Chemistry
General Resources
-
ChemGuide - Online instructional website
-
Websites with good practice problems
Recommended Reading
- Zumdahl Goated Textbook - Download link for textbook used in AP Chem
- Atkins’ Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight - Good introductory book with concise explanations and decent practice problems. It is more detailed than Zumdahl.
- Chem Oly Notes
Orgo Resources By Tier
- For more in depth, go to this website here -> https://chem.isodn.org/resources
-
Mastering Organic Chemistry - A useful resource for organic chemistry, good illustrations
-
CODS Clayden Notes
-
Organic Chemistry Problems
Books
Klein's Organic Chemistry
- This book is a good book for those who are unfamiliar with organic chemistry and are seeking an introduction to it. It has easy-to-understand explanations, decent practice problems, and provides the fundamentals of organic chemistry knowledge.
Clayden's Organic Chemistry
- Very good intermediate book, outstanding explanations, outstanding practice problems, much more detailed than Klein, it is practically all you need for IChO.
See below for more in depth review of books
Papers
NZChO past papers: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/academic-study/science/science-outreach-for-schools/chemistry-olympiad#accordion-aed3bb5525-item-e4695e8f98-button (2014-2023)
ASO(Australian) Chem NQE past papers: https://www.asi.edu.au/program/australian-science-olympiads/past-exams-with-answers/chemistry-olympiad-past-exams/ (2007-2023)
INChO(India) past papers: https://olympiads.hbcse.tifr.res.in/how-to-prepare/past-papers/ (2008-2023)
IChO past problems(in 4 volumes): https://www.icho.sk/competition-problems/ (1968-2018[1-50 IChOs])
IChO prep problems: https://www.icho.sk/preparatory-problems/ (2001-2019)
UKChO past papers: https://edu.rsc.org/uk-chemistry-olympiad/chemistry-olympiad-past-papers/1641.article (2003-2023)
BChO past papers: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15kTRk6wyqwjOdy73C1PKSM9968ir7Qbk?usp=drive_link (2006-2023)
IMChO past papers(restored link to webarchive, thanks to CODsite because now MSU ChemFac doesn't have them): https://web.archive.org/web/20180630092119/http://www.chem.msu.ru/rus/olimp/welcome.html (1997-2018)
Book Review
*NOT Original Content, copied from Discord
1: Easiest, 10: Hardest
Organic Chemistry
Klein - Klein is a starter book for organic chemistry which explains concepts fairly clearly. Difficulty: 2/10
Clayden - Personally, I just started off with Clayden :clayden:, but the prerequisites are that you roughly know nomenclature, arrow pushing etc. Very well written book. Difficulty: 4/10
Bernard Miller's Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions and Mechanisms - I also like this book, it gives a good explanation of arrow-pushing and certain more advanced topics such as pericyclic reactions. Difficulty: 5-6/10
Physical chemistry
Atkins' physical chemistry - I started off with this book, but I really did not like it (It seems to be a pretty common sentiment among people doing olympiads). It requires a fairly strong grasp of math and calculus, but I find the organisation pretty lacklustre. Personally, I would not recommend it. Difficulty: 8/10
Atkins' elements of physical chemistry - Contrary to the above, I think this book is pretty nice. I think it sums up and explains important concepts pretty clearly. Again, prerequisites are pretty good math, but not as demanding as Atkins' physical chemistry. Difficulty: 5-6/10
Mcquarrie's Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach - Well-explained book, though it is very math intensive. Though, it is definitely a more pleasant book to read than Atkin's physical chemistry. Difficulty: 8/10
Inorganic Chemistry
Housecroft Inorganic Chemistry - It is a pretty nice introductory book to inorganic chemistry. This is frequently as far as people go for most chemistry olympiads in terms of inorganic chemistry. Difficulty: 3-4/10
Greenwood inorganic chemistry - Pretty pleasant read for me, I liked it a lot. Fairly dense, however. Nevertheless, one of my favourite books. This, however, should not be your only resource for inorganic chemistry. Difficulty: 8/10
Vogel's inorganic chemistry - Another book which I really like. I think it's much simpler than greenwood's, but this functions much better as a textbook. Difficulty: 4/10
《无机化学丛书·典藏版（套装共10册》- A set of Chinese inorganic books which are very well-known in Chinese olympiads. However, they are in Chinese. Difficulty: 8-9/10
Analytical Chemistry
Harris' Quantitative Chemical Analysis - A very nicely written book for analytical chemistry. One of the most commonly used books for analytical chemistry too! The difficulty of the book depends on your mathematical skills and your familiarity with analytical chemistry as a whole. Difficulty: 5-6/10
Other books
Theory And Problems For Chemistry Olympiad: Challenging Concepts In Chemistry by Zhang Sheng and Zhihan Nan - This is a Singaporean book, but I think it's relatively known around chemistry oly circles. Prof Zhang Sheng is still a camp mentor so singapore's icho team, so that's that. Besides that, I think its a good reference book for pretty much anything. Pleasant read. Difficulty: 7-8/10
Other than that, good practices, in my opinion are: UKChO: Interesting questions, not very difficult though. Speedrunnable for confidence boosts. Difficulty: 2/10
USNCO P2: Fairly standard questions. Difficulty: 3-4/10, depending on years
CChO: these papers are notoriously difficult to get your hands on unless you're in China. Good luck if you don't know how to read mandarin, other than 2012, I don't think they're translated at all. Very interesting questions, difficulty depends on the level, provincial can be pretty easy, 3-4/10, to nationals being way harder. Difficulty: 7-8/10
FChO: An interesting one on this list, the German chemistry olympiad. I like the papers, reasonable difficulty. Good middle ground. Difficulty: 5/10
UChO: Another weird one, but thanks Igeru for introducing me to these, the Ukraine chemistry olympiad papers. As far as I can tell from bad translations, pretty interesting questions Difficulty: 4-6/10
Baltic Chemistry Competition (there's also a Baltic chemistry olympiad): Recommended by gid, and I quote "baltics are fire sometimes" - I agree. Difficulty: 4-6/10
IChO prep/problems: CODS has a tier list of years by Anugrah, look at it on the website.
Mendeleev chemistry olympiad (IMChO): IChO's Russian sibling - Very interesting and challenging problems. From experience, these are good practice problems, especially for inorganic chemistry. Difficulty - 7-9/10
Novosibirsk organic olympiads: Very challenging organic problems. Difficulty: 8-10/10
IVChO1/2: Very, very interesting and difficult questions. But please don't do these problems unless you are extremely bored, and have nothing else to do. Difficulty: 9-10/10
Lastly, do your national olympiad papers if you can get your hands on them. Best of luck!
Media
