• 42 questions

Chemistry Major Field Test Practice

Unofficial questions on physical, organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry, in the shares of ETS's Major Field Test in Chemistry.

How many degrees of freedom does a pure substance have at its triple point?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with ETS. Bank checked October 12, 2026.

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All 42 questions

Physical chemistry 12

  • A first-order reaction has a half-life of 15 minutes. How long does it take for the reactant to fall to 1/16 of its starting concentration? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), B. Kinetics: rate laws, rate constants, half-life. Wikipedia, "Rate equation".
  • A gas gives off 150 J of heat while 400 J of work is done on it. What is the change in its internal energy? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), A. Thermodynamics: first, second and third laws. Wikipedia, "First law of thermodynamics".
  • A reaction has an equilibrium constant K = 10 at 298 K. What is its standard reaction Gibbs energy, ΔG°? (R = 8.314 J/(mol·K)) ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), A. Thermodynamics: equilibrium constants; spontaneity. Wikipedia, "Gibbs free energy".
  • For a particle in a one-dimensional box, what is the ratio of the energy of the n = 2 level to the energy of the n = 1 level? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), C. Quantum chemistry and applications: principles of quantum mechanics. Wikipedia, "Particle in a box".
Show all 42 questions (38 more)

Physical chemistry, continued

  • How many degrees of freedom does a pure substance have at its triple point? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), A. Thermodynamics: phase equilibria. Wikipedia, "Phase rule".
  • In a photochemical reaction, 2.0 × 10⁻³ mol of product forms while the sample absorbs 1.0 × 10⁻³ mol of photons. What is the quantum yield of product formation? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), B. Kinetics: photochemistry. Wikipedia, "Quantum yield".
  • In Michaelis-Menten kinetics, what is the reaction rate when the substrate concentration equals the Michaelis constant, K_M? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), B. Kinetics: enzyme kinetics. Wikipedia, "Michaelis-Menten kinetics".
  • In the photoelectric effect, light of a fixed frequency above the threshold is made twice as intense. What happens? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), C. Quantum chemistry and applications: classical experiments. Wikipedia, "Photoelectric effect".
  • In the van der Waals equation for a real gas, what do the constants a and b correct for? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), B. Kinetics: ideal and real gas equations and properties. Wikipedia, "Van der Waals equation".
  • Two nondegenerate energy levels are separated by ΔE = kT ln 2 at temperature T. By the Boltzmann distribution, what is the ratio of the population of the upper level to that of the lower level? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), A. Thermodynamics: statistical thermodynamics. Wikipedia, "Boltzmann distribution".
  • What does a catalyst change in a reversible reaction? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), B. Kinetics: activated complex theory; catalysis. Wikipedia, "Catalysis".
  • Which of these 0.10 molal aqueous solutions freezes at the lowest temperature? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: I. Physical Chemistry (28%), A. Thermodynamics: colligative properties. Wikipedia, "Freezing-point depression".

Organic chemistry 13

  • Buta-1,3-diene and ethene react on heating. What kind of reaction is this, and what ring forms? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), C. Reaction mechanisms: cycloadditions. Wikipedia, "Diels-Alder reaction".
  • Hydrogen bromide adds to propene with no peroxide present. What is the major product? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), B. Functional groups: preparation and reactions of alkenes. Wikipedia, "Markovnikov's rule".
  • In double-stranded DNA, how many hydrogen bonds hold a guanine-cytosine pair and an adenine-thymine pair? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), D. Biochemistry: nucleotides and nucleic acids. Wikipedia, "Base pair".
  • Methylmagnesium bromide is added to propanone (acetone), and the mixture is then treated with dilute acid. What is the product? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), B. Functional groups: preparation and reactions of alkyl halides, ketones, alcohols. Wikipedia, "Grignard reaction".
  • Nitrobenzene is brominated with Br₂ and FeBr₃. Where does the bromine mainly go? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), C. Reaction mechanisms: electrophilic substitutions; relative reactivities. Wikipedia, "Electrophilic aromatic directing groups".
  • (R)-2-Bromobutane reacts with hydroxide ion by the SN2 mechanism. What is the stereochemistry of the butan-2-ol that forms? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), C. Reaction mechanisms: nucleophilic substitutions; stereochemistry of reactions. Wikipedia, "SN2 reaction".
  • Tartaric acid has two stereocenters. How many stereoisomers does it have? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), A. Molecular structure: stereochemistry. Wikipedia, "Meso compound".
  • What is the hybridization of each carbon atom in ethyne (acetylene), HC≡CH? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), A. Molecular structure: bonding, orbital hybridization. Wikipedia, "Orbital hybridisation".
  • Which functional group gives a strong infrared absorption near 1700 cm⁻¹? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), A. Molecular structure: IR, NMR, UV/visible spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Wikipedia, "Infrared spectroscopy correlation table".
  • Which of the standard amino acids found in proteins has no stereocenter? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), D. Biochemistry: amino acids, peptides, proteins. Wikipedia, "Glycine".
  • Which of these alcohols is oxidized to a ketone by chromic acid? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), B. Functional groups: preparation and reactions of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones. Wikipedia, "Alcohol oxidation".
  • Which of these alkyl bromides reacts fastest by the SN1 mechanism? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), C. Reaction mechanisms: nucleophilic substitutions; reactive intermediates (carbocations). Wikipedia, "SN1 reaction".
  • Which of these species is aromatic by Hückel's rule? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: II. Organic Chemistry (30%), A. Molecular structure: resonance, aromaticity. Wikipedia, "Hückel's rule".

