ACS Placement Exams - any experience?

[St Andrews Lynx]

Hey there folks, 

 

My new grad school administers the ACS placement exams to its incoming students to determine what graduate courses they should take. 

As an international student (and someone who has been out of school for a couple of years) I want to do well in them...but don't really know what to expect! 

 

Has anybody taken these standardised exams? How do they compare with the Chemistry GRE in terms of content/difficulty? Are the ACS official study guides any good? What other resources are useful? 

 

Any experiences & input welcomed, thanks!

[aberrant]

I have been told that it is similar to GRE Chemistry test, except with a more diversed disciplines/categories. My friends were able to find a few ACS placement exams samples on google, but as far as I know, they only went through it when they have time, and didn't stress about it.

 

I also have been told that any of these would be a good review: http://www.chem.purdue.edu/Exams/

Edited May 27, 2013 by aberrant

[St Andrews Lynx]

I like the Inorganic question from Jan 2013 asking how you'd determine if your roommate was a vampire!

Thanks for the link.

[Chronos]

The standardized ACS exams are actually not that difficult.  I think it was easier than the Chem GRE.  You probably should brush up on the key concepts for the test(s) you will be taking and can find the information on the website but you can also order study guides: http://examsinstitute.3dcartstores.com/Study-Guides_c_1.html.  I ordered them and the only useful one for me was the physical chemistry guide (I'm an organic chemist).  

 

As for inorganic chemistry, the only study guide that isn't available, the questions were totally random.  Some questions pulled from basic knowledge you learn in general chemistry, whereas other questions come from moments when professors would tell you random facts you think you will never have to know (ie. how does cisplatin destroy cancer cells).  

 

Good luck studying!

[paperandstaples]

I dont suppose any of you know if theres a way to get the exams for free...?
or does everyone shell out $21 for each study guide?

 

[frankstoneline]

I dont suppose any of you know if theres a way to get the exams for free...?

or does everyone shell out $21 for each study guide?

 

 

I realize this is a bit late (sorry) but many university libraries keep a copy of them on hand (the study guides), some local libraries with a good interlibrary loan system would probably be able to get them for you as well.

[Eigen]

I didn't use the study guides at all, I just went over my notes from Inorganic/Organic/PChem, and skimmed the books from said classes over the summers. 

 

They actually turned out to be pretty easy, even if doing them all back-to-back made for a long day. 

[St Andrews Lynx]

Update.

I've now taken the ACS tests in Organic, Physical & Inorganic Chemistry. To me they were a similar level of difficulty to the Chemistry GRE, except with only 60-80 multiple-choice questions compared to the 130 in the Chem GRE (to me that made the ACS tests harder in that they felt a lot more random...but at the same time I felt less rushed to answer them all, so less stressed).

 

I ordered the ACS Study Guide for Organic Chemistry...which arrived the day before the exam...BUT was far more useful in terms of guiding me through answering typical MCQs and explaining HOW to apply your science knowledge to them. If I was re-prepping for the Chemistry GRE I think I'd actually use the ACS Study Guides rather than the Princeton Review. 

 

Even better, I got decent marks in all of them. That cheered me up a lot. 

[DropTheBase]

I didn't use the study guides at all, I just went over my notes from Inorganic/Organic/PChem, and skimmed the books from said classes over the summers. 

 

They actually turned out to be pretty easy, even if doing them all back-to-back made for a long day. 

 

They're all extremely easy questions but only if you know the material. Based on the study guides, they seem to ask the simplest question of any subject. As a result (and as St. Andrews Lynx points out), the questions are very random. The study guides seem to provide a good idea of what random facts and phenomena you should know for the exam.

 

By the way, scanned copies of the physical and organic study guides should be fairly easy to find if you're already used to finding movies/TV shows online .

 

DTB

[Eigen]

I guess I was assuming that most people starting a PhD program would likely know the material, and just need a refresher. 

 

Most of our incoming students have one blank area that they really struggle with, but usually not related to the classes they'll take or their research, and so a low score doesn't matter. IE, people working in BioChem who have a really weak PChem background.