[Dangles]

No, this is not a request for old exams, so rest easy.

I am going to grad school Fall 2011 for a PhD in analytical chemistry and from what I can tell, many schools require passing of 3 out of 5 ACS exams within the first year.

I had a joint major with environmental studies at a liberal arts college, so needless to say, I am poorly prepared for grad school in terms of coursework. I have not had any inorganic or biochemistry, plus my p-chem professor barely knew the material herself. My analytical course was more of a writing course and we got virtually no instruction regarding theory and principles. In short, I'm screwed for those exams.

I searched the forums for info on these exams, but all turned up useless due to some bs copyright issues with the ACS. In fact, I'm not even sure if my request here will be honored.

The ACS exam site recently moved and I cannot get a general list of topics covered on each exam. If anyone can give me a list of topics for: Analytical, Physical, Biochem, Inorganic, and Organics exams, I would eb eternally grateful.

Any other advise regarding my approach to studying for these exams is also welcome.

[tamim83]

Here is a site for you to check out:

http://chemexams.chem.iastate.edu/

It has a link for the list of topics covered on the Organic exam and info on how to purchase the study guides for both the organic and physical chemistry exam. 

These exams are pretty similar to Chem GRE questions, so you may want to check out a Chemistry GRE study book.  When I studied for these, I focused on areas in which I knew I was weak or rusty with, using the Chem GRE topics as a guide.  The downside is that not much biochem shows up on the GRE and I didn't take the biochem ACS exam so I am unsure of what would be covered here. 

Hope this helps you some. 

[Dangles]

That's the website I was referring to. It was moved and renovated and no longer lists topics covered for most exams.

I appreciate the help, and the study guide will help.

Problem is, that only covers 2 of the 5 exams I will be taking. I still need to know what to study for biochem, inorganic, and analytical. The GRE covers organic, gen, and p-chem only, leaving biochem and analytical up to myself.

Any more advise is welcome.

[tamim83]

The GRE does cover analytical chem, just not very much of it (I think its 15% of the exam).  From what I remember of the ACS test for analytical, it was surprisingly easy compared to the other three I took.  The topics covered are Chemical equilibrium (general, solubility product, complex ion, acid-base, etc), Titrations of all types, Gravimetric analysis (like determining the mass of an element in a given sample-this is usually covered in gen. chem), statistics (averages, standard deviations, etc.), and spectroscopy (Beer's Law, some general principles, etc). 

One thing that may help is to purchase the Schaum's Outlines (not so sure about the spelling) for some of the topics.  They are relatively inexpensive and are great for reviewing.  I used them to study for organic and analytical chemistry when I took the ACS exams and they proved to be very helpful.  Plenty of example and practice problems.  I am fairly sure the have one for biochemistry too.