
Every spring, high school students in the Georgia Local Section participate in the United States National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) competition. The program is intended to encourage American youth to achieve excellence in chemistry and is a multi-tiered process with competitions at the local, national and international level. More information is available at the USNCO website.
Online registration for the 2023 Georgia Chemistry Olympiad competition is now closed.
If you are a teacher and you choose to administer the local exam at your high school, we will send you a PDF exam document in late February and ask that you return your student responses electronically. If you are a student and you cannot take the local exam at your high school, the local exam will most likely be administered online on Saturday 03/18/2023. (n.b., This date is tentative and subject to change.)
Feel free to spread the word to other students and teachers who may be interested. Thank you in advance for your help getting the word out!
Student Eligibility
- Students must be U.S. citizens or legal, permanent residents of the United States (green card holders) to take the U.S. national examination.
- High school students who will graduate no earlier than Spring of the year that they participate in the competition are eligible.
- Students must be under 20 years of age on July 1 of the year of the competition.
Questions or comments about this program may be sent to our coordinator, Dr. Ram Sabnis (ramsabnis@yahoo.com).
- Local level: A sixty-question multiple choice exam is used to identify the top thirteen students (no more than two per high school). This exam will be administered at Georgia Gwinnett College or Kennesaw State University.
- National level: Based on the local exam results, thirteen students are identified to take the national exam at Kennesaw State University. This national exam has three parts: a sixty-question multiple choice exam, an eight-question free response exam, and a laboratory practical exam.
- International level: Twenty students are selected based on their national exam scores to spend two weeks at a study camp demonstrating their ability. Four students are then chosen to represent the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO).