U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Competition

ACS local sections conduct local competitions to select nominees for the national exam. Each local section can send 10 students to participate in the national competition. Local sections with more than 1,000 members may send one additional student for every 350 members. To promote widespread participation within local sections, no more than two students per school are allowed to sit for the exam.

The 20 top-scoring students are eligible to compete at a study camp for the International Chemistry Olympiad, to be held July 19-28, 2010, in Tokyo, Japan.

Eligibility

You must be a U.S. citizen to compete in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad. Green card holders are not eligible to take the exam. Students who received credit for one year of college-level chemistry are also eligible to compete. Students who participated in a past Olympiad study camp are automatically eligible to take the national exam and do not have to take a local exam.

If you won a gold medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad, you are not eligible to participate again in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad.

See a complete list of rules for the national competition

National Examination

Exams for the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Competition will be administered April 22-26, 2010. Nearly 1,000 students are expected to participate.

The three-part, 4.5-hour exam consists of the following (may be administered in any order):

Part I	Part II	Part III
Multiple Choice 90-minutes 60 multiple choice questions Covers broad chemistry topics	Free Response 105 minutes 8 written questions Multi-step problems requiring in depth knowledge of chemical theories and models	Lab Practical 75 minutes 2 laboratory practicals Involves problem solving in the laboratory

Scoring and Results

Scoring

ACS calculates the average number of correctly answered questions by topic area. Scores are ranked as follows:

below average
average
above average
outstanding performance

Results

Students will only receive the performance ranking on Part I (multiple choice) of the exam. ACS does not distribute individual scores.

Preparing for the National Examination

If you are a student or teacher:

Review past exams to prepare for the competition.

If you are a coordinator:

The Olympiad Coordinators page contains detailed information, including the competition schedule and handbook
The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Local Examination is available (for a fee) through the USNCO office. To request an order form, call (800) 227-5558 ext. 6328 or email us.
Be sure to provide additional questions to use as tie-breakers in the event that several students have the same score