All students who intend on taking chemistry at any point in their college career need to take the chemistry placement exam. (Students who will need to take chemistry at Trinity University include all chemistry, biology, geosciences and engineering majors and anyone intending on going to medical school, veterinary school or a medical-related field.) This exam is designed to assess each student's ability to succeed in chemistry at Trinity University. The exam assumes that the student has had one year of high school chemistry. The exam covers algebraic and mathematical manipulations, SI units, unit conversions, and some basic chemistry skills.
The exam is only available on-line and it will be available to students from July 6, 2010 through August 12, 2010.
Students may take the exam at any time within this period. The exam period is one hour long, but you may finish earlier. The results of the exam will be made available to the advisor in time for the first meeting between the student and his/her advisor during New Student Orientation.
It is not necessary to study for the exam, but if you want to look over your high school chemistry notes and text, that would be sufficient.
You will likely need to use a pencil and paper and a calculator to work out some problems. You may not use any other resource. A Periodic Table will be provided on the web site.
You will be asked for your last name and Trinity University ID number, which was sent to you in the packet of information from the Admissions and Academic Affairs offices. You may use any modern browser, though we strongly recommend using Firefox 3.0 or later or Safari. While the exam can be taken on an iPhone or iPad, scrolling may be difficult (you'll need to do a two-finger scroll within the answer sheet block) and so we don't recommend taking the test on one of these devices. Further instructions about taking the online test will be provided within the web pages associated with the login to the exam.
If you have earned a 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP exam, you do not need to take the placement exam if you plan on applying the AP score for credit in CHEM 1318, i.e. you will not enroll in 1318 in the fall. If, however, you still intend on taking CHEM 1318 and not taking the AP credit, you must take the placement exam. (As an aside, credit for the Chemistry AP exam applies only to the lecture course CHEM 1318. Students may apply on campus for credit for the lab CHEM 1118, but this credit for this lab has been rarely granted.)
If you have any questions about taking the exam, please contact Dr. Bachrach at sbachrach@trinity.edu.