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The cover of The Language of Chemistry, Playbook® on a wood table, with the red element sheet and green radical sheet laid out beside it.

Classes 7 to 10 · ICSE / CBSE / SSLC

The Language of Chemistry, Playbook®

Thirty elements and twenty-five radicals as punch-out tokens, then chemical formulas, then balanced equations — with a score to reach before the next chapter.

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First published in 1996 as Metro Kits, Kit–I.

Chemistry has a written language, and nobody teaches it as one. That is the whole of it. A student who cannot write a symbol cannot write a formula, and a student who cannot write a formula cannot balance an equation — and every board sets all three long before its own textbook explains how any of them work.

So the book teaches the language in the order a language is learned. Alphabets first: the full name, symbol, formula and valency of thirty elements and twenty-five radicals, printed as punch-out tokens on two sheets inside the book. Then words, which are chemical formulas. Then sentences, which are balanced equations.

What makes it a method rather than a question bank is that it will not let a student past. Each chapter runs Chart, then Activity, then Exercise, then a score against a chart — and below the threshold the whole set of exercises is repeated before the next chapter opens. The three thresholds are printed further down this page, and they are not soft.

Every exercise has its answers enclosed, and there is an evaluation chart at the back. A parent who never studied chemistry can still mark it.

What is in the box

A Playbook is not a book. It contains a game.

A hand holds up the red element sheet, roughly half its circular tokens already punched out, over a coffee table scattered with the loose tokens that fell free.

2 punch-out token sheets

Thirty elements, twenty-five radicals and the valencies that join them, printed and die-cut so a student pushes them out and puts them on a table. The word on each token is the code, and the colour repeats it — an element, a radical, a valency. A radical carries an inner ring as well, so the three types stay apart on a photocopy and for a reader who cannot separate the red from the green.

  • Na
  • 1
  • Cl

The three types are told apart by what they carry and how they are drawn, not by colour — a radical carries a ring, a valency is smaller and set in figures.

  • The Language of Chemistry cover, laid flat on a wood table.

    112 pages

    The method, the charts, the activities and the exercises — in the order a student works through them.

  • A student’s hand mid-exercise, pencil in hand, ticking symbols on the Activity I page.

    19 exercises, 279 questions

    Across 6 activities and 2 charts. Enough repetition for the notation to become automatic, which is the entire point of drilling a language.

  • Two worked chemical-formula examples, each with its answer printed at the foot of the page — mercuric sulphide, then cupric sulphate.

    All answers enclosed

    The book marks itself. A parent who never studied chemistry can still check the work, and nothing is held back for a separate guide.

  • The scoring bands printed on the book’s back cover — 184 of 184 down to the 172-mark repeat gate — the same numbers the internal Evaluation Chart uses.

    Evaluation chart

    Scores are read against a chart, because the chapter gate is a number and not an opinion.

Look inside

Four pages. Then you will know.

Nobody buys a method they have not seen. Two of the four pages that decide it: what arrives in the post, and the elements with their valencies.

  • The book’s cover with the red element sheet and green radical sheet laid out beside it, and loose tokens scattered across the table.

    The book, and the two sheets

    The book and its two punch-out sheets, laid out together — what a parent unboxes before a single formula appears.

  • Activity II open in the book: all thirty elements grouped by valency, each one carrying its full name and a number from one to four.

    The elements, by valency

    All thirty elements, each set as its full name and arranged by valency — the same information Chart I carries, read a different way. It is Activity II, on page 14.

See all four spreads

Specification

Everything a school needs to check before raising a purchase order.
ISBN 978-81-959241-0-3
Pages 112
Charts 2 — 30 elements, 25 radicals
Activities 6
Exercises 19
Questions 279
Enclosed 2 punch-out token sheets · All answers to all 19 exercises · Evaluation chart
Class level Classes 7 to 10
Boards ICSE · CBSE · SSLC
Edition Playway Books Pvt Ltd edition
Dimensions To be confirmed
Weight 100 g
Published price ₹399

The published price is Playway Books’ own. Retailers set their own prices and change them, so each buy button opens that retailer’s page rather than quoting a figure here. A row reading “to be confirmed” is a fact Playway Books has not yet verified — it is shown as unverified rather than estimated. Ask us and we will confirm it.

The gate

The book sends a student back. On purpose.

Each chapter runs the same way — a chart, then an activity, then the exercises, then a score read against a chart at the back. Below the threshold the whole set of exercises is repeated before the next chapter opens. Chapter I closes at 93.5%, which is a standard, not a pass mark.

  • Chapter I · Alphabets

    172 / 184

    93.5% to proceed

  • Chapter II · Words

    37 / 40

    92.5% to proceed

  • Chapter III · Sentences

    51 / 55

    92.7% to proceed

The three chapters, their exercises and questions, and the score needed to proceed. Grades are as printed on the evaluation chart.
ChapterExercisesQuestionsTo proceedBelow that
Chapter I — Alphabets12184172 of 184 · 93.5%Repeat the exercises
Chapter II — Words34037 of 40 · 92.5%Repeat the exercises
Chapter III — Sentences45551 of 55 · 92.7%Repeat the exercises

Chapter I — Alphabets

184 / 184
A+ · Outstanding
183–180
A · Excellent
179–176
B+ · Very Good
175–172
B · Good

Chapter II — Words

40 / 40
A+ · Outstanding
39 / 40
A · Excellent
38 / 40
B+ · Very Good
37 / 40
B · Good

Chapter III — Sentences

55 / 55
A+ · Outstanding
54 / 55
A · Excellent
53 / 55
B+ · Very Good
52–51
B · Good

All 19 exercises have their answers enclosed, and an evaluation chart at the back turns a score into a grade. The book marks itself — a parent who never studied chemistry can still use it, which is the part nobody currently knows.

Token Play

Join a token to a token. Watch the formula appear.

One round, the way a student plays it on a table with the punch-out sheet from The Language of Chemistry.

Choose a token, then choose the slot it belongs in. One element, one radical, and the valency that joins them — only one of the three numbered tokens is right. The valency is how many the element combines as; it is not part of the finished formula. On a keyboard: tab to a token, press Enter to pick it up, then tab or arrow to a slot and press Enter to drop it. Escape puts it back.

On the bench

The join

Choose a token to begin.

Weighing it against a guide book.

Playbook, textbook or guide book puts the three side by side row by row, including the two rows this one loses. The method itself is published free — the valencies, the formulas, the equations and practice sets — so it can be judged before it is bought.

Where to buy

Buy it where you already shop.

Available at Amazon.in · Flipkart · JioMart

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