Chemistry Tells
Structural patterns in how NSB Chemistry questions are written — not chemistry facts, but tells that let you narrow or guess an answer from wording alone.
These hold across every Chemistry subtopic — bonding, solutions, thermo, organic, atomic structure, redox alike.
1. "Which is NOT true / EXCEPT / LEAST accurate"
The single most common trap shape in Chemistry: three choices are true facts, one is false, and the false one is the answer. Roughly a fifth of all Multiple Choice questions use this inverted logic, so before answering, always confirm which direction the question actually wants — the choice that "sounds right" is often the trap here.
2. The false statement usually borrows a value from somewhere else
The wrong answer in a "NOT true" question is rarely a random lie — it usually looks plausible because it borrows a real fact, number, or category that actually belongs to a different, related concept. Watch for a choice that reverses a pair, assigns the wrong category, or combines two facts in a way that's internally impossible.
3. A named scientist, law, or reaction locks in one fixed answer
When the question names a historical chemist or a named law, process, or reaction, there's no ambiguity to work through — that name is paired with exactly one textbook fact. Recognizing the name matters more than understanding the chemistry behind it.
4. Pronunciation guides mark hard words, not the answer
Chemistry — especially Organic Chemistry — is saturated with phonetic guides like "(read as: ...)" on hard terms. They land on wrong answer choices just as often as right ones. Treat a phonetic gloss as a sign the vocabulary is hard, never as a hint toward which choice is correct.
5. "Identify all of the following that..." is a format, not a fact
This phrasing is a fixed Bonus template: the answer is a numbered subset of the list just read, and — contrary to instinct — "ALL" or "NONE" turn out to be the real answer noticeably more often than an even split would predict. Don't assume it has to be a partial subset.
6. "Rank in order of increasing/decreasing X" wants the full order — and often follows a real trend
These questions never want a single item, only the complete ranking. Many resolve to a genuine, learnable periodic trend rather than memorized exceptions: atomic/ionic radius shrinks left-to-right across a period and grows down a group; ionization energy runs the opposite way.
7. Numeric Short Answer questions are formula recognition, not new chemistry each time
A large share of Chemistry word problems plug specific numbers into one of a small set of standard formulas — stoichiometry, molarity, pH/pOH, ideal gas law, specific heat, equilibrium constant, dilution. The real skill is recognizing which formula shape the stem describes; the arithmetic is secondary.
8. Several question types only ever pull from a small closed vocabulary
Reaction-classification questions are always one of five: synthesis, decomposition, single replacement, double replacement, combustion. VSEPR geometry questions are always one of a short fixed list (linear, trigonal planar, tetrahedral, trigonal bipyramidal, octahedral, and a few others). Quantum number questions are always one of four: principal, angular momentum, magnetic, spin. Memorizing these short closed lists is far more efficient than deriving each answer from scratch.
Exact tally across all 886 Chemistry multiple-choice questions in the sample sets. Only reach for this if you are completely out of ideas and the clock is about to run out.
If you must guess completely blind: W is the best single default in Chemistry, with Z notably the least likely of the four — the widest gap of any NSB subject.