Advice preparing for the American Chemical Society (ACS) final exam

This multiple-choice exam is different (better ?) than your regular hour exams because…

·        no partial credit is given, you don’t have to show any work

·        the correct answer will be one of the choices for each question

·        wrong answers resulting from common pitfalls will be among the incorrect answers

·        no tricky questions will be asked (I didn’t write the exam)

·        some simple equations will be not given (i.e. PV= nRT, q = mcDT, or E = hc/l)

·        solubilities rules will not be given, although the most common examples are generally used on the exam

This multiple-choice exam is similar to your regular hour exams because…

·        common constants will be given (R, c, h, N_A etc.)

·        the exam tests the same material, the same concepts as all other exams

·        if you understood it before and practiced since then, you’ll understand it now

·        you must continue to know the common polyatomic ions (this is forever)

Preparing for a full-semester exam can be overwhelming.  My experience suggests a good way to prepare includes…

·        Reviewing highlighted (bolded, bulleted, etc.) concepts in the chapters.  You paid a lot of $$ for a book that does important highlighting for you.  Use it.

·        Re-working all of the examples within the chapter.  Cover the book’s answer.  Work them yourself.  Then check your answer against their reasoning.  This is a manageable workload.  These in-chapter examples (Ch1 – Ch10) cover the material we discussed, the material the exam will test you over.

·        Making a list of major uncertainties you have on concepts in each chapter.  It might be you forgot.  It might be you never learned this idea way back then.  But the time to find out is not on the final.  The time to deal with them is before the final.

·        Working additional end-of-chapter exercises if you need more practice in a particular area.

Exam-taking strategies.  This is a 70 question multiple-choice exam over 2 hours. 

·        Flip through the exam.  Calmly answer first those questions that jump right out at you.  The topics are generally mixed throughout the exam, so that for some the easiest question is last and the hardest is first. 

·        Work last any questions requiring detailed calculations.  These are not hard but they can be time-consuming.  This time spent can keep you from answering simple concept questions quickly.

·        Listen to the ACS’s own advice on preparing for their standardized exams by reading this article from InChemistry (“Mind Over Matter”)

It is possible to find examples of old ACS finals out there.  Some are illegal copies; the exam is not supposed to be posted electronically without ACS authorization.  Also be advised that there are two styles of ACS finals out there.  One of them is a single first semester exam (like the one I’m giving you).  The other is a full year (Chem 1450 and 1451) two semester final exam.  If you look at this latter one, you may feel overwhelmed because there are things there that will not be covered until Chem 1451.  Therefore, be careful and be certain you are looking at a first semester general chemistry exam (Chem 1450 only).