Getting Your Head Around the Chemistry Yearly Competitions
The Royal Australian Chemical Institute runs an annual competition called the Chemistry Yearly. It targets high school students across Australia and New Zealand, typically years 10 through 12. The exam itself is a written paper that tests real chemical understanding rather than rote memorisation. Students sit it under supervised conditions at their schools. Results feed into state-based prizes and national rankings. I helped moderate marking for one of the state panels a few years back. What struck me immediately was how much students lose marks not from not knowing chemistry, but from misreading what the question actually wanted. The exam is deliberate about this. They want you to show working, use correct significant figures, and structure answers in a way that maps to the marking rubric. That alone accounts for probably half the variance in student scores.
What the Gameplay For Chemistry Yearly Actually Looks Like
The format shifts slightly depending on which year level you sit, but the structure is consistent. There are multiple choice sections, short answer questions, and extended response items. The difficulty scales with year level. A year 10 student will face stoichiometry and bonding questions at an introductory level. A year 12 student will be working through electrochemistry, kinetics, and organic mechanisms at a near-first-year university standard. The multiple choice section is where most students burn time. The questions aren't trivial. They often embed a calculation inside a conceptual framework. You can't just spot the right answer by pattern matching. I've seen students spend four minutes on a single multiple choice item when the intended time was under ninety seconds. That habit costs you later when the longer questions demand more attention. Here's something most preparation guides don't mention. The marking scheme rewards specific language. If the question asks about bond polarity and you write "the electrons are shared unequally" without naming electronegativity as the cause, you'll lose points. The examiners are looking for technical vocabulary used correctly. It's not pedantry. It's testing whether you can communicate at the level the discipline expects.
How I Approach Preparation
Start with the past papers. Not because the questions repeat, but because the style repeats. The RACI writes with a particular rhythm. Once you internalise that rhythm, you stop being surprised by what the questions look like. I usually have students complete one full paper under timed conditions before they do anything else. The result tells you more than any mock exam book you can buy. After that first paper, spend a week targeting weak areas. If stoichiometry is killing you, don't just re-read the textbook. Work through problems where you have to convert between mass, moles, and volume in a single chain. The exam loves combining steps. A question might ask you to find the mass of a precipitate from a titration volume and a balanced equation. Two concepts in one item. Practice those linked problems specifically. For the extended response section, practice writing answers that fit within the expected length. I've marked scripts where students wrote three paragraphs when two would have been sufficient and more precise. More words doesn't equal more marks. The rubric allocates points for specific elements of the answer. Hit those elements cleanly and move on.
Get the Full Details
One Thing That Catches People Out
Sigmatron values and significant figures. Students either ignore them completely or apply them inconsistently across a multi-part question. Here's the rule I give everyone: your final answer in each part should match the precision of the least precise datum given in that part. If the question provides data to three significant figures, your answer should be to three significant figures. Not two. Not four. Three. This applies even if an intermediate calculation gave you a cleaner number. I once marked a paper where a student got the correct numerical answer to an equilibrium constant calculation but wrote it as 1.5 instead of 1.50. The question provided concentrations to two decimal places, which meant three significant figures. They lost a mark. It felt harsh at the time. It isn't harsh. It's the standard the discipline uses everywhere else.
Resources That Actually Help
The RACI publishes past papers and marking guidelines on their website. Use those. They're the primary source. Third-party prep books sometimes generalise or simplify the questions in ways that don't match the actual exam style. Stick to official materials for practice. Supplement with your textbook for concept review, but don't treat the textbook as the exam itself. There are online video lectures covering the syllabus topics. I'm not enthusiastic about them as a primary study method. They tend to present idealised solutions that skip the messy reasoning students actually need to develop. Use them selectively when you're stuck on a concept, not as a replacement for doing problems yourself.
When the Format Doesn't Work for You
Some students struggle with the timed written format regardless of how well they know the chemistry. If that's you, the issue isn't necessarily the content. It's the pressure of producing answers under time constraints. Practice writing full responses at speed before exam day. Set a timer. Force yourself to complete a question in the time it should take. This builds the muscle memory for pacing. Students with documented learning differences should contact their school coordinator well before the exam date. The RACI provides reasonable adjustments, but the application process requires paperwork and lead time. I've seen competent students miss out on accommodations because they assumed the school would handle it automatically. It doesn't work that way.
Practical Tips for Exam Day
Bring a non-programmable calculator. Check that it's working the night before. I've had students show up to find their calculator battery is dead and spend twenty minutes in a quiet corner trying to revive it while the clock keeps running. Don't let that be you. Read every question twice. Not because they're tricky, but because students regularly answer the question they expect rather than the question that's written. If a question asks for an explanation in terms of Le Chatelier's principle and you write about reaction rates instead, you've answered the wrong thing entirely. The chemistry knowledge is there. The answer gets zero marks. Leave the last ten minutes for checking. Don't spend the entire exam sprinting through and then sitting with two minutes left and nothing to review. Pace yourself so you finish with time to verify significant figures, units, and that you actually answered what was asked.
The Chemistry Yearly is a legitimate assessment that reflects real chemical thinking. It's not a trivia contest. The students who do well are the ones who practise deliberately, understand the marking expectations, and treat the exam as a demonstration of communication skills as much as a test of knowledge. Prepare accordingly.
