ACS General Chemistry

ACS standardized chemistry exams are written by committees of chemistry faculty and published by the ACS Division of Chemical Education Examinations Institute. Colleges and universities purchase the exams and give them on campus, most often as the final examination in general chemistry. Because thousands of students nationwide take the same forms, each institution can compare its students' performance with national norms.

Exam Pattern and Format

Each question has four answer choices and one correct answer. Questions assess conceptual understanding and problem solving, not memorization alone: expect multi-step calculations, interpretation of tables and graphs, particle- level reasoning, and ranking questions. The Examinations Institute publishes several general chemistry forms, and your institution chooses the one that matches its course.

ExamForm	Questions	Time	TypicalUse
Full -year General Chemistry	70	110min*	Finalexamaftertwosemesters
First-term General Chemistry	70	110min	FinalexamafterGeneralChemistryI
Second -term General Chemistry	70	110min	FinalexamafterGeneralChemistryII
Briefforms	50	55min	Shorter full -year or second -term assessment
Conceptualforms	40or60	Varies	Concept-focused assessment with little
			calculation

*The newest full-year form allows 112 minutes. Your instructor will state the form and time limit for your exam.

Content Covered

The full-year exam samples the entire first-year curriculum: atomic structure and periodic trends, gases, liquids, solids and solutions, bonding and molecular structure, intermolecular forces, stoichiometry and aqueous reactions, kinetics, equilibrium, acids and bases, solubility, thermochemistry and thermodynamics, electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry, and laboratory measurement and data. First-term and second-term forms concentrate on the topics of that semester. The ten sections of this guide cover all of these areas.

Materials Provided and Permitted

Scoring and Results

Every question carries equal weight, and your raw score is the number answered correctly; there is no penalty for wrong answers. The Examinations Institute publishes national norms that convert raw scores to percentile ranks, and many institutions assign course credit or letter grades from those percentiles. How the score counts toward your grade is set by your institution, so confirm the policy with your instructor.

With 70 questions in 110 minutes you have about 94 seconds per question. Conceptual questions take less time, which banks minutes for multi-step calculations. Practice under timed conditions until this pace feels routine.

Why the Exam Matters

Purpose	WhatItMeansforYou
Standardizedevaluation	Studentsatdifferentinstitutionsaremeasuredonthesamescale regardlessofinstructoror ,
	textbook .
Finalcoursegrade	Manycoursesusetheexamasthefinalorasasubstantialpartofthecoursegrade .
Courseplacement	Astrongresultcansupportplacementintomoreadvancedchemistrycourses .
Programbenchmarking	Departmentscompareclassresultswithnationalnormstoidentifytopicsthatneedmoresupport .