Supplemental Materials
Preparing For Attainment Examinations
Importance of the attainment exams
During the first week of August, you will be required to take attainment examinations in physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry. The results of these examinations will aid us in making decisions about your graduate course schedule, so it is worthwhile to spend some time preparing for the exams. If you pass all attainment exams, you will need to take four graduate level courses (or more if you choose) to meet the program requirements and may be able to complete your course requirements as early as your third semester. If you have deficiencies on some of the exam areas, you will generally be advised to take a related graduate course to gain the necessary background.
Following your attainment examinations, you will meet with faculty to review the results of your exams. At that time, you will be advised regarding the specific classes you will need to take during your first semester at CMU. Passing all three attainment examinations or graduate courses in the corresponding areas before the end of the third semester is a requirement to reach Ph.D. candidacy.
About the exams
The exams are the standardized ACS exams in multiple choice format. The time allotted for each exam varies from 2–3 hours, depending on the number of questions. They are intended to cover, approximately, the undergraduate background in chemistry given at Carnegie Mellon or comparable universities. To learn more about what topics will be covered, you might refer to the following texts or similar modern texts:
- Organic Chemistry (Brown & Foote, 2nd. Ed.)
- Physical Chemistry (P.W. Atkins, 6th Ed.)
- Inorganic Chemistry (James R. Bowser)
Expectations and Suggestions for Preparing
Our goal is to get students into their research as early as possible with strong foundation knowledge. To pass the attainments, we require students to get the median score or higher in each of the three areas. Note that the median score is based on a population of both undergraduate and graduate students who take the exam each year so the standard for passing is fairly high. A modest amount of review is valuable for most students, particularly practicing answering similar questions. One option we would suggest is to visit the GRE website and review the chemistry subject testing materials available online. Reviewing texts like those listed above or other modern texts is also excellent preparation for these examinations. To make the best use of your time, it is useful to refer to exams from your previous coursework to identify the areas where review may be most helpful to you.