Inorganic chemistry 10

  • A uranium-238 nucleus emits an alpha particle. Which nuclide is formed? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), A. General chemistry: nuclear chemistry. Wikipedia, "Alpha decay".
  • According to molecular orbital theory, what are the bond order and the magnetic behavior of the O₂ molecule? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), B. Structure and bonding: molecular orbitals. Wikipedia, "Triplet oxygen".
  • An iron atom in oxidation state 0 has eight valence electrons. How many carbon monoxide ligands does it need to satisfy the 18-electron rule? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), F. Special topics: organometallic chemistry, including effective atomic number rule. Wikipedia, "18-electron rule".
  • Boron lies to the right of beryllium in the periodic table, yet its first ionization energy is lower. Why? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), A. General chemistry: periodic trends, electronic structure. Wikipedia, "Ionization energy".
  • The complex ion [Co(NH₃)₆]³⁺ is octahedral and low-spin. How many unpaired electrons does it have? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), E. Chemistry of the transition elements: coordination chemistry, bonding. Wikipedia, "Hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride".
  • How is aluminium metal produced on an industrial scale? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), D. Chemistry of the main group elements: occurrences and recovery. Wikipedia, "Hall-Héroult process".
  • How many atoms does one face-centered cubic unit cell contain? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), C. Metallic and ionic substances: lattice structure. Wikipedia, "Cubic crystal system".
  • How many geometric isomers does the square planar complex [Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂] have? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), E. Chemistry of the transition elements: stereochemistry. Wikipedia, "Cisplatin".
  • The octahedral complex ion [Co(en)₃]³⁺, where en is ethylenediamine, shows which kind of isomerism? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), E. Chemistry of the transition elements: coordination chemistry, including ligands, stereochemistry. Wikipedia, "Tris(ethylenediamine)cobalt(III) chloride".
  • Silicon is doped with a small amount of phosphorus. What kind of semiconductor results, and which carrier is in the majority? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: III. Inorganic Chemistry (26%), C. Metallic and ionic substances: conductors, semiconductors. Wikipedia, "Doping (semiconductor)".

Analytical chemistry 7

  • A balance reads 0.05 g too high on every weighing. How should a set of masses measured on it be described? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), A. Experimental design and data acquisition: accuracy and precision, random and systematic error. Wikipedia, "Accuracy and precision".
  • A buffer contains 0.10 M acetate ion and 0.010 M acetic acid. The pKa of acetic acid is 4.76. What is the pH? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), B. Homogeneous equilibria: acid-base equilibria and titrations. Wikipedia, "Henderson-Hasselbalch equation".
  • A solution in a 1.00 cm cell has an absorbance of 0.60 at a wavelength where its molar absorptivity is 1.2 × 10⁴ L mol⁻¹ cm⁻¹. What is its concentration? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), E. Instrumental methods: Beer's law, spectroscopic methods. Wikipedia, "Beer-Lambert law".
  • EDTA is the usual titrant in complexometric titrations of metal ions. How many donor atoms can one fully ionized EDTA ion use to bind a metal cation? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), B. Homogeneous equilibria: complexometric titrations. Wikipedia, "Complexometric titration".
  • In reversed-phase liquid chromatography, which compound in a mixture leaves the column first? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), E. Instrumental methods: chromatographic methods. Wikipedia, "Reversed-phase chromatography".
  • Solid silver chloride is in equilibrium with its saturated solution. Some sodium chloride is then dissolved in the solution. What happens? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), C. Heterogeneous equilibria: gravimetric analysis, solubility. Wikipedia, "Common-ion effect".
  • Which substance is commonly used as a primary standard for standardizing a sodium hydroxide solution? ETS, Major Field Test in Chemistry test description: IV. Analytical Chemistry (30%), D. Solutions: standardizations and primary standards. Wikipedia, "Primary standard".

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the test description ETS publishes for the Major Field Test in Chemistry (https://www.ets.org/content/dam/ets-org/pdfs/mft/chemistry-test-description.pdf, read 2026-10-12): Physical Chemistry 28%, Organic Chemistry 30%, Inorganic Chemistry 26%, Analytical Chemistry 30%, of which about 16% is from the traditional analytical topics and about 14% from analytical questions inside the other three. The bank holds 12, 13, 10 and 7 questions. Each fact was read on 2026-10-12 in the Wikipedia article named under its question, and answers that are arithmetic were worked out a second time. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

This chemistry practice set follows ETS's Major Field Test in Chemistry for graduating majors: 42 questions of our own across physical, organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by ETS.

Read the full guide

Four fields

ETS's test description, read October 12, 2026: physical chemistry 28%, organic 30%, inorganic 26% and the traditional analytical topics 16%. A further 14% of analytical questions sit inside the other three fields. This bank holds 12, 13, 10 and 7 questions.

Biochemistry and reasoning

About 15 of the real questions are biochemistry and about 30 test reasoning, all inside the four fields. Here the enzyme rate, amino acid and base-pair questions are the biochemistry.

The real pace

The timed exam here draws 40 of our questions in 48 minutes, the real test's 72 seconds each.

  • The real test supplies a periodic table and ETS says calculators are not needed, so keep a table at hand.
  • Reasoning questions on the real test mean interpreting data, a multistep synthesis, a mechanism or a spectrum.

Questions and answers

Is there a Major Field Test chemistry study guide?

For this test ETS gives out a test description, which holds the outline of every field, and a set of sample questions. The 42 questions here are written to that outline; none is one of ETS's samples.

What is on the Major Field Test in Chemistry?

100 multiple-choice questions on physical, organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry. Some are grouped in sets based on a descriptive paragraph or on experimental results.

How long is the Major Field Test in Chemistry?

It is built to last two hours and can be given in two sessions. A proctor must give it.

How is the Major Field Test in Chemistry scored?

Each student gets a total score and a subscore for each of the four fields. Critical thinking and biochemistry are reported for the group only, when at least five students test.

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