Team USA & results
Each July the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad sends four students to compete against the best young chemists on Earth — and they win. This is where the season ends: the medals Team USA brings home from the International Chemistry Olympiad, and the national honors that recognize the strongest performers along the way.
A clean sweep of gold in Dubai
The International Chemistry Olympiad is the summit of the USNCO pathway — the world championship for pre-university chemists. The four students who emerge from the National Exam and the June Study Camp travel as Team USA, supported by mentors who translate the exam, inspect the laboratories, and arbitrate the scoring on the students’ behalf.
At the 2025 IChO in Dubai, all four members of Team USA returned with gold. They competed against 354 students from 91 countries, across a grueling theoretical examination and a full laboratory practical — and every one of them finished in the top tier. A four-for-four gold result places the United States among the strongest chemistry nations in the world.
It is the payoff for a year of disciplined preparation, and a standard the program works to meet again each season.
Start your pathway →The 2025 result, in figures
Recognition for the strongest performers
Reaching Team USA is the rarest outcome, but it is not the only one worth aiming for. After the National Exam each April, the American Chemical Society recognizes the highest-scoring students nationwide with three tiers of national honors. Earning any of them is a distinction that selective universities and competitive summer programs recognize.
Top 20
The twenty highest scorers on the National Exam. This is the most exclusive national honor: these students are invited to the residential Study Camp in June, where four of them are chosen to represent the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad.
High Honors
Awarded to the next band of top National Exam scorers below the Top 20. High Honors recognizes outstanding command of the full advanced-chemistry syllabus — theory, free response, and laboratory practical — and marks a student among the best in the country.
Honors
Awarded to high-scoring National Exam students below the High Honors band. Reaching the National Exam at all means a student was nominated as a top performer in their ACS Local Section, so an Honors result already places them well within the national elite.
A national honor is worth pursuing in its own right. It is a credible, externally verified marker of scientific talent — the kind that strengthens an application to a selective university or a competitive summer research program — and the work it takes to earn one builds the deep, durable foundation in chemistry that the international competitors share. Every member of Team USA was a Top 20 honoree first; the honors and the medals are points on the same path.
Four tiers that produce Team USA
No student is invited straight onto the international team. Team USA is the survivor of a four-tier gauntlet that begins with thousands of competitors each spring and narrows to four by midsummer.
Local Olympiad
Each March, students register through their ACS Local Section and sit the Local Exam. Section coordinators nominate the top scorers to advance.
National Exam
Each April, more than 1,000 nominees sit the three-part National Exam — multiple choice, free response, and a laboratory practical — which sets the national rankings.
Study Camp
In June, the Top 20 spend two weeks at a residential camp of intensive theory and lab work. From them, four students are chosen for Team USA.
IChO
In July, the four travel as Team USA to the International Chemistry Olympiad, where they compete for medals against national teams from around the world.
What makes the ladder so demanding is that every rung tests genuine chemical understanding rather than memorization. A student must master the full advanced syllabus — stoichiometry, thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibrium, electrochemistry, bonding, and organic chemistry — and prove real skill at the laboratory bench, the same combination the international competition demands. Students who reach Team USA have done this under time pressure, against the strongest field in the country, four separate times. The gold medals are earned long before the team ever boards the plane.
Results & honors, explained
The four members of Team USA are selected at the June Study Camp. The Top 20 scorers from the April National Exam are invited to the two-week residential camp, where intensive theory and laboratory work identify the four students who will represent the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad.
At the 2025 International Chemistry Olympiad in Dubai, all four members of Team USA won gold. They competed against 354 students from 91 countries across a theoretical examination and a laboratory practical — a clean four-for-four gold sweep.
After the National Exam, the American Chemical Society recognizes top scorers with three tiers: Top 20, High Honors, and Honors. Top 20 is the most exclusive and leads to the Study Camp. All three mark a student among the strongest high-school chemists in the country.
National honors are determined from the National Exam scores each April and shared through the American Chemical Society and your ACS Local Section Coordinator, who handles your registration and results. Your coordinator is the right contact for confirming whether you earned Top 20, High Honors, or Honors.
The International Chemistry Olympiad, or IChO, is the world championship of chemistry for pre-university students, held each July. National teams of four compete in a demanding theoretical exam and a laboratory practical. It is the final tier of the USNCO pathway and the stage where Team USA competes.
See the Competition page for the full rules, eligibility, and the four-tier structure, and the Exams page for the syllabus and past papers that form the core of any serious preparation.
Aiming for the podium?
Get a study plan, past papers, and coaching built around the USNCO — and begin the season with a clear path toward national honors and Team USA.