Is Secondary 5 chemistry compulsory in Quebec?

No, it is an optional Secondary 5 course. But it is a prerequisite for admission to the Sciences de la nature program at CEGEP, and for most technical programs in the health sector. A student who does not take it closes those doors, or will have to take a bridging course at CEGEP to reopen them. That is why the decision has to be made early.

What are the prerequisites for Secondary 5 chemistry?

The student must have passed one of the Secondary 4 science options: Science et technologie de l'environnement (STE) or Science et environnement (SE). Those two courses are the official prerequisites for Secondary 5 chemistry and physics. Without one of them, enrolment is not possible, so the choice is really made at the end of Secondary 3.

Montreal, Quebec curriculum, Secondary 5

Secondary 5 Chemistry Tutor in Montreal

Q: Which chemistry topics cause the most difficulty?

Three blocks come back every year. Gases first, because they demand a rigour with units that Secondary 4 never required, starting with converting systematically to kelvin. Then the energy unit, where the signs of enthalpy and Hess's law throw students. And finally chemical equilibrium, which requires reasoning about a system evolving in both directions at once, something entirely new to the student.

Tutor in Secondary 5 chemistry in Montreal, with more than 10 years of experience. Secondary 5 chemistry is an optional course, but it is also a prerequisite for the Sciences de la nature program at CEGEP: the grade counts directly in the admission file. I cover the four units of the syllabus, from the properties of gases to chemical equilibrium. Sessions in English or in French.

Chemistry, Secondary 5 Prerequisite for Sciences de la nature Gases & thermochemistry Kinetics & equilibrium 100 corrected exercise sets ★ 5.0 · 11 Google reviews

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Another optional course that decides the future

Like physics, Secondary 5 chemistry is labelled an option and is anything but. It is one of the three prerequisites for Sciences de la nature at CEGEP, and it is also required by most health-sector technical programs, including nursing.

And, like physics, the gate is a year earlier: the student must have passed STE or SE in Secondary 4, chosen at the end of Secondary 3. If your child has any interest at all in health, science or engineering, that Secondary 3 choice is the one to get right, and it is made long before anyone is thinking about university.

An optional course, and a decisive prerequisite

Secondary 5 chemistry is not compulsory: the student chooses to take it, or not. That optional status regularly misleads families, because it suggests the course is secondary. It is in fact one of the most consequential of the path, since it is among the prerequisites for the Sciences de la nature program at CEGEP, alongside Secondary 5 physics and SN or TS mathematics.

To enrol, the student must have passed one of the two Secondary 4 science options, STE or SE. That choice is therefore made at the end of Secondary 3, well before the student has any idea of their direction, and it is where access to Secondary 5 chemistry is actually decided.

Unlike Secondary 4 mathematics, chemistry has no Ministry examination: it is assessed entirely by the school. That does not make it lighter, rather the reverse. The grade comes wholly from the year's work, and it is the one CEGEPs will read at admission.

The four units of the Secondary 5 chemistry syllabus

1. The properties of gases

Kinetic theory of gases
Boyle's, Charles's and Gay-Lussac's laws
The combined law and the ideal gas law
Molar volume and Avogadro's law
Dalton's law and partial pressures
Gas stoichiometry

2. The energy of transformations

Endothermic and exothermic reactions
Energy diagrams and the activated complex
Activation energy
Enthalpy and enthalpy change
Specific and molar heat capacity
Calorimetry and Hess's law

3. Reaction rates

Collision theory
Factors that affect the rate
Rate law and order of reaction
The initial rates method
Reaction mechanism and rate determining step
Catalysts and enzymes

4. Chemical equilibrium

Dynamic equilibrium and its conditions
Le Chatelier's principle
Equilibrium constant and the ICE table
Arrhenius and Bronsted-Lowry acid-base theories
pH, pOH and the ionic product of water
Titration, indicators and buffer solutions

Coverage varies slightly from school to school. We adjust to the course plan and textbook your child's teacher is using.

In French

Free corrected exercises for Secondary 5 chemistry

Nine exercise sets covering the four units, in the format of an evaluation: 10 questions marked out of 100, a first part on the fundamentals and a second at exam level, with a full worked solution for every question. Each unit is treated in two passes, a course set then a set of exam-level problems: gas laws then gas stoichiometry, energy then calorimetry and yield, reaction rates then experimental tracking and half-life, equilibrium then titration and buffers. A complete mock exam covers all four units. Eight revision sheets name what loses marks before the first calculation: a temperature left in Celsius inside a gas law, water vapour pressure forgotten on a gas collected over water, an enthalpy written positive for a reaction that heats. Free, no sign-up, written in French.

Corrected exercise sets → Revision sheets → English exercises →

The three walls of Secondary 5 chemistry

After ten years of tutoring, the same blockages come back with nearly every student. Spotting them early saves a whole term.

Units, in the gas unit

This is the first shock of the year. Up to Secondary 4, a unit error was visible; here it passes unnoticed and corrupts everything. Temperature must be converted to kelvin every time, volumes to litres, pressures into the unit of the constant being used. A student who applies the ideal gas law in degrees Celsius gets a plausible and entirely wrong answer, and does not notice.

Signs, in the energy unit

A negative enthalpy means the system gives out energy. Reversing an equation flips the sign, multiplying it by a factor multiplies the value: those are the two rules of Hess's law, and those are exactly the two applied backwards. We work this unit by writing the operation performed next to every equation, which makes a sign error visible before it propagates.

Reasoning, in equilibrium

This is the genuine novelty of the year. Until now, a reaction went one way and stopped. Here it runs in both directions at once, and what is observed is a steady state, not a halt. Le Chatelier's principle asks the student to predict how the system responds to a disturbance, a qualitative kind of reasoning they have never been asked for in science. The ICE table is the tool that puts calculation back into it.

From Secondary 5 chemistry to CEGEP General Chemistry

Secondary 5 chemistry opens the door to Sciences de la nature, where the student meets General Chemistry (202-SF1-RE, formerly 202-NYA) in the first term, then Chemistry of Solutions (202-NYB). The continuity is real but the pace is not comparable: what secondary school spreads over a year, CEGEP handles in fifteen weeks, at a higher level of abstraction.

Certain ideas are assumed known on arrival: the mole and stoichiometry, the gas laws, reading an energy diagram, the idea of equilibrium and Le Chatelier's principle. A student who genuinely understood those four things in Secondary 5 starts the autumn term with no debt; one who only memorised them pays for it at the first examination.

I teach both levels, which lets me prepare a Secondary 5 student knowing exactly what awaits them, and insist on what will actually be needed the following year.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Secondary 5 chemistry compulsory?

No, it is optional. But it is a prerequisite for admission to Sciences de la nature at CEGEP and for most health-sector technical programs. A student who skips it closes those doors, or takes a bridging course at CEGEP to reopen them.

What are the prerequisites?

Passing one of the Secondary 4 science options, STE or SE. Without one of them, enrolment is not possible, so the choice is really made at the end of Secondary 3.

Is there a Ministry examination in chemistry?

No. The Ministry produces no province-wide paper in chemistry or physics. The course is assessed entirely by the school, usually through term examinations and a common year-end paper. The grade is the one CEGEPs read at admission.

Which topics cause the most difficulty?

Gases, because of the rigour with units, starting with converting to kelvin. The energy unit, where the signs of enthalpy and Hess's law throw students. And chemical equilibrium, which requires reasoning about a system running in both directions at once.