What to Know
Two key courses for a number of science and health care degrees — CHEM&141 and BIOL&241 — require that you either take placement exams or complete prerequisite courses before you can register.
Review your options below for qualifying enroll in CHEM&141 and/or BIOL&241.
For more information and to schedule a placement exam, contact Assessment & Testing Services.
CHEM&141 Placement Options & Test Prep Info
Options for Placement into CHEM&141
In order to enroll in CHEM&141, you must have completed the following requirement:
- Earned a grade of 2.0 or higher in CHEM&121 or CHEM&139, or
- Answered at least 73% correctly on the General Chemistry Prep Placement Examination through the Assessment & Testing Services.
Math prerequisites must also be completed.
Topics Covered on CHEM&141 Placement Test
- Basic concepts about matter: solids, liquids, and gasses
- Measurements and calculations
- Elements, ions, and compounds
- Chemical bonding
- Nomenclature for binary ionic compounds
- Chemical reactions
- Chemical composition
- Chemical quantities
- Modern atomic theory
What to Bring and Other Tips on the Placement Test
- The testing fee for the General Chemistry Prep Placement Exam is $15
- Bring your photo ID to the exam.
- You will need a scientific calculator.
- Scratch paper will be allowed.
- The time limit for this exam is 110 minutes.
- You are allowed one attempt at passing the exam.
- You must score 73% (40 of 55 correct answers) to place into CHEM & 141.
- A periodic table, a density table and a list of useful constants and conversions will be included with the exam.
- Scores are valid for placement for 2 years.
- For more information, contact the Math, Engineering, Science & Health (MESH) department at @email.
BIOL&241 Placement Options & Test Prep Info
Options for Placement into BIOL&241
There are three options for qualifying to enroll in Biology 241 at Olympic College:
- Take both CHEM&121and CHEM&131 as prerequisite courses
- Take CHEM&121 and answer at least 15 of 20 questions correctly on the BIOL&241 Placement Exam.
- Take both CHEM&141 and CHEM&142
Note: If you're seeking entry to the Olympic College Nursing Program, completion of CHEM&121 is required before you can apply. The BIOL&241 test cannot be used to satisfy the Chemistry credit for nursing students.
BIOL&241 Placement Test Info
- The BIOL&241 Placement Exam covers some of the fundamental topics in organic and biochemistry and consists of 20 multiple-choice questions.
- The testing fee is $15.
- A photo ID is required at the time you take the exam.
- You may only take this exam once, and results are valid for up to two years.
- For more information, contact the Math, Engineering, Science & Health (MESH) Department at @email.
Placement Test Study Questions: General Organic Chemistry
- Where in the real world do you find carbohydrates? What are they and what are they composed of?
- Define CBH’s (carbohydrates) using functional groups and know the difference between a monosaccharide, disaccharide, oligosaccharide and polysaccharide.
- Recognize the important disaccharides (maltose, lactose, sucrose), oligosaccharides, dextrins, polysaccharides (starch, amylase, amylopectin, glycogen, cellulose, hyaluronic acid). Where would you find them? Recognize the type of bond, and know what the significance is in human diets.
Placement Test Study Questions: Proteins & Enzymes
- Recognize the amide functional group. What two compounds react to form amides? What macromolecule has amide bonds?
- How are amides made? What is the reaction called?
- What elements make up proteins? What are the repeating subunits of proteins?
- Know the main functional groups in amino acids, and what types of bonds are formed between these functional groups.
- How are proteins classified? Explain the difference between globular and fibrous/structural proteins, give examples of each and their function in the human body. Know especially structure and function of antibiotics.
- Recognize and explain the bonding in primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of proteins.
- Explain denaturation/renaturation.
- Define the terms enzyme, enzyme-substrate, lock and key, induced fit, and how that relates to the different types of enzyme specifically.
Placement Test Study Questions: Lipids
- Chemically define lipids, know what elements combine to form them.
- Understand how lipids are classified.
- Chemically define a fatty acid. How many carbons do natural fatty acids have?
- Explain what monoglycerides, diglycerides and triglycerides are; tell what type of bonding they contain.
- Define phospholipids; know their composition and where you find them in a cell.
Placement Test Study Questions: Nucleic Acids
- What are nucleic acids? What do the initials stand for? Where in the cell are they found?
- What kinds of bonding are found in nucleotides, nucleoside, and nucleic acids?
- Make sure you know the differences between RNA and DNA. If I showed you a nucleotide, you need to tell me if it is from DNA or RNA.
- Know what a primary or secondary structure is.
- Know the function in the cell of DNA and the three RNAs.
- Know the process of protein synthesis from transcription to translation to release. Where do each of these take place, what organelles are involved? How does this differ from self-replication?
Placement Test Study Questions: Metabolism
- Define metabolism, anabolism, and catabolism.
- Why does the cell go to all this trouble to produce this phantom molecule that is made quickly and used up just as quickly that is called ATP? What are some of the uses the cell has for ATP? What is one word that would describe these uses?
- Recognize the chemical structure for ATP.
