Working Through the June 2013 Chemistry Regents
These Regents exams come out in a pretty standard format. The January and June administrations have their own answer keys that the NYSED releases shortly after the exam. The June 2013 version is one of the older ones still widely referenced because a lot of people use it for practice, but it has some quirks you should be aware of before you start grading your own work against it. The exam itself is split into three parts. Part A is 35 multiple choice questions covering the core content. Part B has two sections. Part B-1 is another set of multiple choice questions, and Part B-2 contains short answer and calculated response items. Part C is the long answer section. Each part tests different things, so the way you check answers changes depending on which section you're looking at.
June 2013 Chemistry Regents Answers
The official answer key is posted by the New York State Education Department. You can find it on their website under the Regents examination archives. It's not just a list of correct choices for the multiple choice questions. The scoring rubric for Parts B-2 and C is what actually matters, because those sections use a point-by-point system rather than right-or-wrong answers. I've gone through this process with students more times than I can count, and the biggest mistake I see is people only looking at Part A. The real learning happens in Parts B and C. For example, on question 51 from the June 2013 exam, students were asked to draw a Lewis electron dot diagram. The answer key shows exactly what's expected: the correct number of dots, proper placement around the element symbol, and electrons paired where they should be. If a student draws the right number but puts them all on one side, they still get credit depending on how strictly the grader applies the rubric. That's the kind of detail the official key makes clear if you actually read it rather than just glancing at it. Here's something counter-intuitive that most first-time users miss. The scoring guide for the 2013 exam actually changed slightly from the original version that came out right after the test. When NYS releases answer keys, they occasionally issue technical corrections or updates if there was an error in the original key. The final posted version on their site is the one that actually counts for scoring. I ran into this specifically when a student brought me a workbook that had the older version of the key, and question 33 had a different correct answer listed. The correction came down to a rounding convention on a calculation involving the ideal gas law. The updated key adjusted it, and students who used the older version were marked wrong even though their math was technically correct. Always check that you're looking at the final posted version, not some archived copy floating around a third-party site.
For the multiple choice sections, the answer key gives you letter choices. That part is straightforward. But here's where it gets tricky with the older exams like this one. Some of the questions reference periodic table trends or data table values that have been refined in newer editions of the reference tables. The 2013 exam predates some of the periodic table updates, so if you're using a current reference table to double-check answers, you might get slightly different values for atomic masses or electronegativities. It doesn't usually change the answer choice, but it can on edge cases. I've had students waste twenty minutes arguing over a question where the answer depends on which version of the periodic table they consult. When working through the short answer sections yourself, the scoring rubric uses a credit system. You typically earn one point for the correct numerical answer with proper significant figures, and another point for showing the correct setup or equation. That means you can get the right answer but still lose points if you don't show your work. Conversely, you can set up the problem correctly and earn partial credit even if your final calculation is off. This is exactly how the actual grading works, and it's worth practicing this way rather than just checking if your final number matches the key. One practical workflow that cuts down the time significantly is to print the exam, the scoring key, and the reference tables together in one document. Work through the problems first without looking at anything, then grade yourself using the rubric. I usually recommend doing this in two passes. The first pass is you answering everything. The second pass is you going back through with the answer key and noting exactly where you lost points and why. This two-pass approach takes about 45 minutes for the full exam plus grading, compared to two hours if you stop after each question to check.
Get the Full Details
The main limitation with the June 2013 exam as a study tool is that it reflects the curriculum standards from that year. The NYS Chemistry Regents syllabus has been revised since then, particularly around the emphasis on certain topics like equilibrium and thermochemistry. Some concepts that were heavily tested in 2013 get lighter coverage now, and a few newer topics that appear on recent exams weren't on the 2013 version at all. If you're using this specifically for current exam prep, pair it with a more recent administration like June 2023 or January 2024 to make sure you're not missing content that's on the modern test. The 2013 exam is still valid for practicing the core mechanics of the test, but it won't give you complete coverage of what's tested today. For downloading, the official NYS website maintains an archive of all Regents exams and answer keys going back decades. The direct PDF links are typically structured by exam date and subject. Look for the June 2013 Chemistry document set, which includes the exam paper, the answer key for Part A, and the separate scoring rubric documents for Parts B-2 and C. Make sure you grab all three components because without the scoring rubrics, you're only getting half the picture for the constructed response sections. If you find that the older 2013 material feels dated for your purposes, I'd recommend using it as a supplemental practice tool alongside a current exam. The format hasn't changed drastically enough to make it useless, but relying on it as your only practice source means you're missing content that appears on exams from the last several years.
