By Lily Ramos
Staff Writer
With his involvement in Chemistry Olympiad, one Costa student takes chemistry outside the classroom and into a competition for enjoyment.
Costa sophomore Ved Pandey participated in the first round of Chemistry Olympiad in March against about 16,000 other high school students across America. On the local exam, Pandey had to score a 44 or over to advance to the national competition. Pandey scored was a 46, and he will compete at the national round.
“This competition, at all levels, requires a high level of chemistry beyond what is taught even in AP,” Pandey said. “Because I spent so much studying for this, my chem class is actually a lot easier for me now.”
The local exam, which lasted an hour and forty minutes, was at Costa where ten other Costa students took it. The multiple choice exam contains many calculations and some trivia questions, Pandey said.
“I was somewhat worried when I heard about some of the other people who are competing because they were strong students, but I knew that I had studied a lot and that I was about as prepared as I could be,” Pandey said.
Pandey has been preparing for this for about a year, using many different books. Pandey’s chemistry teacher, Teresa Nielsen, hosted the local exam after Pandey came to her for help. Nielsen has been both his biology and chemistry teacher, and has continually supported him with any of his questions.
“Mrs. Nielsen has been incredibly helpful, staying during lunch to answer questions I had regarding old practice exams,” Pandey said.
The National Competition will be on April 22nd at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Of the almost 16,000 high school students who took the local exam, only about 1,000 made it to the Nationals. The competition will take place at different locations in many states, all on the same day.
“For the next competition, I have been doing old exams and studying organic chemistry by myself, but I don’t think I have studied enough yet to do as well as I want to,” Pandey said
The National Exam will have 60 multiple choice questions, eight free response questions, and two labs. It will take about four hours, and sixteen high school students will be taking the exam at Cal State Dominguez Hills out of the about 1,000. Pandey plans to do this competition next year, and for as long as he can in both the local and national competitions.
“I am going to absolutely pursue this next year, and I want to see if next year I can make the top twenty at the national exam,” Pandey said.
After learning so much about chemistry, Pandey plans to do chemistry-related things in his college education and future career.
“I definitely want to pursue chemistry in college, and I do feel partial for a research related job in chemistry,” Pandey said. “I was interested in chemistry because my class was a lot of fun, and I looked up chemistry competitions because I wanted to boost my college apps. I ended up loving chemistry immensely while prepping for the competition.”
A video showing high school students around the globe participating in the 44th International Chemistry Olympiad in late 2012 in Washington, D.C. Costa sophomore Ved Pandey participated in the National Chemistry Olympiad competition on April 22nd, 2017, and hopes to continue pursuing chemistry.
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