ACS Gen Chem 1 Exam..anyone have problems?

[Jlaw]

So I took the ACS Final for Chem 1 the other day and don't think I did very well. I had an A in the class and knew the material inside and out but was dismayed to find that there were probably 5-8 questions that dealt with subject material we hadn't covered. Did anyone else have this problem? I know I got some other stuff wrong so I am scared that those 5-8 paired with my legit wrong answers is going to kill me.

My prof said that she would take a look and adjust our scores if she didn't think we should know the material but she isn't exactly the most kind hearted grader so I'm expecting this to be a problem.

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[Jlaw]

I'm about to take that test in 4 hours. I've been going through the ACS study guide and the practice questions, and there are a few things we didn't cover very well, but overall I found the practice questions to be easy. There's 70 questions right? so if there were 6-7 that you got wrong, you're still in A territory (assuming you didn't guess right). If you have an A, even a high B prolly won't hurt you (unless you have 90.1% so far or something).
PS, if the test brings your overall grade down, be sure to form a reasonable argument and present it to your instructor. Explain (and be able to prove) that you didn't cover the required material in class, and therefore shouldn't be held accountable. But your instructor prolly already knows whether or not it was covered well enough so hopefully they have mercy on you

Yeah I have my fingers crossed. I had a 93/94 average so hopefully if the prof takes off the stuff we didn't cover I will be ok. I've heard that this exam is graded on a curve but I'm not sure if that is true and if it is true I'm not sure if they curve it at my school. That would be nice as well!

Good luck on yours!

 

[apumic]

I took it and it wasn't bad at all.
Just make sure you do the study guide and you should be fine. (Mine was the full year version but it should be similar if not the same as the 1 semester one -- except that yours will cover half the material, obviously.)
It's not graded as a regular exam (or shouldn't be) in any class as you will get more than 6-7 questions wrong. According to the current pre-normed data, I scored the 97th percentile with something like 15 wrong. The test is written to have a mean score out of about 35/70 (half right), so don't expect the scores you're used to. You can check current testing data on the ACS website by putting a bogus score into their norming process (not that I suggest doing this, but you have to put a score in to see their norming data -- if you do, though, at least put something in near the expected mean of 35, so it has a minimal affect on their calculations...).
If they use it for people's grades, most schools will do things like use the percentile score (and often add a factor to it), as taking the raw score out of 70 would kill most people's grades.


EDIT: You can also get limited pre-norm data for the exams here: http://chemexams.chem.iastate.edu/stats/need_norming.cfm


For the test I took:

National Totals

Mean
33.74

Standard Deviation
11.57

Median
32.20

KR 21
0.81

Standard Error
5.00

 

[Jlaw]

Thanks for the info, that is exactly what I was looking for. I didn't get anywhere near 35 wrong so maybe I'm better off than I thought. 80 or above should retain an A- average and I would be happy with that.

I took it and it wasn't bad at all.
Just make sure you do the study guide and you should be fine. (Mine was the full year version but it should be similar if not the same as the 1 semester one -- except that yours will cover half the material, obviously.)
It's not graded as a regular exam (or shouldn't be) in any class as you will get more than 6-7 questions wrong. According to the current pre-normed data, I scored the 97th percentile with something like 15 wrong. The test is written to have a mean score out of about 35/70 (half right), so don't expect the scores you're used to. You can check current testing data on the ACS website by putting a bogus score into their norming process (not that I suggest doing this, but you have to put a score in to see their norming data -- if you do, though, at least put something in near the expected mean of 35, so it has a minimal affect on their calculations...).
If they use it for people's grades, most schools will do things like use the percentile score (and often add a factor to it), as taking the raw score out of 70 would kill most people's grades.


EDIT: You can also get limited pre-norm data for the exams here: http://chemexams.chem.iastate.edu/stats/need_norming.cfm


For the test I took:

National Totals

Mean
33.74

Standard Deviation
11.57

Median
32.20

KR 21
0.81

Standard Error
5.00

 

[shiftingmirage]

I took the organic ACS exam in undergrad. Test had 70 questions, the highest grade in the class was a 58/70. It was curved so a 52/70 was 100%. So don't get worried about 5-8 questions.

 

[SamyRamadan]

It's not that bad, i got a 62/70 and the average was 29-33 for our class. You have plenty of time for the answers so the ones you don't know you can work out. We did not learn the last two chapters but I knew that before hand and I read through them myself.

