Abstract
The attrition/failure rate for college students taking general chemistry has been growing at an alarming rate across the country. Two ways in which California State University Sacramento has attempted to attenuate these attrition and failure rates are the implementation of a diagnostic exam for those students entering general chemistry and the offering of Chemistry 4. Chemistry 4 is intended as a preparatory course for students who are deemed, either by their own assessment or through the diagnostic exam, unprepared for general chemistry. This work summarizes and assesses the changes made to Chemistry 4 starting in the summer of 2006, provides a literature review as a basis for those changes and puts forth recommendations for future changes to Chemistry 4 also based upon the literature review. While there are still many potential improvements that can be made in Chemistry 4, the changes made to this point have increased the success rate of Chemistry 4 students upon moving on to Chemistry 1 A by a statistically significant amount. This work also addresses the effectiveness of the diagnostic exam as the basis for determining which students are ready for general chemistry and which are not. Five semesters' worth of Chemistry 1A diagnostic exam scores were compared to final grades in Chemistry 1 A and the results analyzed to determine if the diagnostic exam was in fact predictive of success.