Paper 5 asks you to draw labelled apparatus, name it with its capacity and describe each step exactly. These pages cover the experiment families that keep coming back. In each one, watch the set-up assembled step by step with the variables and the graph beside it, build it yourself on a bench, then check the wording the examiners want.
Weigh by difference, make up a 250.0 cm³ standard solution, then titrate with a volumetric pipette and burette.
Like: 9701/52 Nov 2024, 9701/52 March 2024, 9701/52 Nov 2025
Rates of reactionA sealed flask, a gas syringe or an inverted burette over water, and a tangent for the initial rate.
Like: 9701/51 and 52 Nov 2023, 9701/51 Nov 2025
Thermal decompositionCrucible, lid, pipeclay triangle and tripod: heat, cool, weigh and repeat until the mass stops changing.
Like: 9701/52 Nov 2024, 9701/52 March 2026, 9701/51 June 2026
Organic preparationHeating under reflux, distilling off a product and using a separating funnel, labelled as the examiners want.
Like: 9701/52 June 2023, 9701/52 March 2025, 9701/51 Nov 2024
EnergeticsTemperature before and after mixing, extrapolation, and the thermometric titration end point.
Like: 9701/52 Nov 2023, 9701/52 June 2024
ElectrochemistryTwo half-cells, a salt bridge and a high-resistance voltmeter, then E against lg of the concentration.
Like: 9701/54 June 2025
AnalysisA blank, the right filter, cuvettes and a calibration line to find an unknown concentration.
Like: 9701/51 June 2026, 9701/52 June 2024
We read every 9701 Paper 5 from 2023 to 2026 that we have, and grouped the apparatus questions by the apparatus they need. Each page is an original experiment in the style of its family, and every step carries what the Cambridge examiner reports said students got wrong.
Next: practise the written questions in the Paper 5 trainer. The experiments and wording on these pages are our own.