<p>My test didn't have any of the questions that you listed. Most were actually recycled from old tests from my section... I still ran out of time, though, and I forgot two formulas. How long did you have to answer your questions?</p>
<p>About 2 hours.</p>
<p>WOW we had time to check our answers two times over...you guys have barely enough time to finish your test LOL</p>
<p>How big do you think making study camp is in terms of college apps? Someone else who made nationals asked me this so I am passing this on to you guys to answer for him. Personally, I enjoy chemistry too much to care either way (although I would love to represent team USA as a culmination of my dedication to the field) but since it's not nearly as competetive as math or physics in the lower levels...I was just wondering.</p>
<p>2 hours for 60 questions? Lucky. You had twice the time per question we did (100 minutes for 100 questions).</p>
<p>I looked at your sample tests, and the types of questions seemed to be different as well. Your test seemed to have more advanced concepts... while the one that I took had more "advanced" math (meaning it involved topics that my teacher said we didn't need to address at this time). We many calculations involving Gibbs free energy, entropy, and electrochemical cells. This was annoying, because my class had only covered these topics conceptually, so I had to make up formulas =P</p>
<p>LOL man that sucks, yeah that's not good. The olympiads should stress principles, not brute calculations. Even the math olympiad is about finding the elegant solution, not about crunching numbers....at the higher levels it's all proofs to demonstrate your understanding of math.</p>
<p>Yeah it's a mirror of the national exam...so your section is not preparing your winners for the national exam all too well...lol even though formulas (only 3 of them and related to activation energy and rate laws and reaction mechanisms) are given, they are hardly needed. The most math you need to do on USNCO at any level is just multiplying scientific notation of pKa or pH. The formulas are necessary (how do you know about a reaction's spontanaeity in electrolysis given certain data without dG = -nFE?) but only to show your conceptual understanding.</p>
<p>Don't worry I am willing to bet that a 60/100 will get you in...since time is not a factor for our test, the scores have to be very high, as in above a 45 out pf 60.</p>
<p>Still I thought my test was too easy for the top guy to have 56 and the second place finishers to have 54's.</p>
<p>I qualified!!! I'm actually very surprised. To be honest, though, I didn't score in the top five... but the top five were all from the same school, so three got bumped away. That's good enough for me, though =)</p>