Chemistry - Labs

They vary quite a bit from week to week. You get provided with instructions beforehand, and usually with some pre-lab tasks to prove you've read it, and understand elements of it. They're generally in the region of 30 - 60 minutes in my experience. The lab reports can be quite a bit longer but that really depends on the experiments. They basically contain similar elements: yields, some explanations as to what has happened or why, some analysis (like labelling up NMR). Each lab (org, inorg, phys) required us to do one lab report completely written up - so this is with an introduction, some results and a discussion on them, an experimental and some conclusions.

That's sort of ~second year. First year tends to be lighter, so I found the lab reports were probably similar in length or possibly a little bit shorter, but the pre-lab element was shorter. First year is mostly about building skills, and second year onwards tends to do an experiment which involves many of those skills, but the instructions on how to do those aren't provided anymore.

Organic: typically the goal is to synthesise something by various mechanisms. It usually ties into lecture courses at some point, which is quite handy for learning. So you might come in and set a piece of apparatus up, set a reaction going and probably leave it for a couple of hours. Some labs are more time intensive than others, but usually if there's a long period of waiting there's something else to be doing. Often you'll be required to run analysis on anything you make (to prove it is what you say it is). Oxidation reactions, reductions, I did a Wittig reaction one week, I grated some orange zest and refluxed that for a while to extract limonene which we compared with other students who had used lemon zest by techniques like gas chromatography to see if there are differences. Thin layer chromatography, column chromatography, recrystallisation etc. are the type of techniques you develop through this lab.

Inorganic: somewhat similar to organic, another wet lab that involves synthesis typically. I made some bouncing putty one week - run in parallel with another experiment which produced something different, despite appearing to be similar reactions on the surface. Separation of enantiomers, did an experiment over two weeks on synthesising acetyl ferrocene (reflux, column chromatography, TLC, sublimation). Lots of skills crossed over from organic really, which is helpful. I did one titration in my first ever lab in first year, and never seen one since. At work now I have a machine that titrates for me, it's the future.

Physical: less exciting as a lab. More about the analysis and data, so the data is really what you spend the lab collecting. It's usually quite repetitive because you're measuring one thing and just changing another so yeah, not awfully exciting on the whole personally.

Days in the synthetic labs go really quick as you're usually doing lots of things. Physical was slower because you're generally sat there waiting for a temperature change, or a period of time, to then record some data. You finish earlier in phys labs though, that was a bonus :P

Daunting at first, because I hadn't really done many labs in school other than a titration. I really began to love them by second year though as they're so much more hands on and involved than sat in a lecture theatre.

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Wow! Sounds amazing! Thanks a lot for such a detailed explanation i hope u dont mind me asking but how long are lab reports and how often do u have to do them? Also what uni did u study chemistry at? Thanks!

This sounds so much fun!!!! can’t wait to go and do chemistry at uni!!!

What course did you do?

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I'm on MChem Chemistry with Study in Industry at University of Sheffield. The department is lovely and the city is really nice, so always worth a look if you've not decided on places yet I didn't want to go see it, but my mum coerced me into it and I was very surprised at how homely the place was. The dept. were really personal too, letter after interview (it's quite informal, don't worry) with stuff we talked about in the interview etc.

I'd recommend any year out courses - usually there are exchanges in europe, if you are taking language a-levels, or there are exchanges to places like America and Australia which based off some pictures equates to some good hours spent on a beach. I'm just at the end of my placement, and i've loved it and would do it again. It's so nice to be out actually using chemistry and more exciting than a lecture theatre. If you like working in the labs then it's worth trying to get a placement so you can experience working in a lab every day

Lab reports were once per experiment. We had labs every week (10 am - 5 pm one day in first year, 9 - 5 pm one day and an afternoon 1 pm - 5pm for second year). Mostly, it meant you had one lab report per week but sometimes you were doing two experiments so it meant two lab reports. One of them tended to be a bit shorter though, or both were a reasonable length, rather than it being twice as much work. I can't remember how long I normally spent on them, but i'd wager somewhere around 2 - 3 hours in second year (probably an hour or two in first year). They count towards your end grade so it's in your interest to put the time in to them, because if you do then you can comfortably get over 70 on the module which really helps your average if you're not so good in another area or have a bad day in the exam.

