Avogadro Exam
The exam
The 25th annual Avogadro Exam is to be written on Thursday, May 17, 2012 during one 75-minute period. To recognize and reward achievement in a first high school Chemistry course, Waterloo's Department of Chemistry has devised the Avogadro Exam.
The exam will cover material that a well-read junior high school chemistry student is likely to have come across in the course of studies. Students may expect to find a few probing and demanding questions on some of the main topics of high school chemistry. Certain mathematical skills closely related to the study of chemistry will be tested, and there will be a few questions on chemical topics not normally covered in high school. The Avogadro Exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions, some easy, some tough, under the general headings: structure of matter, bonding, reactions, solutions, and gases, and a general knowledge of current affairs.
Who may write?
The competitive examination is intended for students who are completing, or have recently completed, their first high school chemistry course (about 100 instructional hours).
Administration
All correspondence about the exam, exam results and prizes should be addressed to Dr. C. Bissonnette, Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON N2L 3G1. We reserve the right to restrict the number of prizes and awards offered outside Ontario.
Prizes
Prizes are given to the five percent of students whose exam performance is best. The 2011 prize was a T-shirt.
Cost
A charge of $3.00 is made for each exam ordered (the minimum order is 5 copies), plus courier or postal costs of $10.00 per school in Canada; $15.00 for schools in the United States; foreign schools must contact Katherine Jackson for pricing (the courier or postal cost we charge is to help cover the expenses of sending both the exam order and the exam results). Payment is to be sent with all orders.
Information about ordering and about previous years' exams will be mailed automatically in February to all teachers/schools who used the exams last year. See sample exams and solutions.
