Olympiad

[appianway]

Hey guys,

Does anyone have any hints on preparing for the National Qualifying Examination for Chemistry? If you've got any links to any sites with good questions/explanations (aside from the aso site), that'd be greatly appreciated.

In addition, what sort of score do you need to attain a HD/place in the summer school? I've heard rumours that 40% should suffice most of the time for the summer school, but I'm unsure as to what the cut off for a HD usually is.

Thanks in advance

[naved_s9994]

Hey, yea, i got selected for that aswell.
Our teacher, is giving is material from 3 & 4 texts, as preperation material.

Most of it, is based upon the Unit 3 & 4 Chemistry Course.
Melb Uni, had a preporatory course, running for the last 15 weeks or so for the olympiad exam
this year.

Apart from the ASO website, there is not much to refer for the test.
If your school is good enough, they might provide you with the list of the required knowledge for the exam.

Best of luck !

[TrueTears]

Most of it, is based upon the Unit 3 & 4 Chemistry Course.

I did it last year, not much 3/4 stuff... most of the organic is wayyy beyond 3/4 stuff.

[/0]

Depends on the difficulty of the exam... for physics last year a HD was about 80% and qualification was about 90%, but that's because the exam was pretty easy. I've heard from TT that chemistry was a lot harder.

[TrueTears]

Yeah, a guy called perry from our school only got about 40 - 50% of the exam and got accepted into the summer school.

[appianway]

Is physics usually that high?!

I did the physics one today, and a LOT of people walked out early, because they couldn't answer the questions...

[/0]

Well yeah normally it's a lower, I think that year was an anomaly
But remember that only the top 25 or so get into olympiad camp across all of Australia, so it's not meant to be easy

[appianway]

Oh, I know. It's just that my physics teacher's daughter got in a few years ago without any real preparation (and apparently she couldn't answer all of the questions), so I was shocked to hear that it was 90%. I don't think it'll be that high this year though... the exam was 40% longer!

Does anyone have any good resources or links for the chemistry paper?

[naved_s9994]

go to aso website guys....the exam is honestly, not as difficult as you are saying it too be,
if you know it,,,you cant go wrong?

[appianway]

Are you talking about the physics exam or the chemistry exam?

I didn't think the physics was too hard, but a lot of my friends did.

The chem papers just seem to cover a LOT of material beyond the realms of the VCE study design. Sure, the extended response are fine, seeing as they give you most of the information, but it's slightly more difficult when it comes to the multiple choice...

[TrueTears]

No, the exam is incredibly hard trust me. The Perry kid who got into the bio, physics and chem summer school owned in VCE chem but only got around 43% for the chem olympiad.

[fady_22]

I'm doing the NQE Chem olympiad training program... it has been difficult so far (and I only have a week left). A lot of it has been 3/4 stuff but there has been a fair share of uni material (such as organic chem, in depth chem of main group and transition elements, ligands, coordination complexes with transition elements, geometries (and stereoisomerism), nucleophiles etc.). I literally have hundreds of pages of lecture notes on this stuff.

Really? Only 40%? That seems a bit TOO low. Does that mean that 75% of people get less than 40%?.

[naved_s9994]

Predominantly.
A teacher at my school was telling me aswell (friday), that it is approx 40%. 


On a side note, in the last couple of exam (available online - with solutions),  there is a particular trend of questions.
I.E like many people have mentioned organic chem, nucleophiles etc.

[nicholasysc]

I'm doing the NQE Chem olympiad training program... it has been difficult so far (and I only have a week left). A lot of it has been 3/4 stuff but there has been a fair share of uni material (such as organic chem, in depth chem of main group and transition elements, ligands, coordination complexes with transition elements, geometries (and stereoisomerism), nucleophiles etc.). I literally have hundreds of pages of lecture notes on this stuff.
Really? Only 40%? That seems a bit TOO low. Does that mean that 75% of people get less than 40%?.

How do you get into the NQE training program... do you have any info regarding that? thx

[fady_22]

My teacher chose me to go (you don't need to "get in") so it would be best if you asked your teacher.

There is some info at: http://www.cea.asn.au/linked_documents/News/Application%20for%20NQE%202009.pdf
(it is run by Melbourne University).