Took it today, thought it was about the same as the past two years’. Does anyone know what a general cutoff would be? I know that it’s different based on your region. Also, does anyone know the cutoff for Philadelphia and Southeastern PA regions from previous years? Thanks
@ineedmoresleep I meant in comparison to the 2015 and 2016 exams. But that’s good that you thought it was the same difficulty, so the cut off shouldn’t differ that much fingers crossed.
@APS2000 I know the Virginia Section, which excludes northern Virginia, has a cut off around 35-40 each year.
Yeah hopefully the cutoff will be similar. Is it just me or were the majority of the problems easier than the problems from the past 2 years? I felt like the easy problems were really easy but the hard problems were harder than usual.
Are you guys talking about the local test?
My school’s science club had a few extra bucks laying around, so I convinced my teacher to order this year’s exam for us after hearing about it on this site. I got a 5 on the AP chem exam & an 800 on the Chem subject test a few months ago, but I was a bit rusty for the exam. I didn’t know any orgo other than basic nomenclature, so the final 10 questions kinda screwed me over 
oh well, I don’t know what the cutoff is but I think I might stand a chance
When do we find out if we qualified? And also, when can we discuss the test?
@lhw1998 Usually a week after your region’s test is when you receive scores. We can discuss the test after March 31 (regions have from March 1 - March 31 to take locals I believe)
Actually, my advisor said that we would be given our tests back on April 10th so I think at that point we should be safe to discuss. They’ll probably post it online at that point too.
Does anyone think the concepts were harder than usual? Especially orgo 
For my region, the cutoff depends heavily on which school you go to (because of 2 per school). Not going to say anything about this year, but in past years students from a few schools failed to qualify on scores of high 50’s, 57 and 58 in particular. If you attend some schools, you can qualify with high 30’s.
Also, anyone have tips on preparing for the national exam?
At this time, a month away from the exam, what’s the best way to consolidate textbook knowledge and prepare?
Thanks
ppl keep saying to read stuff. That is so useless at this point. Just do all the problems from 1987 onward to prep for nationals
How much harder is USNCO?
compared to locals u mean or in comparison to other olympiads?
its not much harder than locals and i think its def easier than bio oly semis but just my opinion
Hello. I took it today. I felt that the hard questions got harder and the okay questions were “okay”. I’m really sad that I won’t be able to qualify… I would try again senior year but it would be too late after college admissions… I really wanted to win something in an olympiad…
Just took the test. It was definitely interesting.
Does anyone know how to determine the cutoff of a regional/local exam. My region does not appear competitive since I found out about it via google exploration and I’m the only one to take it at my school. 95 people in my region took it and only 10 people can go so is there anyway to estimate the cutoff, because I think I got maybe a 50% yikes!
@ineedmoresleep
Definitely agree with your statement of the question difficulty!
@PTMtime hahaha the test was definitely not interesting for me >~<;;