Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Chemistry Olympiad and other competitions => Topic started by: Sophia7X on January 30, 2012, 05:17:13 PM
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Besides doing old tests?
Recommend any textbooks/workbooks? All tips appreciated.
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Have you seen the syllabus they have on their website? But yes definitely past tests, there are lots avaliable from different countries for a bit of variety. I also recommend studying lab procedures. There was an early thread on this, scroll down a bit to find the post by XGen.
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Check if you can solve this: http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=55625.0
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your best bet is probably asking your chem teacher for general tests and doing previous tests
if you search for it you can probably find the thread I started a couple weeks ago.
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I`m from brazil, and i`m studying for the final selection test for the brazilian IChO team.
You will need to study a lot of things that you dont see in highschool.
If you wanna study hard for chemical olympiads, you can start with some general chemistry book, and then an organic chemistry one.
I`ve read Atkins and then Solomons, worked well for me. (Atkins have some calculus, but you can mostly ignore it)
When reading these books, you wont probably have time to do all exercises. But you should try to make at least half of them.
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i`m studying for the final selection test for the brazilian IChO team.
Please keep us updated on your progress :)
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1. solve a few old tests
2. study the old tests to figure out the scope of knowledge needed
3. pick up textbooks that cover the scope identified. many different textbooks will work. I agree that organic chem is a must.
4. work hard to expand your knowledge
5. work hard to solve problems
6. periodically return to 2. and adjust your textbook selection.
Start preparing early. Work hard!
worked for me 8)
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I'm preparing the local section test (in a couple weeks)... Our local section test is 70 questions (60 questions + 10 extra "difficult" ones) + free response instead of the normal 60.
I've done 12 old local exams and 1 national exam. I've been scoring 53-58 out of 60. What do you think is a score that will guarantee nomination for the national exam?
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The score really depends on your school. I have about the same scores as you, at least on the older local exams. However, I know my school is extremely competitive. The national cutoff might be somewhere around 53, 54, but I know that in my school there will be multiple people scoring higher. Since there is the rule that only two people per school may go to nationals, you must aim to beat your peers in addition to gaining nomination.
Good luck! I guess we can see how our results are in a few weeks. Out of curiosity, what year are you in?
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11th grade.
I asked my teacher about a score that will guarantee nomination-- he said 65/70. Last year's top score was 68/70. He said the last ten extra questions are supposedly difficult and may involve topics that I have never learned before. That was quite encouraging... But on the bright side, one of the chem teachers has a limo in which he will be transporting all of us to the testing center :DD (haha, I'm so excited for that... I've never been in a limo before. Imagine the reaction of the kids from other schools, lol).
Did yours have a free response (local section)? We will have one. I'm not sure if it contributes to the overall score, or if it's used for a tiebreaker. Nervous as heck XD. It would suck to do all this preparation only to not get nominated. I think I've done over 700 chemistry problems now.
and good luck to you, too!
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We don't happen to have a free response portion.. I can't say that our section is too competitive, but last year at the other school in our district we did have a person go to the study camp. Luckily, that person was a senior and in the other school.
To be honest, on the local tests that I've done, the only questions I don't know are the ones involving properties of random compounds. Tests that have a good amount of those questions throw me off, and I get like 53, 52. Without those, I can get a 58-60 easily.
If I don't make it this year, I'll still have 3 years ahead of me, but I honestly don't know what I'd study. Of course, I'd wait in my school curriculum to skip chem and then take AP chem, but would that really teach me anything? :(
Tell me how it goes! I assume we'll be taking it at around the same time haha
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We don't happen to have a free response portion.. I can't say that our section is too competitive, but last year at the other school in our district we did have a person go to the study camp. Luckily, that person was a senior and in the other school.
To be honest, on the local tests that I've done, the only questions I don't know are the ones involving properties of random compounds. Tests that have a good amount of those questions throw me off, and I get like 53, 52. Without those, I can get a 58-60 easily.
If I don't make it this year, I'll still have 3 years ahead of me, but I honestly don't know what I'd study. Of course, I'd wait in my school curriculum to skip chem and then take AP chem, but would that really teach me anything? :(
Tell me how it goes! I assume we'll be taking it at around the same time haha
take an AP Chem practice test. do you get 95% correct? if you don't then you will learn something from the course.
if you score 56 now you could go far within 3 years.
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Yeah I have taken all the AP Chem tests and have gotten 90-95% on them (when I mess up it is usually a computational sort of mistake). I feel like the labs in AP Chem might help though, quite a bit.
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I lived in a small town without access to a lab. I ended up studying in detail a lab manual for an organic chem lab. That helped a lot.
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Taking it on Thursday!
I'm wondering of anyone already took it? Is it better or worse than previous years?
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So, how do you feel you did?
I hope you did well! :D
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I felt relatively good!
We were supposed to take the test, go out for dinner, and come back in an hour for the award ceremony to get our results... but their scantron machine broke and we don't get back results until next week.
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Wow, that is extremely unfortunate... I wish you the best! Hopefully you made it :P
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Woo-hoo, I got nominated! I scored 65/70.
I get $150 in prize money... Probably gonna use that money to purchase a used college-level general chem textbook and organic textbook to prepare for the national exam.
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Sophia7X, Congrats! Good luck at the National exam!
Does this mean that the problems are released already?
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Woo-hoo, I got nominated!
Congratulations!
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Thanks, guys.
@Ch_ : No, they don't release exams until a couple weeks after the testing window (which ends on early Aprl).
I'm planning on buying either Loudon's organic chemistry or Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein. I read reviews on Loudon: people said it was understandable and easy to read yet somewhat lacking in content, while Klein received higher ratings. However, I'm not sure about how easy Klein is to read and I'm the type of person who cannot stand boring textbooks.
Anyone ever have experience with Klein books? Which should I get?
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On the nationals tests, they don't really put any difficult organic chem. Would it be wise to get an orgo textbook for nationals? I have bought the (general) book "Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight" by Atkins and Jones as I have heard that some (or many?) campers studied from it.
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On the nationals tests, they don't really put any difficult organic chem. Would it be wise to get an orgo textbook for nationals? I have bought the (general) book "Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight" by Atkins and Jones as I have heard that some (or many?) campers studied from it.
The organic knowledge would be extremely useful if you happen to get into study camp.
I looked at a few organic questions on the national: they had stuff like Sn1 mechanisms and stereochemistry, which is definitely above high school level organic chemistry. I'm currently taking organic chem right now and my textbook for that class barely mentions mechanisms. I think reading a few chapters (specifically reactions, stereochemistry, etc) would go a long way.
I might buy the Atkins book but its too expensive, even used. How would Linus Pauling's book work? I'm worried that it's a little too old and possibly difficult to read.
Or could I survive with my AP Chem textbook (Zumdahl)?
Did a few national tests and scored from a crappy 45/60 to 54/60. I've got a lot of work to do :P
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I didn't find the organic chemistry too hard, but perhaps that is because my father is an organic chemist. The book I am reading for organic chemistry is Organic Chemistry by Morrison and Boyd. However, I quickly found that the text is too advanced for what I can see on the nationals test. After the first 4-6 chapters, there seems to be nothing else. Is there any way we can find material covered in the camp online?
The Atkins book I bought for 15 dollars (hardcover, textbook style and all). Linus Pauling's book I also have, and it is in a very different format, at least for me considering I have looked through only introductory high school texts. It takes a (very?) mathematical approach into subjects such as thermodynamics and properties of gases, and it devotes many of its chapters to specific elements and their properties in compounds. My impression of the book is that it is indeed hard to read, and the mathematical aspects, while interesting, seem not useful at least for our interests.
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The organic part seems to include basic biochemistry and high school to first semester college organic material. If you're pretty good with the fundamentals like nomenclature and basic reactions, going through the organic chem study guides on http://www.sparknotes.com/chemistry/ could be helpful (unless you're familiar with stereochem, Sn1 E1 Sn2 E2 reactions (I've only encountered Sn1 so far).
I could only find an Atkins book for $150 cheapest :(
I just got Pauling. Forcing myself to read the important chapters, sometimes it's just too wordy and difficult to read.
I found out the mean national exam scores last year... 55.2 on multiple choice and 88.4% on the free response. Wish I had more time to prepare. I didn't even know chemistry olympiad existed before late February, when my teacher registered me. XD
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^^^
No way is that the mean overall. Is that the mean among people who qualified for the camp?
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Yes, I forgot to specify. The overall mean for multiple choice was like a 32.