Seventeen years.
For the first time since 2008, two Bellaire students, juniors Jason Chen and Akhil Baker, have earned the Honors ranking in the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad, placing in the top 150 nationally on May 14.
The Olympiad is divided into four tiers: the Local Exam, the National Exam, the Study Camp, and the International Chemistry Olympiad. The American Chemical Society sponsors the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad at the local and national levels, while the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry organizes the International Chemistry Olympiad at the international level.
The Local Exam was taken at the University of Houston. The exam is 60 questions, with 10 topics ranging from stoichiometry to biochemistry.
“Starting from the second week of the school year, I had material coded to different topics,” Chemistry Club Sponsor and OnRamps Chemistry teacher Robert Morales said. “They need to know acids and bases, thermochemistry, equilibrium and kinetics, so each week or two, I prepared them with some material on it.”
Morales said that anyone interested in participating in the Olympiad should give it a shot. Morales became the sponsor of the Chemistry Club at the beginning of last year.
“No matter what, it’s a multi-year process,” Morales said. “It begins with me getting students interested in chemistry. From there, those students wanted more, so they came in for this challenge. If you want to be part of this winning team, all it takes is coming in, learning the material and having a good time.”
Chen said he wasn’t always passionate about chemistry until Morales came to the school.
“Studying chemistry has been a very arduous journey,” Chen said. “After I finished my homework, instead of playing games with my friends, I studied questions for the exams. I kept studying, even when my friends jokingly made fun of me for doing it. The honors ranking is the validation that if I do the work and I put in the hours, then I can achieve what I want to achieve.”
Chen said that a challenge he faced in preparation for the exam was organic chemistry. He said he considers it one of the hardest topics because it’s more memorization-focused.
“Organic chemistry is really hard to nail down,” Chen said. “I went to every single one of [Mr. Morales’ Organic Chemistry] classes, and I took notes and studied. If I didn’t have that class, I might not have been able to get the honors ranking.”
Chen said ranking was the validation he needed and that hard work can pay off. Chen scored a 50 out of 60 on the Local Exam and a 39 out of 60 on the National Exam.
“For those who feel that they’re not smart enough or they do not have enough knowledge, understand that Olympiads are not a competition about who’s the smartest of the people,” Chen said. “It’s a competition of who works the hardest. Taking that mindset in and just putting all your effort into working on an Olympiad will produce some measure of success.”
Baker started preparing for the Olympiad last year. He used practice tests from previous years and looked up certain topics on the exam online.
“I was in AP Chemistry at the time, and I was kind of struggling,” Baker said. “I would come in and ask Mr. Morales questions about the AP Chemistry material. I started to learn things pretty quickly, and he suggested I should participate in the Olympiad because he wanted to introduce some kids to it.”
Baker said he considered the ranking a personal achievement, as he said it meant a lot to him. On the Local Exam, Baker got a 52 out of 60.
“Don’t be afraid if the chemistry is hard at first,” Baker said. “For me, it was extremely hard at first in AP Chemistry, I was struggling a lot for the first few cycles. I saw Mr. Morales, and his explanations helped me realize that chemistry isn’t as hard as I thought it was, and [helped me] appreciate why it’s so interesting. Ask Mr. Morales for your first steps [in getting involved with the Olympiad] because he is a great resource and teacher.”
To learn more about the Chemistry Club, sign up for its Remind at @6f24dkg.
