| I just find it so strange that the high school science teachers do not have the time to prepare their students for Olymipads events. Taking test is a skill can be improved by practice just like SAT. If you have chance to just practice one test from previous year, you will greatly improve your chance. For USNCO, you can down load all the previous year test from the web site. It includes all the subject covers in AP chemistry. The problem for organic chemistry is usually quite esay. You just need to know isomer, naming convention, like what is ester and ether. The first run is 60 single choice problems. I just don't like USNCO only select two students from each school. It is just quite unfair for the student from very competitive school.
The second run is usually held in some local univeristy. It includes three parts. The first part is single choice, the second part is free answering session. The third part is lab. The free answering session is more difficult. The lab test is no way to prepare. You should look carefully what kind of material that they give you. It will give you some clue.
The high school teacher just too busy to prepare you to take AP test. It just does not have the time to prepare you for this thing. And there is not much recognition from school or school district.
I ask my son not to take USCNO this year because only two person from his school can go to the next round. He is the finalist last year but he did not attend the camp. He went to USPho camp instead. USCNO anounces the finalist few weeks behind USPho and USABO. It is quite dumb to do that. |