 

[apumic]

I just got home from taking it. It was significantly harder than what I expected. There were a few things that we didn't cover or barely touched on. It's interesting to see the average score is only in the low 30's. I wonder what kind of curve will be applied to our class.
If they don't curve, a lot of people are gonna be sorely disappointed in their results.

It's meant to be a normed test (similar to the MCAT in that sense) so it's pretty much necessary that no one gets anything too close to a perfect score as that would ruin the usefulness of scores near the top of the range.

 

[premed20092013]

WTF you guys think the ACS gen chem test is hard? My tests at Vandy are so much more difficult than that. We use the ACS gen chem test as a diagnostic test at the begining of the semester to see where everyone is. I rocked the ACS test at the begining of the year, but only managed a B- in my gen chem class. This is not fair.

 

[Zona Pellucida]

Thanks for that break down apumic. I took this 3 years ago and got a 50% thinking I bombed it... but apparently that isn't THAT bad.

Hahah. Oh Gen Chem. Glad I am done with youuuu

 

[apumic]

WTF you guys think the ACS gen chem test is hard? My tests at Vandy are so much more difficult than that. We use the ACS gen chem test as a diagnostic test at the begining of the semester to see where everyone is. I rocked the ACS test at the begining of the year, but only managed a B- in my gen chem class. This is not fair.

Congratulations. Would you like a cookie?

Honestly, I didn't find it that difficult but when others have found an exam difficult, especially one that is normed such that an average student feels like s/he has failed miserably (not saying the OP did average, but the average student would only get 1/2 of the problems right), empathizing seems like a better approach, doesn't it?

The fact of the matter is that it's a normed test. It's meant to compare students across schools post-semester in a basic introductory level general chemistry course. The ACS Gen Chem 1-Year Exam is not meant to be used as a "diagnostic," since most of its content is not covered at the HS level. Congrats on "rocking it," although I doubt you "rocked" it to the level you boast of (or, if you did, that it was the same standardized exam; ACS offers a number of similar exams and one of them probably is meant as a diagnostic), considering the 100th percentile begins right around 64/70 (depending upon the year) -- meaning that out of all schools submitting records, theoretically no one has gotten a perfect score.

Honestly, if I were a Vanderbilt student seeing this, I'd be a bit ashamed.

 

[apumic]

Thanks for that break down apumic. I took this 3 years ago and got a 50% thinking I bombed it... but apparently that isn't THAT bad.

Hahah. Oh Gen Chem. Glad I am done with youuuu

Haha. Glad I brought you a bit of relief, lol. But yeah, it's definitely not the kind of testing most of us are used to where if you get a 75-80% you're a B or C student (instead, 75% is around the 90th percentile). A lot has to do, though, with the fact that it contains material beyond what many chem classes cover. I think most schools use it largely to measure their own program against nat'l standards (of course, they make us take it for a grade so we actually put in some effort, haha).

 

[apumic]

Yeah it's 14% of our grade. I really hope for everybody else' sake that they curve it strongly.

I'm sure they will to at least some degree unless they're using it to moderate the number of As in the class, I suppose, lol.

 

[apumic]

I agree. That would suck. Well hopefully they'll curve it!

 

[Jlaw]

Yeah it's 14% of our grade. I really hope for everybody else' sake that they curve it strongly.

It counts for 30% of my grade, hence my apprehension. I see the point of the test now, they want to challenge the best students while curving it to to avoid killing the others.

To the person who said they took it as a diagnostic, I think that they have seperate placement type tests for that so it is unlikely that you took the test we are speaking of. I think they guard these tests pretty closely so I doubt they would let a school use them for purposes other than final exams. Also if you rocked the ACS test there is absoloutley no way you got a B-. I have (had?) an A and really understand the material and I found it tough.

Anyway best of luck to those who took it, I hope we all do well.

 

[Jlaw]

Wow that thing must have had one hell of a curve on it, I just got my final grades and I jumped from an A- to an A, which according to my calculations means I scored a 95 or higher on the final.

Hope the rest of you guys also have a pleasant surprise!

 

[Evergrey]

Wow that thing must have had one hell of a curve on it, I just got my final grades and I jumped from an A- to an A, which according to my calculations means I scored a 95 or higher on the final.

Hope the rest of you guys also have a pleasant surprise!

Yeah this happened to me in Gen Chem II I didn't know **** going into it, but I went in with an A- and came out with an A. No clue how it happened.