A Comparative Study Of Chemistry Olympiad Questions In China,the United States And Russia

Chemistry Olympiads have played an important role in promoting high-level talent development worldwide,and the following results are obtained from a study of the content composition and structure,knowledge level and competence level of theoretical chemistry competition questions at the same level(final/winter camp)in the same year(2019)in three countries: China,USA and Russia.1.In terms of test structure,the Chinese and Russian tests only examine short-answer questions,while the American test examines multiple-choice questions in addition to short-answer questions;The Russian test has the longest exam time,followed by the Chinese test and the American test.2.In terms of content selection,the Chinese questions focus most on organic chemistry knowledge,and the marks are evenly distributed;the Russian questions focus most on reaction principles knowledge,and the percentage of marks in the ’Other’ knowledge module is significantly higher than in other countries,and more attention is paid to the uncommon types of questions in the competition.More than half of the marks in the US test are allocated to knowledge of reaction principles,with less examination of the remaining knowledge modules.3.On the level of knowledge dimensions,the overall level of Chinese and Russian test questions is relatively similar,showing that the percentage of marks for high level questions is higher than that for low level questions,while the American test questions are completely opposite,with more than 90% of the marks appearing in low level questions and a lower percentage of marks for high level questions.In the specific knowledge modules,(1)Elemental chemistry: There are no low level questions in the Chinese test,and the percentage of high level questions is higher than that of the Russian and American questions.Organic chemistry: Chinese questions are similar to Russian questions,but the percentage of high level questions is significantly higher than that of American questions.(3)Reaction principles: Chinese questions focus on the basics and also highlight the importance of high-level questions,while Russia and the U.S.focus more on intermediate level questions.(4)Structure of materials: Chinese questions focus on upper intermediate level questions,US questions focus on lower intermediate level questions,while Russian questions are the least demanding in this module;(5)Other: Chinese questions do not have questions under the "other" knowledge module,and US questions focus less on this knowledge module,while Russian questions focus most on "other" knowledge.The Russian test focuses most on "other" knowledge and has the highest percentage of marks in the high level test questions.4.In terms of competence dimensions,(1)Mathematical calculation competence: Russian questions have the highest percentage of points,and Chinese and Russian questions have explicit requirements for students to use calculus and more advanced mathematical tools,while the U.S.questions focus mainly on students’ ability to perform four fundamental rules.(2)Spatial thinking competence: Chinese questions cover all three levels under this competence and are more comprehensive in their examination,and in addition,Russia is clearly ahead of other countries in the Level 3 questions.(3)Logical reasoning competence: The majority of the US questions are scored at a low level of competence,while Chinese and Russian questions focus more on high level skills and Russian questions are at a overall higher level of logical reasoning;As for the reasoning types,most of the questions often examine deductive reasoning,a small number of questions in China and Russia examine analogical reasoning,and a very small number of questions in Russia examine the inductive reasoning.Finally,in the total competence level of the test questions,the US has the lowest,China the middle and Russia the highest.5.In terms of the research framework,this study applies the constructed research framework of knowledge levels and proficiency levels to analyse the chemistry competition questions from the three countries and draws out from the statistics the degree of difference between the knowledge and competence levels of the competition questions from the three countries,which has certain application prospects.By analyzing the results of the study,this article identifies the positive aspects of the Chinese Chemistry Competition questions and makes some suggestions.