CSCA Chemistry Syllabus 2026 — Every Topic That Can Appear

Who Needs CSCA Chemistry?

Chemistry is an optional subject on the official list: whether you need it depends on your university and major. The Shanghai government's CSCA guide adds that applicants to science, engineering, agriculture and medicine programmes must take at least one of Physics and Chemistry — confirm against your target programme's admission brochure before you commit.

The official syllabus (2025 edition) has four modules: Basic Chemical Concepts and Calculations (classification and changes of state, notation and equations, solution concentration and pH, amount of substance, the ideal gas law); Properties and Reactions of Substances (common inorganic substances, hydrocarbons and their derivatives, redox, ionic reactions and tests); Chemical Theories and Laws (atomic structure and the periodic law, bonding and intermolecular forces, rate and equilibrium, electrolyte solutions); and Chemical Experiments and Applications (lab safety and apparatus, preparing and identifying gases, separation and purification, industrial processes such as ammonia synthesis). The sections below follow the first four modules of our own course, which group these points differently; the lab and industry points also have a module of their own, Experiments and Applications.

Paper Format

• 48 questions in 60 minutes — about 75 seconds per question.
• Marked out of 100, reported separately from your other subjects.
• Available in both Chinese and English.
• No calculator. Mole arithmetic has to be quick and clean by hand.

Module 1 — Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table

• The atom: protons, neutrons, electrons, atomic and mass number
• Isotopes and relative atomic mass calculations
• Electron shells and electron configuration
• Structure of the periodic table: groups, periods, blocks
• Periodic trends: atomic radius and ionisation energy
• Periodic trends: electronegativity and metallic character
• Group 1 alkali metals
• Group 17 halogens
• Group 18 noble gases
• Ions and the basics of ionic bonding
• Relative formula mass and an introduction to moles

Practise the calculations (isotopic relative atomic mass, formula mass, moles) and learn to pick the option that gives the reason for a periodic trend, not just the trend itself. See the Atomic Structure module.

Module 2 — Chemical Reactions

• Writing and balancing chemical equations
• Types of reaction: synthesis, decomposition, displacement, combustion
• Acids, bases and the pH scale
• Reactions of acids with metals, bases and carbonates
• Exothermic and endothermic reactions
• Rates of reaction and collision theory
• Catalysts
• Reversible reactions and chemical equilibrium (化学平衡): Le Chatelier's principle and the conditions of ammonia synthesis
• Electrolyte solutions: strong and weak electrolytes, ionic equations, the ionisation of water, pH and salt hydrolysis
• Electrolysis basics (not named in the syllabus; taught as an application of redox)
• The reactivity series and extraction of metals
• Conservation of mass and reacting-mass calculations
• Oxidation and reduction (redox)

Balance every equation before using it, and in rate questions identify which variable changes and which are held constant. See the Chemical Reactions module.

Module 3 — Organic Chemistry

• Introduction to organic chemistry and homologous series
• Alkanes
• Alkenes and the bromine water test
• Crude oil and fractional distillation
• Polymers and polymerisation
• Alcohols
• Carboxylic acids
• Isomers: chain, position and functional group isomerism
• Beyond the syllabus, for background only: air quality and pollution, the Earth's atmosphere, water treatment

Practise naming compounds, recognising repeat units and telling isomer types apart. Note that oxidation products depend on the class of alcohol — primary alcohols give aldehydes then acids, secondary give ketones, tertiary resist oxidation. See the Organic Chemistry module.

Module 4 — Inorganic Chemistry and Quantitative Analysis

Bonding and mole calculations are the core of this module.

• Covalent bonding and dot-and-cross diagrams
• Giant covalent structures: diamond, graphite, silicon dioxide
• Metallic bonding
• Ionic bonding in detail and the properties it produces
• States of matter and changes of state
• Separation techniques: filtration, distillation, chromatography
• Chemical tests for gases and ions
• The mole and molar mass calculations
• Concentration and titration calculations
• Gas volume calculations (Vm = 22.4 L/mol at STP, and pV = nRT), and percentage yield
• Intermolecular forces and hydrogen bonding
• Laboratory safety and apparatus, and the preparation and collection of common gases (O₂, H₂, CO₂, Cl₂, NH₃)
• Electrolysis in detail (beyond the syllabus, for depth only)

Comparing ionic, covalent and metallic bonding runs through the syllabus module Chemical Theories and Laws. See the Inorganic Chemistry module.

How the Marks Are Spread

The CSCA does not publish how many questions come from each module and has released no past papers (csca.cn offers a sample paper only), so any percentage you see online is a guess. Each of the four official modules has four syllabus points (the first has five), so revise them all.

The Calculations That Decide Your Score

Chemistry rewards a small number of calculation routines practised until they are automatic:

1. Moles from mass: moles = mass divided by molar mass. Almost every quantitative question starts here.
2. Reacting masses: mass to moles, apply the equation ratio, moles back to mass.
3. Concentration and titration: moles = concentration times volume in cubic decimetres. Watch the conversion from cubic centimetres.
4. Gas volumes: one mole of any gas occupies 22.4 L (22.4 dm³) at standard conditions, STP (0 °C, 101 kPa): n = V / Vm. At other conditions use pV = nRT.
5. Percentage yield and atom economy: different denominators — yield compares actual with theoretical mass, atom economy compares the desired product with all products.

Where Marks Are Actually Lost

• Unbalanced equations feeding a calculation. Balance first, then compute — an unbalanced ratio makes every later step wrong.
• Volume units. Titration questions mix millilitres (cm³) and litres (dm³), and forgetting the factor of 1000 is a very common error.
• Confusing the tests. Limewater for carbon dioxide, glowing splint for oxygen, squeaky pop for hydrogen, damp litmus for chlorine.
• Picking the description instead of the explanation. In trend questions the right option usually gives the reason — shielding, nuclear charge, atomic radius — while a distractor merely restates the trend.

How to Prepare

Start with Atomic Structure, because bonding and the periodic table underpin everything else, then take Chemical Reactions, then Inorganic and Quantitative Analysis, then Organic. All five modules, Experiments and Applications included, are free on CSCA.HELPCSCA by Foorsa, and the practice exams let you check your pace under the real 75-seconds-a-question constraint.