Which QCE Chemistry past paper do students score lowest on?

The 2021 Paper 2, averaging 51.4% across 138 marked attempts on AusGrader. The 2024 Paper 1 is the highest on 71.0%.

Which QCE Chemistry dot points give the best return on revision time?

3.1.2.3 (2.0 marks at risk per 100), 3.2.4.6 (1.5 marks at risk per 100) and 4.2.1.2 (1.4 marks at risk per 100). Marks at risk combines a dot point's share of paper marks with the marks students drop on it, so it ranks by recoverable marks and not by score alone.

How many attempts is each QCE Chemistry figure based on?

35,231 marked attempts overall, with the per-row count shown in every table. Any cut below 50 attempts is withheld instead of published.

Do these averages show how the QCAA cohort performed?

No. They are AusGrader users' marked attempts, a self-selected group practising when they chose to and often without exam timing. They corroborate what QCAA publishes about this subject and do not replace it.

QCE Chemistry hardest topics

Across 35,231 marked attempts on AusGrader, QCE Chemistry students average 57.5% on questions taken from board external papers. The lowest average of any command verb is draw on 53.6%, and the verb that costs the most marks is explain, which carries 33.7% of the paper against 1.8% for draw. These are self-selected users practising when they chose to, not the QCAA cohort under exam conditions.

How to read these numbers

The figures are AusGrader users' marked attempts, not QCAA results. They corroborate what the board publishes about this subject and do not stand in for it.
Any cut with fewer than 50 attempts is withheld, which on this page is 2 papers, 28 dot points and 19 verbs. Every figure shown carries its attempt count.
Scores cover questions mapped to the QCE Chemistry syllabus from any board's external papers, which is why the sample is larger than the 12 QCAA papers alone. The paper table below is the exception and uses QCAA papers only.
Internal assessment and school-uploaded exams are excluded throughout, so these averages differ from the ones on QCE Chemistry performance stats, which count every attempt.

Score by past paper

Year	Paper	Average	Attempts
2025	Paper 1	61.7%	212
2024	Paper 1	71.0%	618
2024	Paper 2	62.0%	199
2023	Paper 1	60.9%	369
2023	Paper 2	67.6%	125
2022	Paper 1	52.5%	557
2022	Paper 2	57.0%	87
2021	Paper 1	65.6%	391
2021	Paper 2	51.4%	138
2020	Paper 1	61.1%	326

The lowest average belongs to the 2021 Paper 2 on 51.4% from 138 attempts, and the highest to the 2024 Paper 1 on 71.0% from 618 attempts. A paper's average reflects both how hard it was and who chose to sit it, so treat the spread as a guide to which papers make demanding practice.

Score by question type

Question type	Average	Attempts
Extended response	44.2%	79
Multiple choice	56.0%	30,670
Short answer	62.0%	4,482

Score by unit

Unit	Average	Attempts
Unit 3: Equilibrium, acids and redox reactions	56.6%	17,781
Unit 4: Structure, synthesis and design	57.5%	14,736

An attempt counts once per unit, so a question assessed across two units appears in both rows and the column adds to slightly more than 35,231.

The priority list: heavy topics with low scores

Topic	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
Chemical equilibrium systems	39.0%	58.7%	10,072	16.1
Properties and structure of organic materials	28.9%	57.4%	12,013	12.3
Oxidation and reduction	20.2%	53.2%	7,918	9.4
Chemical synthesis and design	12.0%	58.1%	3,669	5.0

Chemical equilibrium systems tops the list on 16.1 marks at risk per 100 paper marks, 3.8 ahead of Properties and structure of organic materials.

The same cut at subtopic level

Subtopic	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
Redox reactions	8.1%	48.7%	2,335	4.2
Structure of organic compounds	9.7%	60.5%	3,947	3.8
Organic reactions and reaction pathways	8.7%	61.5%	3,659	3.4
Chemical synthesis	7.7%	56.8%	2,629	3.3
Standard electrode potential	6.1%	46.1%	1,858	3.3
Factors that affect equilibrium	6.6%	53.2%	3,242	3.1
Equilibrium constants	5.7%	57.8%	1,627	2.4
Analytical techniques	4.2%	46.8%	1,880	2.2
Volumetric analysis	4.6%	55.6%	1,509	2.0
Dissociation constants	6.3%	69.0%	317	1.9
Acid-base indicators	2.9%	39.3%	239	1.8
Organic materials: structure and function	4.1%	57.3%	1,642	1.8
Macromolecules: polymers, proteins and carbohydrates	4.2%	63.0%	1,040	1.6
Electrolytic cells	3.1%	52.1%	1,769	1.5
Chemical equilibrium	3.7%	61.7%	3,800	1.4

