This exam tips covers Exam Tips: Water Treatment within Water Treatment for GCSE Chemistry. Revise Water Treatment in Using Resources for GCSE Chemistry with 20 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 12 of 13 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
Topic position
Section 12 of 13
Practice
20 questions
Recall
15 flashcards
💡 Exam Tips: Water Treatment
🎯 Common Question Types:
- Order the stages of water treatment (2 marks)
- Explain the purpose of one stage (2 marks)
- Define potable water (1 mark)
- Compare distillation and reverse osmosis (3-4 marks)
- Explain why potable water is not pure water (2 marks)
📝 Key Command Words:
- State: Give a factual answer — no explanation needed
- Explain: Give the reason why — e.g. "Chlorine kills pathogens because..."
- Compare: Give both similarities AND differences between two methods
- Evaluate: Weigh up advantages and disadvantages, then give a conclusion
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Saying potable water is pure water — it is not
- Saying filtration kills bacteria — it does not; chlorination does
- Confusing sedimentation and filtration — sedimentation uses gravity, filtration uses barriers
- Forgetting that distillation requires large amounts of energy (making it expensive)