By Elizabeth McArthur

Trinity Catholic College, Auburn is the state's best school after taking out the annual NSW Chemical Titration Competition this week.

The school was also ranked second Australia-wide after the team of three students, Charbel Dourmit, David Lee and Brian To, got the school ahead of St. Vincent's college, Potts Point in the competition run by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

The year 11 students scored 81 after accurately determining an unknown concentration of acid in a solution by adding drops of basic solution.

In teams of three, students are required to find the exact dropping point, indicated by a faint pink colour, without going one drop over.

They have 90 minutes to complete each set. The closer a team is to determining the correct concentration, the lower the score. However, it is not uncommon for scores of over 1000 or even 10 000 if things go badly on the day.

Only the brightest science students from each state are selected for the
competition that tests the precision of chemical analysis.