They vary quite a bit from week to week. You get provided with instructions beforehand, and usually with some pre-lab tasks to prove you've read it, and understand elements of it. They're generally in the region of 30 - 60 minutes in my experience. The lab reports can be quite a bit longer but that really depends on the experiments. They basically contain similar elements: yields, some explanations as to what has happened or why, some analysis (like labelling up NMR). Each lab (org, inorg, phys) required us to do one lab report completely written up - so this is with an introduction, some results and a discussion on them, an experimental and some conclusions.

That's sort of ~second year. First year tends to be lighter, so I found the lab reports were probably similar in length or possibly a little bit shorter, but the pre-lab element was shorter. First year is mostly about building skills, and second year onwards tends to do an experiment which involves many of those skills, but the instructions on how to do those aren't provided anymore.

Organic: typically the goal is to synthesise something by various mechanisms. It usually ties into lecture courses at some point, which is quite handy for learning. So you might come in and set a piece of apparatus up, set a reaction going and probably leave it for a couple of hours. Some labs are more time intensive than others, but usually if there's a long period of waiting there's something else to be doing. Often you'll be required to run analysis on anything you make (to prove it is what you say it is). Oxidation reactions, reductions, I did a Wittig reaction one week, I grated some orange zest and refluxed that for a while to extract limonene which we compared with other students who had used lemon zest by techniques like gas chromatography to see if there are differences. Thin layer chromatography, column chromatography, recrystallisation etc. are the type of techniques you develop through this lab.

Inorganic: somewhat similar to organic, another wet lab that involves synthesis typically. I made some bouncing putty one week - run in parallel with another experiment which produced something different, despite appearing to be similar reactions on the surface. Separation of enantiomers, did an experiment over two weeks on synthesising acetyl ferrocene (reflux, column chromatography, TLC, sublimation). Lots of skills crossed over from organic really, which is helpful. I did one titration in my first ever lab in first year, and never seen one since. At work now I have a machine that titrates for me, it's the future.

Physical: less exciting as a lab. More about the analysis and data, so the data is really what you spend the lab collecting. It's usually quite repetitive because you're measuring one thing and just changing another so yeah, not awfully exciting on the whole personally.

Days in the synthetic labs go really quick as you're usually doing lots of things. Physical was slower because you're generally sat there waiting for a temperature change, or a period of time, to then record some data. You finish earlier in phys labs though, that was a bonus :P

Daunting at first, because I hadn't really done many labs in school other than a titration. I really began to love them by second year though as they're so much more hands on and involved than sat in a lecture theatre.

Which other universities did you look at? I’m looking to do the MSci Chemistry with a Year in Industry at Bristol.

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That sounds so fun!



Snap! Also looking at Bath, Warwick and Nottingham.

Ahh, Nottingham is second choice looked at York as well, but really wasn’t impressed :L despite how good it’s meant to be for chemistry!!!

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Which other universities did you look at? I’m looking to do the MSci Chemistry with a Year in Industry at Bristol.

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Let' see: Warwick, Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle

I thought Warwick looked great when I first went, but I went back after seeing places like Bristol, Liverpool and Sheffield and decided I couldn't live in that campus bubble. I knew the later years being off-site would also annoy me so I scratched that off.

I didn't like Oxford/Durham, felt too out of place so if you're considering universities like that with their reputations (i.e. large proportion of privately educated, well-off backgrounds) then i'd visit at least one of them to see how you feel in that environment. All the formalities looked like hard work to me, when I just wanted somewhere I could be relaxed. My best friend went to Oxford though, and loved it, so it's all just what suits you. I liked Cambridge, but I think it can vary by what college you go to ultimately. The natural sciences course looked interesting, although i'm definitely glad i've done what I did (with an industrial year) as i've got my foot in the door in the industry now.

