<p>Personally, I think the only way to get good at them is practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>how do you practice tho ? ^ </p>
<p>In class, I guess. Unfortunately, the lab is a bit weird in that it is structured to be more like research than a lab you do in class (labs in classes are essentially following directions, but the USNCO practical requires you to design a procedure and explain why it will work). Hopefully you will have done one of the labs before and will simply remember the procedure. That was the hardest part for my last year, I had done a similar-ish calorimetry lab in class but couldn’t come up with the method under pressure.</p>
<p>Can anyone comment on how the local exam was this year? </p>
<p>I come from a very competitive region which had a cutoff of 56 last year (many kids in our area have gone to icho too).</p>
<p>Hi guys; I want to do the 2015 USNCO, and I am planning on completing Zumdahl over the summer and re-reading/practicing from August to February (competition date). Do you guys think this would be enough to get me to top 250 or so in nationals? Any tips/suggestions? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>@TRG , read through the rest of the thread first… You’ll realize what you have to do to make top 150 by the end of reading these 8 pages lol </p>
<p>@Phoenix55555 (that’s a lot of 5’s): but that’s sooooooooooo many pages 
I wish I could read :P</p>
<p>Lol, on a more serious note, I’ll read through when I get some time </p>
<p>@TeamRocketGrunt Basically, use any general chem txtbook to get to nationals, and then once you make it to nationals, start studying organic chem to make top 150 or higher.</p>
<p>Is Zumdahl a good gen chem book? @phoenix55555</p>
<p>Well, I ended up using Chemistry : The Central Science by Brown, sooo… dont really know how good Zumdahl is but based on what people on here said, its not bad I would think. I dont think it really matters what book you use for general chem tho </p>
<p>I see. How hard is gen chem at Olympiad level? @phoenix55555</p>
<p>Is it manageable? I haven’t had a chemistry class yet (I doubt chem classes would help, though, with the quality of the teachers around here). </p>
<p>Well , the local exam isn’t too bad . Ive never taken USNCO before, but looking at past exams, they dont look too bad. If you’ve taken AP chem, you shouldn’t have a problem. But now that you said you havent had a chemistry class yet, Idk what to tell you lol… Studying all that chem by yourself without any background whatsoever is gonna take some serious effort and even more if you realize early on that you dont really like chemistry or arent good at it, at which point you should prolly focus on other things. </p>
<p>@phoenix55555: hm…I do enjoy chemistry, from what I’ve self studied, and I want to be a doctor, so chem will be fairly important for me. I’d like to finish one chapter of Zumdahl a week over the break. </p>
<p>If youre determined on doing USNCO, u shud prolly start studying like now </p>
<p>@ TeamRocketGrunt</p>
<p>Zumdahl is the best chemistry book in the world. I carry it to school and back home everyday. When I sleep, I use my Zumdahl book as a pillow. That, my friend, is how awesome Zumdahl is. </p>
<p>I plan on grinding through the whole Orgo book (I already studied several chapters) this spring break ; from 8 in the morning to 8 at night. Sleep for 1 hour. Write p.essay from 9 to 11. Sleep from 12 to 8. Start over. </p>
<p>^(assuming that I will not be addicted to rs this spring break 
)</p>
<p>@TheAnomalist: I do that with my Campbell Biology book
Which edition of Zumdahl are you using? I have the 6th ed. Is that good enough for USNCO?</p>
<p>What’s rs? </p>
<p>Any suggestions as how to avoid the conflict between science bowl and NCHO (Apr 26th in my local section in California?</p>
<p>@TheAnomalist LOL, thats such a tight schedule, are you gonna be able to keep up with that ? </p>
<p>Just finished local today! What do you guys think? Easy? Hard? haha</p>
<p>@TeamRocketGrunt just wondering, are u a junior or sophomore or freshmen? </p>