Regents Exam Prep

Here in New York State, public high school students take state-wide exams known as Regents. I was a good test taker in school and scored in the 90s on every Regents exam except French (for reasons I won't go into on this blog). The point is, at some moment in my life I knew enough chemistry to score a 90 on a standardized test. And then promptly forgot it.

Last week, in preparation for an upcoming story on homeschooling chemistry for the Albany Times Union, I read through our "text" for the year, The Joy of Chemistry (see below). And I once again had that all-too-rare feeling of understanding something kind of complicated. In fact, I kept joking that if I had to take the Chemistry Regents this week, I could probably pass it.

Well, I just took an online quiz on atomic structure, redox reactions, and acids and bases at the Oswego City School District's Regents Exam review site. I didn't score 90 percent -- not even close -- but I got enough answers right to think that I'm starting to regain some of that long-lost knowledge. If you want to give it a try, the link is here.