develop and improve experimental procedures") is worth 20% of the overall GCSE. AO1 and AO2 are 40% each. The exact per-paper split for AO3 is set out in the Pearson 1CH0 specification; your teacher will have the breakdown.

Chemistry has at least a 20% mathematical skills requirement across the qualification, higher than Biology's 10% and lower than Physics's 30%. Titration calculations, Rf values, energy per gram and electrode mass changes all land in this bucket.

AQA Chemistry has 8 required practicals, same count as Edexcel. The content overlaps a lot – both specifications cover chromatography, titration, salt preparation, electrolysis, rates of reaction, energy change and ion identification. The difference is in bundling and numbering.

Edexcel bundles two rate-of-reaction methods under one practical (7.1a and 7.1b); AQA does the same, measuring gas volume and colour change/turbidity within a single rates required practical. Edexcel includes alcohol combustion as a dedicated core practical (9.28C); AQA covers temperature change through a neutralisation or displacement reaction instead. The specific procedures aren't identical, but the practical skills (variables, controls, calculations, evaluation) transfer across boards.

If you're using cross-board resources, map by technique rather than by number. "AQA required practical 3" doesn't correspond to "Edexcel core practical 3.3" – the numbering systems are entirely different.

No. Edexcel Combined Science (1SC0) drops Topic 5 ("Separate chemistry 1") and Topic 9 ("Separate chemistry 2") entirely. That removes three core practicals from the Combined list: 5.9C titration, 9.6C ion identification, and 9.28C alcohol combustion. Combined Science students cover 5 of the 8: 2.11, 3.6, 3.17, 3.31 and 7.1. If you're on Combined, revise those five; if you're on Triple, you need all eight. Our guide to Triple vs Combined Science explains the broader differences between the two routes.

The pattern that works is the same across the three sciences: active recall of method, variables, risks and expected results, followed by past-paper practical-skills questions. Reading through notes once won't do it.

For each core practical, flashcard four things – method as bulleted steps, variables (independent, dependent, two controls), main risk and mitigation, and expected result with explanation. Write each method out from memory and compare against your notes. The steps you miss are the ones that would cost marks.

Practise the maths-heavy practicals separately: titration calculations, Rf values, energy per gram from q = mcΔT, mass changes at electrodes. These show up most years, and markschemes award method marks for showing clear working. Then work through past-paper practical questions by topic – the "suggest an improvement" and "evaluate this student's conclusion" styles recycle reliably year to year.

Cognito's Edexcel GCSE Chemistry course covers every core practical with short video lessons, worked titration calculations, and exam-style questions on each one. If you're on the Combined route, the Edexcel Combined Science course focuses on the five chemistry core practicals you need. For broader equation and formula work, see our guide to balancing chemical equations.