How to Pass the Chemistry Regents in 2027
7 min read
Short answer: To pass the Chemistry Regents, make the foundation automatic (element symbols, ion charges, polyatomic ions), practice on real past exams instead of re-reading notes, and use the Reference Tables until finding any table is muscle memory. On the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam, a scaled score of 65 is a pass; on the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam, NYSED reports performance levels, and Level 3 is a pass. If you graduate before January 2028, you can put a pass toward your diploma.
In September 2026, New York's education department announced that students graduating in January 2028 or later will not have to pass Regents exams to earn a diploma, and it plans to bring the regulation changes to the Board of Regents by February 2027 (announcement, memo to schools).
On either exam, more than half the points are multiple choice, so a student who can recall the basics without stopping to think has working memory left over for the questions where recall isn't enough.
What is the Chemistry Regents, exactly?
The Regents Examination in Physical Setting/Chemistry is the older of New York State's two course-ending chemistry exams, on NYSED's schedule through June 2027: 3 hours, 85 points, four parts. Part A is 30 multiple-choice questions on core knowledge, Part B-1 is 20 multiple-choice questions that are more about application, and Parts B-2 and C are constructed-response questions, the ones where you write answers, show calculations, and explain reasoning, worth the remaining 35 points. A scaled score of 65 is a pass.
Since 50 of 85 points are multiple choice, fluent recall of facts and vocabulary is worth more than half the exam before you write a single sentence. On the constructed-response parts, a student who isn't burning a minute on "wait, what's the charge on sulfate?" has time to show the full setup.
As of this writing, the next administration is January 26, 2027, and NYSED gives both the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam and the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam on that date (per the NYSED exam schedule). The June 2027 period is next, and it is the legacy exam's last. The plan below is for either, and for getting ahead of next year's exam.
There is one more date: New York began replacing this exam in June 2026 with the new Physical Science: Chemistry Regents, and NYSED retires the legacy exam after June 2027. If your course is on the new standards, read the new Chemistry Regents, explained. The study method below is the same for both exams, but the format you will sit for differs.
Is the Chemistry Regents hard?
To pass the Chemistry Regents you need more than half the points on the legacy exam and a little under half on the new one. On the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam, students needed 50 of 85 raw points (59%) for a scaled score of 65 at every sitting from August 2024 through August 2026, seven in a row; in June 2024 they needed 51. On the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam, students needed 21 of 50 raw credits for Level 3 in June 2026 and 21 of 48 in August 2026. You can't compare the two shares, because the two exams have different kinds of questions: on the new one, each question is part of a cluster of data you read first, and you write out the answers to about 40% of them. NYSED publishes each sitting's cut on its conversion chart, posted with the exam at nysedregents.org. Check the chart for the exam you practice on. We collected the cut from all 58 legacy charts and both new-exam charts in Chemistry Regents Curve: Raw Score for a 65.
Start with the Reference Tables, not the review book
Every student gets the official Reference Tables at the exam, and each exam has its own edition. The twelve-page 2011 edition, for the legacy exam, has the periodic table, the polyatomic ion list, the solubility guidelines, Table J's activity series, and more. For the new exam, NYSED cut the 2025 edition to four pages: the periodic table, the electromagnetic spectrum, nuclear symbols with a six-entry ion list, and a page of equations. We compare the two in Chemistry Regents Reference Tables 2011/2025. Many questions are answerable straight from the tables, if you know where to look without hunting.
Knowing the Reference Tables is worth more than having them. A student who has used Table F fifty times finds the solubility answer in seconds; a student seeing it fresh under time pressure reads the header three times. So the highest-leverage early move is unglamorous: do every practice question with the tables open, and make yourself find the relevant table even when you remember the fact. By exam day, finding any table should be muscle memory.
Make the foundation automatic before you practice the hard parts
You need automatic recall on the Chemistry Regents because working memory holds only a few things at once. A student who still decodes "Fe" or reconstructs the charge on nitrate is spending those slots on the alphabet instead of the chemistry, on every single question. This is why students who "know the material" still run out of time.
The fix is recall practice, not re-reading. In Dunlosky and colleagues' review of ten study techniques (2013), the two techniques they rated highest utility were practice testing and distributed practice, and the two they rated lowest were re-reading and highlighting, the two things most students actually do. Concretely: drill element symbols and names, common ion charges, and the polyatomic ions until answering is instant. Study in short daily sessions rather than weekend marathons; spacing the practice out is the single most reliable finding in memory research (Cepeda et al., 2006).
