Well bois, when the results come out, I’ll congratulate anybody who did well and wallow in grief with the rest of you. XD
Does anyone take online classes for chemistry olympiad? I know how to solve the questions, but time and certain random questions have always been my weakness… I feel like just studying from the book doesn’t cut enough to make the top 150… Also, the questions’ difficulty for the last few years exams were more than zumdahl and atkins level IMO.
@jah5487 it all comes down to experience. At this point, past FRQs and most past MCs don’t help. Neither do Atkins or Zumdahl. At this point I use college level textbooks that sometimes use calculus to prove their theorems. Organic chemistry absolutely needs a college textbook.
This year’s FRQ is more similar to ICHO level problems. I was about to do some this year but got lazy; I should’ve worked on those. It would’ve helped a lot.
What textbook do you use for Multiple Choice? That is my main concern for next year… Don’t think I made it this year lol. Yeah I see what you mean by experience. This was my first year doing USNCO and I definitely freaked out lol… Any suggestions or tips for next year? (Anyone do scioly btw? I did USNCO since I do mainly chemistry related scioly events)
@jah5487 Oh me too! I do chem lab and thermos in scioly. I got top in our state, but my school sucks so no Nationals for me. This is also my first year doing USNCO, and I thought I was gonna be prepared doing Atkins and previous tests. Haha, was I in for a surprise!
@ichen21 Which textbooks do you use? I find first year college textbooks as pretty useless.
I don’t think that there is really any textbook that gives 100% coverage of the National Exam. The best thing is probably to use practice tests, but recent or harder ones. I definitely agree with ichen21, using ICHO problems is a good idea. If I can figure how to fit USNCO in for next year, I am going to read some organic and reread inorganic and physical chemistry, probably so I can start working on ICHO problems. Still, if you’re being efficient, I doubt that reading these higher level textbooks is a good use of time. Here’s my list:
-Atkins Physical Chemistry
-Carey Organic
-Housecroft Inorganic
-Skoog Analytical
Everything else seems to be tangential,(e.g Biochemistry, Physical Organic etc.) Campbell’s Biology Biochemistry is going to be a worthwhile read, and the rest of the information(reactions, solubility and color of compounds) has to be scavenged in some form from the web.
Yeah I use 3 of the four Alluvial uses. I use Wulfsberg’s Inorganic instead, and Voet’s Biochem.
Thanks! btw did y’all watch the national science bowl livestream today? Geoffrey Chen (captain of the winning team) was amazing. I’m happy to say I was able to get like 2 chemistry questions 
Congrats on those who made the national exam!
I however missed the cutoff by two points and on the silliest errors; #4 and the nerst equation calculation on the local exam.
Ughhh
I was going through the Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight (Atkins) Textbook. To me with this textbook and the David Klein’s Organic Chemistry, top150 seems to be reasonable. Any opionons??? (Also is Atkins better than Zumdahl overall for Chemistry Olympiad?)
Zumdahl barely covers all the content, but the pedagogical features and nice explanations are much more refreshing than Atkins. If you’re aiming at top 150, I would say that it is good enough, especially as practice is the most important. If you’re serious about going far, Atkins seems the best one, just based off of the opinions of many others. The problem with Atkins is that it is a little bit hard to read, and some of the topics I felt were not elucidated well enough(especially the basic quantum mechanics chapter). I probably should take a look at Oxtoby and Silberburg, as they may be serviceable. Brown really rounds the list out for introductory books, it has amazing pictures and pretty good explanations, but it feels like the content is a notch below Zumdahl.
@Bobnana Hey! Which state are you from?
@jah5487 I’m from MN. hbu?
Anyone have predictions on the cutoff?
41-43 for Honors. Go to the Aops chemistry forum, someone already got access to the exam and is posting a google form for score estimations.
Where is this, I can’t find it
The FRQ answer key is definitely partially wrong on the electrochem portion; their half reactions aren’t balanced.
Someone on AoPS got accepted to camp, his stats where
54/60 MC
~85/100 FR
~20/25 lab
@ichen21 - thank you for the update! Any news on when other scores/cutoffs will be public?