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First Year Examination Rules

1. The Education Committee of the Indiana Section of the American Chemical Society will conduct the examination and judge the results. Their decisions will be final.

Eligibility and Selection

2. Any student that has one year or less of high school chemistry is eligible for the First Year Examination. Students in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades are eligible. All nominees have agreed to the rules and conditions of this competition.
3. Previous First Year Examination Award winners (either Scholarship or Honorable Mention recipients) are not eligible for participation.
4. The number of nominations from a school is determined by the total number of chemistry teachers (1st year and advanced) in that school as follows:
   

   Number of chemistry teachers	Maximum nominations
   1	6
   2	8
   3	10
   4 or more	12

   
   The selection of students among the eligible teachers will be determined by the high school itself. All nominations must be made on the appropriate form at the same time. Late nominations may not be considered.
5. One alternate nomination will be permitted from a school. Although the alternate may compete, the alternate's score will be considered only if a regular nominee does not attend.

Conduct of Examination

6. Any participating student must take the examination at the announced time and place.
7. Only nonprogrammable scientific calculators will be allowed.  No graphing calculators, or calculators with stored programs, constants, or inter-calculator communication features will be permitted.
8. No periodic tables or other supplementary material may be used during the examination other than those provided.
9. Any student who cheats, uses inappropriate materials, or plagiarizes work will be disqualified from the competition. In addition, no school team with disqualified students will be eligible for team awards.

Award Structure

10. Scholarship awards for the top five places (1st $1000, 2nd $800, 3rd $600, 4th $400, 5th $200) will be applicable toward tuition and fees at any accredited college or university of the student's choice within five years of the examination date. Upon student acceptance at that institution, the ACS Indiana Section will pay (upon notification) the scholarship award directly to the enrolling institution. The student will be expected to enroll in a chemistry course that fulfills professional chemistry training requirements. Scholarship winners will receive a CRC Handbook (or comparable reference work).
11. An Honorable Mention Certificate and a CRC Handbook (or comparable reference work) will be awarded to those students scoring in the top 10%, excluding scholarship winners.
12. A Certificate of Participation will be given to all students completing the examination (excluding award winners).
13. School Awards will go to the top five schools based on the total of the 3 best scores. The first place award will be $100 and a plaque containing the students' names. Second-fifth place awards will be $100 and certificates containing the students' names.
14. The School Honor Roll is comprised of those schools that had teams (highest 3 team scores) with composite scores greater than one standard deviation above the mean and who did not receive a School Award (see item 13 above)
15. Any student participants and/or award recipients and participating teachers agree that their name and institutional affiliation may be used in press releases or other relevant publications on media or available through the Internet.