On Monday, April 1, Qiyang (Young) Zhou and Alexander Han qualified for the National Exam of the United States National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO). After taking the Local Exam on March 28, the two students, achieving the highest scores at PRISMS above the regional qualifying score, were qualified to advance to the National Exam, held at Rider University on Apr 28 (Sunday).
National finalists were also invited to the Trenton Section of the American Chemical Society annual awards dinner, which will take place on Tuesday, May 14, at The College of New Jersey, and recognize the participants’ accomplishments with certificates.
The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) program, sponsored by the American Chemical Society, is a chemistry competition for high school students that attracts around 20,000 students every year. The goal of the competition is to stimulate young people to achieve excellence in chemistry.
Over 1,000 students across the country will compete in the three-part National Exam. The first portion of the test lasts 90 minutes and covers 60 multiple-choice questions. The second part is a 105-minute section with eight free-response questions about chemical theories and models. Finally, there are two laboratory practicals lasting 90 minutes.
The 150 top scorers on the National Exam will receive Honors while the top 50 will receive High Honors. The 20 highest-scoring students will be invited to a rigorous training camp this summer, and four will then be selected to represent the U.S. at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Paris, France this year.
International students including Songtao (Barton) Li, Ziqi (Jack) Jiao, Jiangdi (Tina) Wang, Jingtong (Janis) Zhu, Yuxuan (Wendy) Zheng, Bokai (Berkeley) Liu, He (Helen) Jiang, Jiale (Lucas) Lu, Yizhen (Johnson) Chen, and Rui (Frank) Wang also scored higher than the regional cutoff line.