The same cut at dot-point level

Dot point	Content	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
3.1.2.3	Apply Le Châtelier’s principle to determine the effect changes of temperature, concentration of chemicals, pressure and the addition of a catalyst have on the position of equilibrium and on the value of the equilibrium constant	4.3%	54.4%	2,853	2.0
3.2.4.6	Analyse data, including standard electrode potentials, to make predictions about the spontaneity of a reaction and to compare electrochemical cells	2.7%	44.6%	1,696	1.5
4.2.1.2	Describe, using equations, the: production of ammonia by the Haber process; production of sulfuric acid using the contact process; production of ethanol from fermentation and the hydration of ethene; operation of a hydrogen fuel cell under acidic and alkaline conditions	3.4%	58.5%	1,163	1.4
3.1.3.6	Calculate equilibrium constants ( $K_c$ ) and the concentrations of reactants and products. Assume $[reactants]_{initial} = [reactants]_{equilibrium}$ when $K_c$ is very small and state assumption when used. (Formula: $K_c = \frac{[C]^c[D]^d}{[A]^a[B]^b}$ for the reaction $aA + bB \rightleftharpoons cC + dD$ )	2.6%	51.9%	1,066	1.3
3.1.7.4	Calculate dissociation constants ( $K_a$ , $K_b$ , and $K_w$ ), $pK_a$ , $pK_b$ , and the concentrations of reactants and products. (Formula: $K_a = \frac{[H_3O^+][A^-]}{[HA]}$ ; $K_b = \frac{[BH^+][OH^-]}{[B]}$ ; $K_w = K_a \times K_b$ )	4.1%	71.6%	129	1.2
4.1.5.4	Analyse data from spectra, including mass spectroscopy and infrared to determine the identity and structure of organic molecules	2.0%	46.8%	1,471	1.1
3.2.1.2	Determine the species oxidised and reduced, and the oxidising agent and reducing agent, in redox reactions	2.1%	50.1%	1,588	1.1
3.2.1.7	Analyse data, including displacement reactions of metals, combustion, corrosion and electrochemical processes to determine redox reactions	1.7%	39.0%	310	1.0
4.1.4.1	Describe the structural features of: amino acids, tripeptides, monosaccharides and disaccharides; polyethene (LDPE and HDPE), polypropene (syntactic, isotactic and atactic) and polytetrafluorethene (Teflon); polylactic acid (PLA), polyamide (nylon) and polyester	2.6%	61.3%	1,382	1.0
3.2.5.5	Explain the products of the electrolysis of aqueous solutions, e.g. dilute and concentration sodium chloride(aq) and copper sulfate(aq)	1.6%	38.4%	508	1.0
4.2.1.3	Calculate the yield of chemical synthesis reactions by comparing stoichiometric quantities with actual quantities and by determining limiting reagents and/or reaction conditions	2.2%	55.5%	695	1.0
3.1.9.5	Analyse volumetric data, including solubility, conductometric and acid-base titration curves, to determine moles, mass, volume and concentration	2.1%	53.4%	1,325	1.0
3.2.1.3	Explain that oxidation can be modelled as the loss of electrons from a chemical species, and reduction can be modelled as the gain of electrons by a chemical species; these processes can be represented using balanced half-equations and redox equations (acidic conditions only)	1.8%	45.6%	730	1.0
4.2.2.1	Describe, using equations, how: addition polymers, including polyethene (LDPE and HDPE), polypropene and polytetrafluorethene, can be produced from their monomers; condensation polymers, including polysaccharides (carbohydrates), polylactic acid (PLA), polyamide (proteins and nylon) and polyester, can be produced from their monomers	2.5%	63.4%	583	0.9
4.1.2.1	Explain the trends (melting point, boiling point, volatility, solubility in water and organic solvents) within and between homologous series (alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, carboxylic acids) in term of intermolecular and intramolecular bonding, e.g. dispersion forces, dipole-dipole interactions and hydrogen bonds	2.0%	55.0%	1,512	0.9
3.2.4.4	Calculate cell potential, $E^o_{cell}$ (Formula: $E^o_{cell} = E^o_{reduction\ half-cell} - E^o_{oxidation\ half-cell}$ )	1.6%	46.0%	904	0.9
4.1.1.1	Identify organic molecules including alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, haloalkanes, esters, amines and amides	1.8%	55.5%	432	0.8
4.1.1.6	Determine molecular and structural formulas for organic compounds, up to $C_{10}$ , including simple methyl and ethyl branched chains, for: alkanes, alkenes and alkynes; alcohols (primary, secondary and tertiary); aldehydes and ketones; carboxylic acids; amines and amides; haloalkanes (primary, secondary and tertiary); esters	1.8%	57.4%	1,669	0.8
3.2.3.5	Identify the essential components of a galvanic cell, including the oxidation and reduction half-cells, the positive and negative electrodes and their solutions of their ions, the flow of electrons and the movement of ions, and the salt bridge	1.6%	52.9%	1,116	0.8
3.1.5.3	Calculate pH, hydrogen ion concentration $[H^+(aq)]$ , pOH and hydroxide ion concentrations $[OH^-(aq)]$ for strong acids and bases. (Formula: $pH = -\log_{10} [H^+]$ and $pOH = -\log_{10}[OH^-]$ )	2.5%	69.9%	315	0.8

Which command verbs cost the most marks

Verb	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
explain	33.7%	58.1%	1,326	14.1
determine	19.1%	59.8%	513	7.7
identify	11.8%	59.4%	681	4.8
calculate	12.0%	63.6%	465	4.4
predict	6.1%	63.6%	150	2.2
apply	4.9%	59.2%	66	2.0
describe	5.2%	64.5%	148	1.9
deduce	3.6%	54.2%	81	1.6
draw	1.8%	53.6%	380	0.8

Draw has the lowest average on the page at 53.6%, and it is not where the marks go. Explain averages 58.1% but carries 33.7% of the paper against 1.8%, so it puts 14.1 marks per 100 at risk against 0.8. For the plain ranking of verbs by score, and what QCAA has said about each, read the QCE Chemistry study guide.

What this does not measure

Where to practise

Work the priority list from the top: Chemical equilibrium systems and Properties and structure of organic materials first, then the dot points above. Each topic page holds real QCAA questions with marking criteria attached. For what the papers actually cover, read QCE Chemistry most tested topics.

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is © State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority), licensed under CC BY 4.0. See our QCAA licensing notice. AusGrader is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the QCAA.