MU-Plovdiv entrance exam · Chemistry
MU-Plovdiv's Chemistry test is the most predictable part of its entrance exam: 30 questions, four answers each, a point for each correct one, on an 18-section syllabus it publishes in full. This page goes through the syllabus section by section, says what the format means for how you work, shows how to use the official test book and gives you twelve practice questions with explanations.
Chemistry
MU-Plovdiv entrance exam · Chemistry
The section numbers are the syllabus's own. What follows each heading is IvyTest's summary of what you should be able to do, not the syllabus text.
Thirty questions in 45 minutes is 90 seconds a question. There is no published penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave a question blank: an answer you are unsure of can only gain you a point.
With no calculator and no periodic table, any calculation has to be done in your head, so practise every one by hand: moles, dilutions, and pH from concentrations written as powers of ten. Knowing the common atomic masses (H 1, C 12, N 14, O 16, Na 23, Cl 35.5) saves time wherever a question does not give them.
Atomic structure: protons, neutrons and electrons from Z and A, isotopes and isobars, s, p and d orbitals, electron configurations and orbital diagrams for periods 1 and 2, and the periodic trends in atomic radius, ionisation energy and electronegativity. Bonding: ionic, covalent (polar and nonpolar, bond energy, length and direction), coordinate, metallic, hydrogen bonds and Van der Waals forces.
Kinetics: the rate equation and rate constant (doubling a squared concentration quadruples the rate), energy diagrams, activation energy, and how state, temperature, concentration, pressure and catalysts affect the rate. Equilibrium: the constant, Le Chatelier's principle for concentration, pressure and temperature, and the fact that a catalyst changes none of it.
Solutions: saturated, unsaturated and supersaturated; mass, volume and molar concentration and molality; solubility and what changes it; and the properties that depend on the number of dissolved particles: vapour-pressure lowering, boiling-point elevation, freezing-point depression and osmotic pressure (count the ions: CaCl₂ gives three).
Electrolytes: strong and weak, degree of dissociation, the Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry and Lewis theories, the pH scale and the hydrolysis of salts. Redox: oxidation numbers, oxidising and reducing agents, balancing equations, and electrolysis and its uses.
Metals and nonmetals: the reactivity series and the reactions of metals with dilute acids, oxygen, nonmetals, water and salts; the reactions of nonmetals with oxygen, hydrogen, other nonmetals, metals and salts. Oxides, oxyacids and bases: what basic and acidic oxides form with water, with each other, with acids and with bases.
Amphoteric oxides and hydroxides: aluminium and zinc compounds react with both acids and bases. A short section, but an easy point if you can write both equations.
Basic concepts: sp³, sp² and sp hybridisation, σ and π bonds, single, double and triple bonds, structural isomerism and stereoisomerism (cis-trans, optical), and the general rules of IUPAC naming.
Hydrocarbons: alkanes (halogenation), alkenes and alkynes (addition, the decolourising of bromine water, polymerisation of alkenes), and benzene and the alkylbenzenes (substitution with halogens, nitric and sulfuric acid, Friedel-Crafts reactions).
Alcohols and phenols (naming, preparation, acidity, esters, oxidation, dehydration), aldehydes and ketones (addition and condensation, oxidation: only aldehydes reduce Tollens' reagent), carboxylic acids and their derivatives (salts, α-halogenation, decarboxylation, halides, anhydrides, esters, amides), and amines (basicity, amides, the reaction with nitrous acid).
The biomolecules: glucose and fructose (structure, stereochemistry, properties), sucrose, starch and cellulose; and six named α-amino acids (glycine, alanine, phenylalanine, cysteine, aspartic acid, lysine), their zwitterions, stereoisomerism and the peptide bond.
MU-Plovdiv publishes a free book of Chemistry questions on its admission page: about 108 pages in six parts, three on general and inorganic chemistry and three on organic, with four-option questions and an answer key, but no explanations. The authors say they may revise it, so download the current version.
Work it part by part after studying the matching sections, timed at 90 seconds a question, and for every wrong answer find out why before you move on. The key tells you what is right, not why the other three are wrong; our practice paper and the questions below explain both.
