Academic Integrity

1. Our commitment

The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad is a celebration of honest scientific achievement. As an independent educational portal and preparation service, we support genuine learning, not shortcuts. Everything we offer is built to help students earn their results through real understanding. This page sets out what academic integrity means in the context of the competition and how we expect the students we work with to approach it.

2. Honest preparation

Past papers and study materials are tools for practice and learning. Use them to build real understanding of chemistry — working problems, checking your reasoning, and closing the gaps you find — not to circumvent the exam or gain an unfair advantage. Memorizing answers without understanding the chemistry behind them helps no one; the point of preparation is to make the knowledge genuinely yours, so it holds up under the pressure of the real exam.

3. Exam integrity

During the Local, National, and any official exam, follow all rules set by the American Chemical Society and your Local Section Coordinator. Cheating, collusion, impersonation, and sharing live exam content undermine the competition for everyone and carry serious consequences, including disqualification.

• Do not give or receive unauthorized help during an exam.
• Do not have someone else sit an exam in your place, or sit one in another student’s place.
• Do not photograph, copy, or share exam questions while a competition is live.

4. Our coaching philosophy

Our support is designed to develop your chemistry knowledge, your problem-solving ability, and your laboratory skills. We coach you to think like a chemist so that any result you earn is genuinely yours — never something handed to you. We will never help a student gain a result through dishonest means.

5. Reporting concerns

If you become aware of conduct that violates the integrity of the competition, report it to the appropriate American Chemical Society officials or your Local Section Coordinator, who are responsible for upholding the rules. Raising a concern is not disloyalty to a fellow student; it is a way of protecting the fairness of the exam for everyone who prepares honestly, and of keeping the competition something worth winning.

6. The spirit of the olympiad

The students who go furthest are those who master the chemistry. Real understanding is what carries a competitor through the Local and National exams, the Study Camp, and on to the international stage — and it is the only path we endorse. We would rather help a student grow into a genuinely strong chemist than chase a result they did not earn, because the knowledge and habits built honestly are what last long after the competition ends.