<p>I’m sorry for the late notice, but I’m taking the USNCO exam tomorrow…
I took Honors Chem (online) last year but have not take AP Chem yet.
I have a Zumdahl book, and I have the link to the practice tests…
Can anybody please give me a strategy to do my best?
(yes, I plan to pull an all-nighter, because I don’t remember any chem at all and I have some hw today…)</p>
<p>Thanks ^.^</p>
<p>just took the test, when will results come out? anyone wants to compare?</p>
<p>@MathGuy777 </p>
<p>I strongly recommend reading through all of your textbook and doing all of the exercises. Also, make sure you have a solutions manual to compare your own solutions to the official ones to see if you can develop any new insight by learning other people’s methods. Only then, should you proceed to the Chemistry Olympiad Local Exams as they are very difficult - on my first one I got a 32/60 and had already taken Chemistry AP and gotten a 4 on the exam. My chemistry teacher says that I’m his best student in his 15 years of teaching, but even I didn’t understand some of the ChemO problems. By the way, after finishing your mastery of Zumdahl, I recommend purchasing Atkin’s Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight, Physical Chemistry, and Inorganic Chemistry. With just the Zumdahl and the Chemical Principles, qualification to the national round is almost guaranteed unless you go to a really competitive school like mine. Any less will put your chances in jeopardy as nearly all other textbooks are incompetent compared to the Zumdahl and the Atkins. If you think you’ve learned chemistry from books like Pauling’s General Chemistry, think again because that book is literally the most cost-inefficient book ever written. It costs nearly $90 and it lacks essential information for the exam, so definitely go with Zumdahl then Atkins. It will be difficult to do all of this in one day, but I know you can do it - one of my friends used this studying method and got into the study camp with only one week of studying!</p>
<p>are there awards for the local section? im guessing i got close to perfect</p>
<p>Already took the exam, if anyone wants to PM me your results I can grade them for you. Thought it was pretty much the same difficulty as those of the past years. I ended up with a 56, four points lower than I was hoping :P. Oh well, on to prep for the national exam (the one that really counts).</p>
<p>Listen guys. Dont hold up any more discussions there is a lot of cheaters. Just wait til April 1st please…</p>
<p>Just for example, the user Magistreal who posted on March 5th is a cheater and who knows how much he could have gotten? In any case don’t trust him by any means and I just recommend not discussing.</p>
<p>So my teacher told me that he chose me and 3 others to take the exam, in the next week. I didn’t even know that this existed lol. We’re only up to chapter 17 out of 25 on our Zumdahl book and I really have no idea what im doing. Any tips?</p>
<p>Got into nationals I am very happy and very surprised I don’t know what I got on the test though. Anyone who made into into honors last year have any suggestions? I just took a practice test and got a 56.6% and desperately want to bring that up. Best of luck to all</p>
<p>so I’m one of those guys prepping for the national exam- does anyone know when the olympiad people will release the local exam, and if they will release it before the national one? I really want to check out which ones I got wrong to prep.</p>
<p>I just finished my local exam this past friday. PM me and we can discuss</p>
<p>Stovn0611:</p>
<p>I am just starting my preparation for next year. I come from a very competitive school district and I need to prep a lot. Apart from Zumdahl and Atkin’s Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight, do I also need to read the other two Akins books for the national exam? Atkins Physical chemistry and Atkins Inorganic Chemistry… Isn’t it an overkill?</p>
<p>guys is passing to the national exam mean im a semifinalist now? Also, does this stand out on a college app? Or do i have 2 make top 150 for it to become a real advantage?</p>
<p>@justin- Yes you are now officially a “USNCO National Finalist” (lol the name is misleading). The top 150 is significantly better than just qualifying, but qualifying is a minor boost by itself. Probably not a “real advantage”.</p>
<p>When is the deadline of taking the Regional Exam? Is it the last day of March?</p>
<p>Do you think studying with Barron’s AP Chem prep book for the whole week will brign some chance to go beyond the Regional?</p>
<p>Does anyone know what the cutoff score will be for New Jersey local exam? Do they post this information somewhere for each year?</p>
<p>@opinion</p>
<p>New Jersey usually has a ton of Chemistry prodigies so I would assume it’s about 45 or probably higher</p>
<p>That’s still on the low side, maybe more like -10. Last year the lowest score that made it in my section was a 58/70 which translates to ~50/60 (my section adds an additional 10 problems).</p>
<p>Also there is the 2 max per school rule so if 2 people in your school scores like a 60 (lol) you won’t get nominated to take the nationals even if you score a 59.</p>
<p>I took the exam today with about an hour of prep under my belt. While it was hard (as expected), I found it easier than I thought it would be. Hope I make the national exam!</p>
<p>P.S. Does anyone know what the qualifying score is like in VA?</p>
<p>the qualifying score will be at least 48-50/60 minimally, my state is 48 and we’re pretty bad</p>
<p>Hmm that seems high. Can anyone confirm?</p>