MU-Plovdiv Entrance Exam
Each correct answer earns one point, and the total converts to a grade from 2.00 (poor) to 6.00 (excellent), with 3.00 the minimum pass. MU-Plovdiv does not publish how the 30 points convert to grades.
The grade is tripled in the competition score, like Biology's, and a Chemistry grade below 3.00 excludes you from the ranking whatever your other results.
MU-Plovdiv entrance exam · Chemistry
The syllabus's own sections, in its order. Save as PDF and tick them off.
Chemistry
Written by IvyTest in the test's own format: four answers, one correct, no calculator needed. Each explanation names the syllabus section it comes from. The practice paper has a full 30-question Chemistry test.
Isotopes of the same element differ in their number of:
Answer: B
Isotopes have the same atomic number (protons) and therefore the same chemistry, but different numbers of neutrons, so different mass numbers (syllabus section 1). Isobars are the opposite case: the same mass number, different elements.
Which of these compounds is ionic?
Answer: D
An ionic bond forms between a metal that loses electrons and a nonmetal that gains them, with a large difference in electronegativity: Na⁺Cl⁻ (section 2). HCl is a polar covalent molecule, CH₄ is covalent and Cl₂ is nonpolar covalent.
Raising the temperature speeds up most reactions mainly because:
Answer: B
At a higher temperature the particles move faster, so a larger share of collisions has at least the activation energy (section 3). The activation energy itself stays the same; only a catalyst lowers it.
For an endothermic reaction at equilibrium, raising the temperature:
Answer: A
For an endothermic reaction heat behaves like a reactant: adding heat drives the forward reaction, the equilibrium shifts towards the products and the equilibrium constant increases (section 4, Le Chatelier's principle).
Molality is defined as:
Answer: B
Molality is moles of solute per kilogram of solvent (mol/kg); molarity is moles per litre of solution (section 5). Molality does not change with temperature, which is why it is used for boiling-point and freezing-point changes.
What is the pH of a 0.001 mol/L solution of hydrochloric acid?
Answer: C
HCl is a strong acid, fully ionised: [H⁺] = 10⁻³ mol/L, so pH = −log(10⁻³) = 3 (section 6). 11 would be the pOH. With no calculator allowed, keep concentrations as powers of ten.
In the electrolysis of molten sodium chloride, what forms at the cathode?
Answer: B
The cathode is negative, and reduction takes place there: Na⁺ + e⁻ → Na. Chloride ions are oxidised to chlorine at the anode (section 7). Hydrogen forms at the cathode only when the salt is in water, not molten.
Which metal reacts vigorously with cold water, releasing hydrogen?
Answer: C
Sodium is near the top of the reactivity series: 2Na + 2H₂O → 2NaOH + H₂ (section 8). Iron reacts only slowly (rusting) or with steam, and copper and silver do not react with water.
How many σ and π bonds does a molecule of ethyne, H–C≡C–H, contain?
Answer: B
Every single bond is one σ bond; a triple bond is one σ and two π. Ethyne has two C–H σ bonds and the C≡C triple bond (one σ, two π): 3 σ and 2 π (section 11).
Heating ethanol with excess hot concentrated sulfuric acid mainly gives:
Answer: A
Concentrated sulfuric acid removes water from the alcohol: dehydration, C₂H₅OH → CH₂=CH₂ + H₂O (section 13). Ethanal and ethanoic acid would need an oxidising agent, and ethane would need hydrogen.
Ethanoic acid reacts with sodium hydroxide solution. The products are:
Answer: D
A carboxylic acid neutralises a base to give a salt and water: CH₃COOH + NaOH → CH₃COONa + H₂O (section 16). Methane and sodium carbonate come from heating sodium ethanoate with soda lime (decarboxylation); an ester needs an alcohol.
When two amino acids join, they form:
Answer: B
The carboxyl group of one amino acid condenses with the amino group of the other: a peptide (amide) bond forms and a molecule of water is released (section 18). Taking up water is the reverse reaction, hydrolysis.
MU-Plovdiv entrance exam · Chemistry
Chemistry follows Biology in the same 90-minute window. Here is the rest.
30 Chemistry questions, Biology in all six task types and the English test, every answer explained.
The six task types with worked examples, the 51-topic checklist and practice questions.
3 × Biology + 3 × Chemistry + English, with the 3.00 floor and the 2026 minimum scores.
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