Bristol is an awesome choice - their lab set up was really good, I was impressed. I would've applied, but I decided to chicken out after results because for some reason I didn't think they'd look at me. In hindsight, that was stupid so always give it a go! I still would've picked Sheffield, but I applied to Newcastle and really I don't think I wanted to go there. My college just had a partnership with them that meant it guaranteed me an offer, basically.

Wasn't impressed with Birmingham, just figured they'd be a good insurance. The department really didn't sell themselves to me on the open day, the rest of the university was alright though. Southampton was nice enough, but so far away from home for me which just meant difficulties for logistics, like moving in etc. because my mum hates driving

Liverpool was lovely as well, probably would've gone there if not Sheffield. AAB for industry at Sheffield at the time, and ABB at Liverpool so I figured I could have an industry course as insurance as well. In the end Sheffield also offered me a BBB offer for a straight MChem (originally applied a second time for study in europe, asked to change to an MChem during interview and they came back with that!) so I went for super safe and decided totally on Sheffield.

Definitely just go where you'll be happy. Experience and technical competence means far more than a university name, ideally somewhere with some good research going on because that will set you up well for your Master's project. If you want to go into R&D at the end though a PhD might be of interest, and you can go anywhere then.

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated! So I was wondering if you could give me some tips for a personal statement for chemistry? Is it good to have some kind of work experience for chemistry or do I not need it?

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated! So I was wondering if you could give me some tips for a personal statement for chemistry? Is it good to have some kind of work experience for chemistry or do I not need it?

Do it if you can get it. It's great insight for yourself, primarily, but will also help your application. It can be difficult to get though because places don't always have the insurance to cover younger students so just phone around or drop a few e-mails out and see what comes back. I had a GCSE kid shadowing me all last week, so some places do offer it! It's better at your age though, because I think you will understand more things. You might not have any big chemical companies local to you, but hiding out on some industrial estates you might find some smaller companies that make things out of the stuff they buy from the big companies. So I work for a company that sells some stuff, which people buy from us and mix together to make plastic things (some can be huge, like 2000 kg bend stiffeners for use in off-shore, right down to small scale hand made decorative pieces). I think the only work experience I had on there was a week in a primary school and a week in a hospital, it's more likely most people won't have any so it's a way to help yourself stand out.

I can't even remember what I put in my PS. Some waffle, I guess. I think I mentioned what areas of chemistry interested me the most, and I had read a couple of books (John Emsley ones are quite fun and entertaining, the history of phosphorus I probably enjoyed the most). I think I vaguely talked about what I wanted to do with chemistry as well at the time. How the subjects I was doing helped or linked in (so good at maths helps because mathematical aspects, biology uses lots of chemistry blah blah).

Hello Firstly, you don't need chemistry-related work experience at all to get offers for Chemistry courses. I applied with none and got 4 offers (relates to Nymthae about being brave, I applied to Durham and got rejected, oh well). As Nymthae said above though, I'd recommend trying to find some, to give you both an insight and an application edge.

Doing some beyond-syllabus reading (such as issues of RSC's The Mole) is helpful because you can mention this and interesting articles on your PS - they may discuss it at interview so be sure you can explain any article you mention of interest. The article on a Chemistry degree on TSR says not to relate Chemistry's importance to the real world, but I did a little (possibly explains the rejection..). I'd probably recommend coming up with a different reason.

I also mentioned some interests and stuff I'd done at school to show I wasn't completely academic - but about what skills I gained and how they relate to doing the course.

Also:

Loughborough - visited, I thought the facilities were okay but I thought they could've been much better. I wouldn't say the labs are recent like they are at other universities but from what I remember there was quite a lot of equipment there. It's campus but it's quite big due to the major emphasis on sport. I think I was told if you're predicted AAA (320 UMS) they won't read your PS. I was higher, but it didn't occur to me to choose it because of their standard offer (ABB?) was too close to Sheffield which I decided at the time I was definitely applying to.

York - great Chem department with facilities and the new labs open this year, but I didn't fall in love with the uni as a whole.

