The identification of students at risk for academic failure in undergraduate chemistry courses has been heavily addressed in the literature. Arguably one of the strongest and most well-supported predictors of undergraduate success in chemistry is the mathematics portion of the SAT (SAT-M), a college-entrance, standardized test administered by the College Board. While students scoring in the bottom quartile of the SAT-M (herein referred to as at-risk) perform significantly worse on first-semester chemistry assessments, little is known of the topics on which these students differentially struggle. The purpose of this study is to provide insight as to which first-semester chemistry topics present an incommensurate challenge to at-risk students. Students were identified as either at-risk or not at-risk via SAT-M scores. Students’ assessment responses were collected across four semesters of first-semester chemistry courses at a large, public university (N = 5636). At-risk students struggled consistently across all topics but disproportionately with mole concept and stoichiometry. Analyzing the trend in topics suggests that the struggles of at-risk students are not entirely attributable to topics that rely heavily on algorithms or algebraic math. Moreso, at-risk students found to have performed well on mole concept and stoichiometry went on to perform similarly as their not at-risk peers. The results support an instructional emphasis on these topics with reviewed literature offering promising, practical options to better serve at-risk students and broaden representation in the sciences.

中文翻译：

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数学能力低的学生面临的化学题目难度不大

文献中已大量讨论了识别化学本科生中有学习失败风险的学生的问题。SAT（SAT-M）的数学部分可以说是化学专业本科生成功的最有力和最有力的预测因素之一，这是由大学理事会管理的大学入学标准考试。虽然在SAT-M成绩的最低四分位数（此处称为高风险）中得分的学生在第一学期化学评估中的表现明显较差，但对于这些学生在不同方面所苦苦挣扎的话题却知之甚少。这项研究的目的是提供关于哪些第一学期化学主题对高风险学生提出不相称挑战的见解。学生被标识为有风险或没有风险通过SAT-M分数。在大型公立大学（N = 5636）的四个学期的第一学期化学课程中收集了学生的评估反馈。处于危险中的学生在所有主题上都持续挣扎，但摩尔概念和化学计量不成比例。分析主题的趋势表明，高风险学生的挣扎并不完全归因于严重依赖算法或代数数学的主题。此外，发现处于高风险状态的学生在痣概念上表现良好，并且化学计量学的表现与未处于高风险状态的同龄人相似。结果支持了对这些主题的教学重点，所复习的文献提供了有希望的实用选择，可以更好地为处于危险中的学生提供服务并扩大科学领域的代表。