ACS Final Exam

See this semester's schedule for the date/time of the final exam for your section of CHM 3150.

The final exam in CHM 3150 with be the American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized Organic Chemistry exam.  This exam covers the entire year of Organic Chemistry, it is 110-minute and consists of 70 multiple-choice problems.  There is no deduction/penalty for wrong answers (i.e., guessing is better than leaving a problem blank). The ACS provides a Practice handout with solutions (see link below) and they have also prepared the “Organic Chemistry – ACS Official Study Guide.” This workbook offers an efficient way to review the material and practice multiple-choice problems, and you can also purchase access to a practice test online. 

I have two main goals for using the standardized exam:

1. It serves as an assessment tool and provides data about how Cal Poly Pomona students compare to the national averages. You can also compare your performance to the national average!
2. It serves as a capstone experience that helps students to see the year of Organic Chemistry as a whole.  This review will be useful as you move on to Biochemistry (or if you need to take any professional exam in the future which includes o-chem!).

I have a handout that lists the general topics.  As you review the material (by using your notes/text and/or the Study Guide), try to focus your time on areas in which you need significant refreshing and briefly review topics you know well.  Do not try to learn new material.  Instead, work on topics that we have studied and, therefore, you should already be familiar with.  It is possible that you will come across a problem on the exam that you have never seen.  Try to do your best in that case; you will not be instructed to skip or ignore any problem.  Please note that simple interpretation of IR and NMR spectra are included on the standardized exam. 

Final Exam Review Material

• ACS Exam Practice handout provided by the ACS and answer key and detailed solutions (PowerPoint)
• Practice multiple-choice problems written by Dr. Reusch
• All Functional Groups Nomenclature Review Problems and answer key
• Stereochemistry practice problems and answer key
• IR and NMR lectures and handouts

BONUS Material (Beyond CHM 3150)

• prepare for Biochemistry with an Introduction to Biomolecules (just under 2 hours to explore carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, DNA/RNA and fats/lipds)
• an introduction to Polymers (46 minutes)
• a summary of Synthesis Strategies (2 hours, 20 minutes)

Syllabus | Course Points | 3150 Semester Schedule
Dr. Starkey's daily schedule