Then practice on the real thing
NYSED publishes every past Chemistry Regents exam and its scoring key free at nysedregents.org. Past exams are better practice than any review sheet because the question styles are the same from year to year: NYSED asks about the same core ideas, in recognizably similar ways, administration after administration.
Use them as practice tests, not reading material. Take a full Part A + B-1 under time, score it with the key, and build tomorrow's drill list from the wrong answers. That loop, test, score, drill the misses, is retrieval practice (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006), and you learn exactly where the gaps are instead of guessing.
If most of your wrong answers are in one unit, you may need to learn that unit, not just drill it. On the new exam's June and August 2026 papers, NYSED put acids, bases, and pH in 10 of the 98 questions, and we teach that unit from the first idea in our free pH module, with no account needed.
A two-week plan vs. a head-start plan
| If the exam is... | Two weeks away | Next year |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation drills | 15 min daily: symbols, ions, polyatomics | 10 min daily over the summer, the table is automatic by September |
| Reference Tables | Every practice question with tables open | Learn each table as your class reaches it |
| Past exams | One timed Part A + B-1 every other day, drill the misses | One full past exam per marking period as a checkup |
| Constructed response | Write out Part C answers for 2–3 past exams, check the key | Practice explaining answers out loud through the year |
| The night before | Sleep. If you cram tonight, you recall less tomorrow | Nothing to cram |
What the games are for
If your exam is this month, timed past exams are the best use of your remaining hours, and an app, ours included, is not. The games are for the longer runways: the January exam, with a whole fall of drilling before it, and next year's exam, where a head start means an easier course from week one.
For those runways, the drilling is the part most students skip, because flashcard decks are a chore. In Periodic Mole’s element-recall games, you answer chemistry questions at your level. With full access, we track your mastery across all 118 elements in one place and schedule your later reviews. Ten minutes of Bond Forge, where you answer correctly to draw your bond, is a recall session that doesn't feel like one. The exam's foundation, symbols, names, ions, formulas, is exactly the recall you drill in the games.
Try it free. Bond Forge is free to play with a starter set of elements, no account needed. Full access is $59 for a year: every game and all 118 elements, with progress saved. No subscription.
FAQ
What score do I need to pass the Chemistry Regents? On the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam, a scaled score of 65. That exam is out of 85 raw points, and NYSED publishes a conversion chart from raw to scaled score with each administration, so the raw points needed can vary; students needed 50 raw points for a 65 at every sitting from August 2024 through August 2026. On the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam, you need Performance Level 3, which was a scaled score of 65 and up on the June 2026 exam. If you graduate before January 2028, you can put a pass on either toward your diploma.
Is the Chemistry Regents hard? It's demanding, and you need less than 60% of the points to pass: 50 of 85 raw points on recent legacy exams and 21 of 50 on the new exam's first sitting. The legacy exam is also predictable: its question styles are the same from year to year, and on either exam you get the Reference Tables and more than half the points are multiple choice. Most students who struggle went in without automatic recall of the foundation, and spaced practice is the fix.
What's the best way to study for the Chemistry Regents in the last two weeks? Timed past exams from nysedregents.org, scored against the official key, with the misses turned into short daily recall drills. Skip re-reading notes; in head-to-head research, practice testing is far more effective than re-reading.
Do I get a periodic table on the Chemistry Regents? Yes. Both editions of the Reference Tables include a periodic table, and your school gives you a clean copy at the exam. The 2011 edition for the legacy exam also has the polyatomic ion list and the solubility guidelines; the 2025 edition for the new exam has a six-entry list of ions in their place. Students who can find any table fast have the advantage, so practice with them open.
Related
Sources
- New York State Education Department. Regents Examination in Physical Setting/Chemistry, past exams and scoring keys. nysedregents.org/chemistry.
- New York State Education Department. Regents Examination in Physical Setting/Chemistry, conversion charts, June 2024 through August 2026 (August 2026). nysedregents.org/chemistry.
- New York State Education Department. Regents Examination in Physical Science: Chemistry, conversion charts, June and August 2026. nysedregents.org/ps-chemistry.
- New York State Education Department. Regents Examination Schedules. nysed.gov/state-assessment.
- New York State Education Department. NYSED Advances Next Phase of NY Inspires Education Transformation (press release, September 14, 2026). nysed.gov.
- New York State Education Department. NY Inspires Transformations: Sunsetting Diploma Assessment Requirements and Moving to One Diploma (memo, September 28, 2026). nysed.gov.
- Dunlosky, J., et al. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
- Roediger, H. L., and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning. Psychological Science.
- Cepeda, N. J., et al. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin.