Which Chemistry Regents do I take — the old one or the new one?

It follows your course, not your preference. A class taught to the NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards sits the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam; a class on the older standards sits Physical Setting/Chemistry while it lasts. Your teacher knows which standards your course follows — ask.

How long is the Chemistry Regents?

Three hours, for both versions. The new exam’s question clusters front-load reading — a scenario and its data before the first question — so pacing practice deserves a place in your prep.

What is the best way to study for the Chemistry Regents?

Practice on real past exams under time, a little every week, and drill the fundamentals — element symbols, formulas, the Reference Tables — until they are automatic. Retrieval beats rereading: in the study this advice rests on, students who practiced recall retained more a week later than students who restudied the same material for the same time.

The Regents hub

The Chemistry Regents, in one place

The next administration is Tuesday, January 26, 2027 — and both versions of the exam sit that day: the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam and the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam that replaced it in June 2026. Which one you take follows your course. What it takes to pass has not changed: fundamentals that are automatic, practice on real exams, and fluency with the Reference Tables.

Two exams, one date — which is yours?

New York began replacing its chemistry exam in June 2026. The new exam builds every question into a cluster — a real scenario with data, then four to six connected questions, about 40% of them written response. The legacy exam runs alongside it through June 2027, then retires. Your course’s standards decide which you sit; the new Chemistry Regents, explained covers the format change in full.

What the new exam covers, by NYSED’s published blueprint:
Domain	Share of the exam
Chemical Reactions	36–46%
Structures & Properties of Matter	30–40%
Energy	10–14%
Engineering, Technology & Applications	5–11%
Waves & Electromagnetic Radiation	5–7%
Matter & Energy in Organisms & Ecosystems	2–5%

Read the top two rows together: roughly three quarters of the exam is the familiar heart of high school chemistry — reactions, bonding, the periodic table, the mole.

How to study for it

The advice below recurs across every serious Regents resource, and we checked it against the learning-science literature before repeating it. The full week-by-week version lives in how to pass the Chemistry Regents.

Practice on real past exams, under time. Every legacy paper is free at nysedregents.org. The new exam has one released paper and NYSED’s samplers — ration them; do not burn all three in the first week.
Retrieve, don’t reread. Answering from memory beats reading your notes again — students who practiced recall retained more one week out than students who restudied for the same time. Rereading feels productive; that feeling is the trap.
Space it out. Short sessions across weeks beat a marathon. The exam date makes the schedule concrete: start from January 26, 2027 and work backward.
Get fast with the Reference Tables. The exam hands you the tables. The skill is finding and applying what they hold, fast, and it is the most Regents-specific skill there is.
On written response, show the work. About 40% of the new exam is constructed response, and partial credit is real. A setup with units earns points even when the arithmetic slips.
Explain it out loud. If you can teach the idea to someone else, you own it. If you can’t, you found tomorrow’s study topic.

Where the games fit

Every item on that list runs on the same substrate: element symbols, formulas, and bonding recalled without effort. That is what our games drill — the recall and reasoning the exam is built on — through the mechanic the research backs: you answer a chemistry question to make each move, a little every day. Bond Forge is free to play with a starter set of elements, no account needed.

Play Bond Forge free →

The best free Regents resources, graded

These are not ours, and they are good. Each is named for the job it does best:

nysedregents.org — every past exam with scoring keys, free. The single most valuable prep resource in the niche.
ChemVideoTutor — a hundred two-minute single-concept videos, each followed by real exam questions. Built for the legacy exam’s format; the concept drilling transfers.
NYChemCoach — the one video library built for the new exam’s cluster format, walking NYSED’s official practice materials.
New York Science Teacher — review packets and the Reference Tables scavenger hunt, the classic table-fluency drill.

Quick answers

When is the next Chemistry Regents?: Tuesday, January 26, 2027, at 1:15 p.m. Both versions sit that day: the legacy Physical Setting/Chemistry exam and the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam. The June 2027 period follows it, and it is the legacy exam’s last.
Which Chemistry Regents do I take — the old one or the new one?: It follows your course, not your preference. A class taught to the NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards sits the new Physical Science: Chemistry exam; a class on the older standards sits Physical Setting/Chemistry while it lasts. Your teacher knows which standards your course follows — ask.
How long is the Chemistry Regents?: Three hours, for both versions. The new exam’s question clusters front-load reading — a scenario and its data before the first question — so pacing practice deserves a place in your prep.
What is the best way to study for the Chemistry Regents?: Practice on real past exams under time, a little every week, and drill the fundamentals — element symbols, formulas, the Reference Tables — until they are automatic. Retrieval beats rereading: in the study this advice rests on, students who practiced recall retained more a week later than students who restudied the same material for the same time.

Going deeper: the study plan · the new exam, explained · the interactive periodic table