This ACS General Chemistry Exam cheat sheet distills a full two-semester chemistry sequence into a printable rundown of the facts and equations ACS forms test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free ACS toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
ACS General Chemistry Exam exam at a glance
- Questions: 70 multiple-choice (full-year form; single-term, Brief, and Conceptual forms vary)
- Time: 110 minutes (about 94 seconds per question)
- Scoring: Raw score converted to a national percentile rank — ACS sets no fixed passing score
- Aids allowed: Non-programmable scientific calculator and the ACS periodic table; instructor sets policy
- Administered by: ACS Examinations Institute via your college or instructor — no candidate portal
- Cost: Set by your institution; ordered by the instructor, often built into course fees
What’s on the ACS General Chemistry Exam cheat sheet
- Atoms & periodicity (~12%) — atomic structure, isotopes, quantum numbers, electron configuration, and periodic trends across a period and down a group.
- Bonding & structure (~14%) — ionic vs. polar vs. nonpolar covalent, Lewis structures and formal charge, VSEPR geometry, and hybridization.
- Reactions & stoichiometry (~16%) — balancing, the mole and limiting reactant, percent yield, reaction types, and redox (OIL RIG).
- Thermo & energy (~14%) — enthalpy and q = mcΔT, Hess's law, entropy, and Gibbs free energy ΔG = ΔH − TΔS for spontaneity.
- Kinetics & equilibrium (~18%) — rate laws and activation energy, Keq and Le Chatelier's principle, acids/bases, pH, buffers, and Ksp.
- Forces, gases & data (~26%) — the IMF strength ladder, PV = nRT and the gas laws, colligative properties, sig figs, and measurement.
How to use it in your final week
- Review broadly, not deep — the exam is cumulative across two semesters, so spread each session across atoms, bonding, reactions, thermo, kinetics, and equilibrium rather than drilling one unit.
- Lock in the core equations from the sheet until they're automatic: PV = nRT, q = mcΔT, ΔG = ΔH − TΔS, pH = −log[H⁺], and E°cell = E°cathode − E°anode.
- Rehearse the ~94-seconds-per-question pace with a timed practice set (70 questions in 110 minutes) so the multi-step calculations don't eat your clock.
- Read the sheet the morning of the test for a final pass on the memory hooks — VSEPR shapes, the IMF strength ladder, and periodic trends across a period and down a group.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your ACS General Chemistry Exam practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
ACS General Chemistry Exam cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — this ACS General Chemistry Exam cheat sheet is a 100% free PDF download with no sign-up. It sits alongside Career Employer's free ACS toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so you can cram the facts and then test yourself in one place.
It condenses the highest-yield general chemistry facts into a quick reference organized by the ACS Anchoring Concepts Content Map — atoms and periodic trends, bonding and VSEPR geometry, intermolecular forces and gases, reactions and stoichiometry, thermochemistry and Gibbs free energy, kinetics, and equilibrium including acids, bases, and Ksp. Core equations like PV = nRT, ΔG = ΔH − TΔS, and pH = −log[H⁺] are all on the sheet.
No — the ACS Examinations Institute publishes no pass/fail cut score. Your raw score is converted to a national percentile rank built from thousands of students who took the same form, and your instructor decides how that percentile maps to a course grade. The cheat sheet is built to raise your raw score and your percentile, not to clear a fixed line.
It's built from the ACS Exams anchoring-concepts framework and the official ACS General Chemistry study materials, and we review it against ACS Exams sources regularly. Because ACS ships several forms — full-year, single-term, Brief, and Conceptual — confirm which form your instructor is giving, since question count and timing can differ.
No — the ACS exam is proctored, and permitted aids are usually limited to a non-programmable scientific calculator and the ACS-provided periodic table. Use the cheat sheet to review before you walk in, not during the test, and practice with only the tools your instructor allows so exam day feels routine.
References
- 1.ACS Examinations Institute. “ACS Exams — General Chemistry Exams (Assessment Materials).” uwm.edu/acs-exams, 2026. ↑
- 2.ACS Examinations Institute. “About ACS Exams.” uwm.edu/acs-exams, 2026. ↑
- 3.ACS Examinations Institute. “National Norms and Score Reporting.” uwm.edu/acs-exams, 2026. ↑
- 4.Holme, T.; Murphy, K.. “The ACS Exams Institute Undergraduate Chemistry Anchoring Concepts Content Map I: General Chemistry.” J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89 (6), 721–723. ↑
- 5.ACS Examinations Institute. “General Chemistry Official Study Guide.” uwm.edu/acs-exams, 2026. ↑
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