This exam focus covers Exam Focus within Exothermic Reactions for GCSE Chemistry. Revise Exothermic Reactions in Energy Changes for GCSE Chemistry with 20 exam-style questions and 14 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 10 of 12 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
🎯 Exam Focus
Frequently Examined
Exothermic reactions appear in almost every chemistry paper. Key exam areas:
- Identifying exothermic from data — temperature increases in experiment
- Drawing energy profiles — products lower than reactants, peak shown
- Giving examples — combustion, neutralisation, respiration, oxidation
- Explaining in terms of bonds — energy released making bonds > energy needed breaking bonds
- ΔH notation — negative value, correct units (kJ/mol)
Edexcel 1CH0: Examined in Paper 2 (1CH0/2). Energy profile diagrams for exothermic reactions and activation energy are tested at Higher tier. In Edexcel-style questions, the command word "Suggest" appears frequently — use your chemistry knowledge to apply to an unfamiliar context.
Quick Check: Give THREE examples of exothermic reactions.
Any three from: combustion (burning fuels), neutralisation (acid + alkali), respiration (glucose + oxygen in cells), oxidation (metals reacting with oxygen such as rusting), displacement reactions (reactive metal displacing a less reactive one). All of these release heat energy to the surroundings.
Practice questions for Exothermic Reactions
In an exothermic reaction, energy is transferred:
Explain, in terms of bond breaking and bond making, why combustion is an exothermic reaction.