Tips & Tricks #1 - Read the question carefully and underline the keywords

Hello Students. Welcome to Mystery In Chemistry’s Tips & Tricks series. Understanding chemistry and scoring high in exams are two different things and hence require different skill sets. Let us learn the first tip to help you score 100/100 in chemistry.

So here is the first tip. Read the question carefully and underline the keywords.

Now, let us take an example. Suppose the question is “Out of NaCl and AgCl, which one shows frenkel defect and why?” - the first thing to do is “Read the question carefully”. Next, underline the keywords - NaCl, AgCl, Frenkel Defect and Why. With the Frenkel defect, you may immediately recall - Oh! It is displacement of cation from its original site to interstitial site. Come back to Question - notice the comparison - Out of NaCl and AgCl. Here, AgCl is the Correct Answer. Now focus on the second part of the question - Why?  The answer is, because Ag+ ion is smaller in size. If the cation is smaller than only it can slide to interstitial site in the crystal. And that defect is the Frenkel defect. So what you have just learnt by example is how identifying the keywords help you recall the nitty gritty involved in a topic and quickly solve a problem. Thank you.