Chemistry Placement Assessment

You only need to take this assessment if you plan to take CH221, General Chemistry.

The free chemistry placement assessment is designed to assess your chemistry knowledge and guide you into the chemistry level that best suits your current skills. General chemistry (CH221, CH222, and CH223) are rigorous courses that build a foundation for many of the other courses that you may be taking in the future.

Determine If You Need to Take the Chemistry Placement Assessment

Students wishing to enroll in General Chemistry I (CH221) or Honors General Chemistry I (CH221H) are required to take the chemistry placement assessment and must score 90% or higher in the assessment prior to registration to enroll in CH221 or CH221H.

The chemistry placement assessment is NOT required for students wishing to enroll in Preparatory Chemistry (CH121).

If you are repeating General Chemistry you need to take the chemistry placement assessment; to re-enroll in CH221, you must score 90% or higher on the assessment.

How to Take the Chemistry Placement Assessment

You are advised to take the ALEKS Chemistry Placement Assessment as early as possible to ensure the required score is earned before course registration begins. Incoming students should take it before attending New Student Orientation; you will not have time during orientation to take the assessment. The assessment must be completed before the first day of the term.

Students will take the ALEKS Chemistry Placement Assessment online at a time and at a place that is convenient to them. The assessment is administered through an artificial intelligence-based teaching tool called ALEKS. 

Give yourself two hours for the placement assessment, which is called the Initial Knowledge Check (IKC). You should not be interrupted during the assessment and will need a reliable internet connection. We recommend you have a calculator and scratch paper available before starting.

ALEKS is an adaptive system that will determine your current knowledge through an IKC.

• The IKC will consist of up to 30 questions, depending on your current knowledge. Because everyone comes in with a slightly different knowledge base, not every student will receive the same set of questions.
• The IKC is not timed but you should plan for a maximum of 1.5 – 2 hours to answer the initial questions.
• You may log out and log back in again while completing the IKC, allowing you to take breaks. ALEKS will remember where you left off and you can pick up from there.
• There is no advantage, and actually a disadvantage, to consulting outside resources – such as a textbook, the internet or a friend – to improve your assessment score. If ALEKS thinks you know more than you do, it will subsequently give you more difficult problems to solve. Use of outside resources could also lead to improper placement and potential course failure. Always read and follow the onscreen instructions very carefully and do the work on your own.
• Only click the “I don’t know” button during the assessment if you really don’t have any idea how to do the problem. Otherwise, ALEKS will think you don’t know things you actually do know and this will be reflected in the placement assessment results. There is no penalty for incorrectly answering a question on the placement assessment; it only helps ALEKS understand what you know and don’t know.

Once you complete the IKC, ALEKS will provide a score that represents the percentage of topics you have mastered. It is not unusual for students to earn an initial score below 50% and spend three to five additional hours learning content and raising their score to the required level. Because you will be building your knowledge base and preparing yourself for CH221, we encourage you to take your time and not rush through this process. Once you have initially logged into ALEKS you will have up to 18 weeks or until the first day of the term to complete your placement. If you feel you are spending too much time (generally over 20 hours) or are overwhelmed by the material, we encourage you to speak with an advisor and consider taking preparatory chemistry, CH121, prior to taking CH221.

Steps to Take The Assessment

1. Log in using your PSU Student (Odin) Account.
   • If you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to enter your PSU login and password. If you have not activated your student account, sign in to activate your Student (Odin) Account. 
   • Your ALEKS Chemistry Placement Assessment account is valid for one year after initially accessing the ALEKS system, even if you didn't begin or complete an assessment. After one year, you will need to reactivate your account as above by reentering your PSU login and password.
2. Confirm the class information, you should be signing up for 2024-2025 Chemistry Placement Assessment, then select Confirm.

3. Follow the prompts to register, once your registration is complete, select Continue.
   • If you have never taken the ALEKS Chemistry Placement Assessment, select “No, I have never used ALEKS before.” (Select this even if you have used ALEKS to take the Math Placement Test).
   • Complete the registration information, taking care to enter your PSU email address and ID number correctly to ensure your ALEKS account will be linked with your PSU account. 
   • Record your ALEKS username and password. 
   • You will receive an email confirming your account registration.

4. Select 2024-2025 Chemistry Placement Assessment – Open Pie

5. Complete the Tools Tutorial.
6. Complete the Initial Knowledge Check (IKC).

7. After the IKC, you will see your ALEKS pie. This shows you what you already know, what you’re ready to learn and what topics you’ll eventually need to learn.

8. Select Next to use the learning mode to increase your score, then select Start (or Continue) My Path. The learning mode includes questions and tutorials to help you master the information.
9. Continue working in learning mode until your pie score has reached 90% or higher. This score is sufficient for registration but you are strongly encouraged to keep working until reaching a score of 100% to help you prepare for your upcoming chemistry course.
10. Wait at least 24 hours after completion of the assessment to register for class.

Scoring

A score below 90% on the initial placement assessment is not uncommon and does not mean you will be unsuccessful in CH221 or CH221H, but that your skills need refreshing before you start the course. 

If your initial score is below 90%, you will have up to 18 weeks, or until the first day of class to use the Learning Modules within ALEKS to refresh your knowledge and raise your score. If you achieve a sufficient score within a 4-week period, you will not have to retake the initial assessment.

A score of 90% or higher is required to register for CH221 or CH221H.

Students can earn the prerequisite ALEKS score in one of two ways:

1. Students who are particularly well-prepared may score 90% or higher on the Initial Knowledge Check and will not need to do any further work in the ALEKS assessment.
2. Students who do not score at least 90% will be able to use the ALEKS learning modules to improve their score, until their score is 90% or higher.

It may just mean that there are some skills that need refreshing before you start the course. 

If you get a low initial score, you will have up to 18 weeks, or until the first day of class to use the Learning Mode within ALEKS to refresh your knowledge and work your way up to 90%. If you do not achieve 90% within four weeks, you will retake the initial knowledge check (IKC).

From the time of the initial log-in, students have 18 weeks to complete the assessment.

Preparatory Chemistry CH121

If you are not able to successfully register for CH221, you are strongly encouraged to register for CH121. CH121, Preparatory Chemistry, is a class that is designed to prepare you for the rigors and content of General Chemistry by providing you with math review and support, slower coverage of foundational materials, tools to improve your learning outcomes, and set you up for a successful run at the general chemistry sequence.

Enroll in CH221

Once you complete the assessment, your score will automatically be loaded into PSU’s student information system. Wait at least 24 hours for your score to be loaded before registering for classes. Once a score of 90% or higher has been uploaded, you will be able to register for CH221 or CH221H.

Students who are eligible to take CH221 during fall term will be in the Main Sequence of General Chemistry. Students who end up taking CH121 will be able to retake the placement assessment during the fall term and follow the trailer sequence of General Chemistry.

**The summer session of CH223 will be offered as either a 3- or 8-week long summer course, or it can be taken during the fall term of the next academic year.

Accessibility

Contact the Disability Resource Center; they will work with the Department of Chemistry to determine the best way to adjust ALEKS to fit your needs.

Contact

For questions about taking the placement assessment, contact chemistry_placement@pdx.edu. 

For technical difficulties using ALEKS, contact ALEKS support.