Frequently Asked Questions about the ACS Standardized Exam

What is the ACS Standardized Exam?

As described in the syllabus, the final exam for this course is the American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized exam in organic chemistry. The exam covers the entire year of introductory organic chemistry, and allows your instructor to gauge your performance in the course relative to students across the nation.

What is the format of the ACS Standardized Exam?

The test consists of 70 multiple-choice questions. You will have exactly two hours to complete the exam. Since this is a standardized exam, the conditions of the exam are quite specific. For example:

The serial number of your test booklet will be recorded.
All answers must be marked with a No. 2 pencil and the marks should be very dark. Any erasures must be complete - leaving no smudges.
You will be provided with scratch paper, but no other reference materials are allowed. You must turn in all scratch paper at the end of the exam along with your test booklet and answer sheet.
The exam proctor may not provide any additional information or clarifying statements beyond what in stated in the test booklet.

Are there sample questions available?

Yes. A study guide is available. More about that later in the quarter! Also look at the links on my webpage. The site at the Ohio State University is very nice!

What should my strategy be?

Your score is based on the number of questions you answer correctly. There is no penalty for incorrect answers. Therefore it is to your advantage to answer every question - even if you have no idea which answer is correct.

How should I study for this exam?

Use your exams and quizzes from Chemistry 351-352-353. Study the chapter summaries from the lecture textbook and your instructor's old sample exams. Review your notes - both PowerPoint notes and the ones you took in class. Work as many of the end-of-chapter problems as you can. If you have taken laboratory courses (Chemistry 354-355), reviewing the material pertaining to specific reactions you did as part of that class may be helpful also. The topics listed below are generally covered in the one-year organic chemistry lecture series. My recommendation is that you use the topic list in conjunction with the textbook and your old exams and notes.

Also keep in mind that you will perform better if you do not leave all the reviewing to the end of the quarter. I suggest that you pick one or two topics to review each week throughout the quarter.

List of Topics to Study

Structure and Bonding

     Lewis structures, molecular orbitals, hybridization

Nomenclature of organic compounds (mostly IUPAC)

Conformations of organic molecules

Stereoisomerism and Chirality

     Fischer projections, cis-trans isomers, E/Z isomers, enantiomers, meso compounds,

     Diastereomers, absolute configuration (R/S), relative configuration (D/L)

Resonance and Electron Delocalization

Acids and Bases

     Strength of acids/bases (pKa), inductive vs. size vs. resonance effects

Addition reactions

     Addition of HX, Markovnikov's rule, halogenation, hydrogenation, oxymercuration and

     Hydroboration of alkenes/alkynes, Diels-Alder reaction

Elimination reactions

     E1 vs. E2, Zaitsev's rule (Saytzeff's rule), E1cb elimination, Hofmann elimination

Substitution reactions

     Sn1/Sn2, leaving group ability, nucleophilicity, solvent effects,

     Conversion of alcohols to leaving groups, synthesis

Carbocation rearrangements

Infrared Spectroscopy (IR)

     Modes of vibration, vibration frequency of common functional groups

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) for both proton and carbon

     Chemical shift and equivalence, spin-spin splitting

Oxidation and Reduction reactions and reagents, involving alkenes/alkynes

Organometallic reagents

     Alkyllithiums, Grignard reagents, cuprates

Carbonyl chemistry

     Aldehydes and Ketones (preparation, nucleophilic addition to C=O), carboxylic acids

     Acid derivatives and their inter conversions, substitution next to C=O, enolates

     Condensation reactions (Aldol and Claisen)

 Aromatic Substitution Reactions

     Electrophilic aromatic substitution (EAS), activating/deactivating substituents

     Directive effects, Huckel’s rule

How will the standardized exam be figured into my course grade?

Your score will be based on national percentile ranking. A score at the 50th percentile is, by definition, average. Therefore the percentile score must be scaled to reflect grading on a 100-point scale.

Scaled Score = ACS percentile + [(100-ACS percentile) (0.4]

A student scoring in the 50th percentile would obtain a 70 on the final:

50 + [(100 - 50)(0.4] = 70

Let's consider some examples so you can see how this works.

Example One

Ima Chemist got 58 questions correct out of 70 possible. This puts Ima at the 94th percentile nationally (even though she got only 83% of the questions right!). By the above formula, Ima's scaled score to count toward the course grade is 96/100.

Example Two

Sammy Slacker got just 30 questions correct out of 70. Sammy is at the 24th percentile nationally. According to the analysis, Sammy has a scaled score of 54/100 on the exam.