The Board of Trustees (BoT) is charged with fiduciary oversight of the ACS Examinations Institute. The Board serves the Division by providing advice and consent on large scale projects and budgetary matters of the Institute and serves as a sounding board for the Director of the Institute on legal matters that may affect the finances of the Institute.
The Board is very pleased to announce that a new (2025-2030) contract has been signed with Institute Director Dr. Kristen Murphy, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Discussions during this time prompted action items including a reexamination of the Board’s Operations Manual and an assessment of future leadership needs for the Institute. In conjunction with this new Director contract, a new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Exams Institute and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was also written and signed. The MOA document defines how the Society, Division of Chemical Education, and the Institute interact through the Director and Board to deliver high-quality chemical instruction assessment products and services.
At the San Diego ACS Spring Meeting, a new ACS Exams practice website was demonstrated to the Board. Feedback was garnered on this important tool for students and educators to sample assessment exercises and acquire feedback, with the possibility of doing so under timed conditions that simulate a regular exam. Access to the site will be available to any user who has purchased the applicable general or organic exam.
The Institute continues to regularly release new exams for organic and general chemistry, both single semester and full-year. There are a number of exams in trial
phase, which comes at no cost to the consumer and both big and small classes alike welcome. During summer 2025, exams in the trial phase include the Toledo placement, second-term organic chemistry, and biochemistry exams. A number of new exams are coming, as well – Prep Chem (Introductory General Chemistry), second-semester organic, and a new version of the Toledo placement exam. As previously announced, the Institute is now able to produce custom exams that fit specific testing needs either based on content, timing, or both.
The Institute continues to evaluate all collected data for publishing preliminary and final norms. In addition, the Institute has developed a tool in response to requests to be able to generate norms for a reduced set of items for general and organic ACS exams. Institute is always expanding the materials it offers for test preparation. In addition to the Study Guides that are sold in general, organic, and physical chemistry, the Institute is in the editing phase for a biochemistry exam Study Guide. The Institute has been providing workshops at regular conferences and meetings for more than a decade. The Institute is very excited to announce that travel to institutions to provide onsite workshops is possible. These workshops could be done with groups of faculty both in chemistry/biochemistry departments as well as more broadly through teaching and learning centers. The Institute’s online presence continues to grow as it develops new study materials, its own e-commerce site, and a sales site through Amazon.
As previously stated, the Institute continues to expand its portfolio of study materials for students based upon the feedback from requests in our community. Additionally, the Institute is developing better methods for norming exams with psychometric modeling to help faculty users better understand the outcomes of student performance. The new norming methods also help in the further development of other testing products that are on the horizon.