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Chem Lab Wiki
Chem Lab Test Exchange 2017
Past Threads: 2009 (Acids and Bases/Titration Race), 2010 (Kinetics/Aqueous Solutions), 2011 (Aqueous Solutions/Electrochemistry), 2012 (Electrochemistry/Periodicity), 2013 (Periodicity/Equilibrium), 2014 (Periodicity/Equilibrium), 2015 (Kinetics/Stoichiometry), 2016 (Kinetics/Gases)
Past Question Marathons: 2015, 2016

For people who have done this event before, would you say that it goes above an AP Chemistry/Zumdahl level?
I don't know if it's worth it to read a Physical Chem book for Gases/Thermodynamics if the actual test won't be above my Zumdahl textbook. Would it be more efficient to practice the questions in Zumdahl or read Atkins Physical Chem for more information?

i'm probably going to read atkins anyway for chemistry olympiad but that would be after invitationals.

ScienceOlympian wrote:For people who have done this event before, would you say that it goes above an AP Chemistry/Zumdahl level?
I don't know if it's worth it to read a Physical Chem book for Gases/Thermodynamics if the actual test won't be above my Zumdahl textbook. Would it be more efficient to practice the questions in Zumdahl or read Atkins Physical Chem for more information?

i'm probably going to read atkins anyway for chemistry olympiad but that would be after invitationals.

I would say it rarely ever goes above Zumdahl level if at all. The only instances I have ever seen it go above would be at MIT and the regionals I went to 2 years ago (test written by chem camper).
However, I would think reading a physical chem book is overkill anyway unless you are trying to do well at IChO or something.

I have to disagree. Our regional exam was honors Chem level, while the Cypress Falls invitational we went to last year had a few questions well above AP level, both with gases and kinetics. Plan for studying AP level but also learn more complicated concepts because they will show up. The general rule of thumb with most tests we see and write is 25% stupid easy, 50% moderately difficult, and 25% impossible. That one question could be the difference between placing and not

Does anyone know of any other resources to study besides an AP Chem textbook like Zumdahl/Atkins?

Also what are some possible labs for this year?

Thanks

Can someone answer ic3kreem's question? I'm also wondering but no one has replied in four days...

What's the point of this site?

bigdick69 wrote:Can someone answer ic3kreem's question? I'm also wondering but no one has replied in four days...

What's the point of this site?

All of us aren't competent in every event. If you have an answer, feel free to contribute it. The site is only active if people keep it active.

There are a whole bunch of resources listed on the official event page: https://www.soinc.org/chemistry_lab_c

Some of the labs we've done:
- Reacting acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate and collecting CO2 over water to determine the mass of the bicarbonate sample
- Reacting magnesium with hydrochloric acid, and measuring the change in temperature using a calorimeter to determine heat evolved as well as how much hydrogen gas was produced
- Styrofoam cup calorimeters
- Dissolving something like ammonium chloride or a hydroxide in water and measuring the temperature

I ran a lab as practice for my team that involved reacting sodium thiosulfate and HCl and then predicting the amount of SO2 gas released by the reaction

ic3kreem wrote:Does anyone know of any other resources to study besides an AP Chem textbook like Zumdahl/Atkins?

An AP text should be sufficient. If you want to look into textbooks that delve deeper into this year's topics, then you can feel free, but I think for the majority of teams, an AP text is fine.