Warwick - I just want to say the main issue I had with it is I'd be coerced by my parents to live at home for the 4 years and commute (Coventry in rush hours, lovely). If I moved out it would've been better but the private accommodation that students go for is in Leamington Spa which is a bus-ride away, something else I wouldn't like. Then, they decided to cancel my specific course.

Keele - had to be my insurance since I ended up with 3 AABs and this was the BBB. It's okay. On hindsight I think L'boro may have been better (not 100% sure XD). Keeles labs and most of its facilities aren't that recent - there is an adequate amount of equipment. It's the smallest of the unis I visited and, despite initially liking it I can see myself getting eventually bored in terms of non-course stuff due to a small SU, the uni's location and not sure how good Newcastle-upon-Tyne is as a town. The private accommodation is pretty scattered and is also a bus-ride away (at least, most of it) - something else I wouldn't like, because apparently you can't walk to the campus from some of it.

I firmed Sheffield for Chemistry, Biological and Medicinal Chemistry in the end. I got to see the molecular bioscience facilities (on a separate Open Day) and I fell in love with the whole uni rather than just the department. The Departmental Visit Day made me fall in love with the city so it was even harder to reject it for York. It's also considerably closer than York for me. Hoping to get in this September excited!

Thanks for all the advice and help guys!

I firmed Sheffield for Chemistry, Biological and Medicinal Chemistry in the end. I got to see the molecular bioscience facilities (on a separate Open Day) and I fell in love with the whole uni rather than just the department. The Departmental Visit Day made me fall in love with the city so it was even harder to reject it for York. It's also considerably closer than York for me. Hoping to get in this September excited!

York is just too far North! Though I did like this one lecture a professor made from there.

Furthest choice from me is Cambridge.

Let' see: Warwick, Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle

I thought Warwick looked great when I first went, but I went back after seeing places like Bristol, Liverpool and Sheffield and decided I couldn't live in that campus bubble. I knew the later years being off-site would also annoy me so I scratched that off.

I didn't like Oxford/Durham, felt too out of place so if you're considering universities like that with their reputations (i.e. large proportion of privately educated, well-off backgrounds) then i'd visit at least one of them to see how you feel in that environment. All the formalities looked like hard work to me, when I just wanted somewhere I could be relaxed. My best friend went to Oxford though, and loved it, so it's all just what suits you. I liked Cambridge, but I think it can vary by what college you go to ultimately. The natural sciences course looked interesting, although i'm definitely glad i've done what I did (with an industrial year) as i've got my foot in the door in the industry now.

Bristol is an awesome choice - their lab set up was really good, I was impressed. I would've applied, but I decided to chicken out after results because for some reason I didn't think they'd look at me. In hindsight, that was stupid so always give it a go! I still would've picked Sheffield, but I applied to Newcastle and really I don't think I wanted to go there. My college just had a partnership with them that meant it guaranteed me an offer, basically.

Wasn't impressed with Birmingham, just figured they'd be a good insurance. The department really didn't sell themselves to me on the open day, the rest of the university was alright though. Southampton was nice enough, but so far away from home for me which just meant difficulties for logistics, like moving in etc. because my mum hates driving

Liverpool was lovely as well, probably would've gone there if not Sheffield. AAB for industry at Sheffield at the time, and ABB at Liverpool so I figured I could have an industry course as insurance as well. In the end Sheffield also offered me a BBB offer for a straight MChem (originally applied a second time for study in europe, asked to change to an MChem during interview and they came back with that!) so I went for super safe and decided totally on Sheffield.

Definitely just go where you'll be happy. Experience and technical competence means far more than a university name, ideally somewhere with some good research going on because that will set you up well for your Master's project. If you want to go into R&D at the end though a PhD might be of interest, and you can go anywhere then.

Which other universities did you look at? I’m looking to do the MSci Chemistry with a Year in Industry at Bristol.

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Hey, I'm currently at Bristol on the MSci Year in Industry course If you have any questions (that Nymthae hasn't already answered!) then feel free to ask!

Hey, I'm currently at Bristol on the MSci Year in Industry course If you have any questions (that Nymthae hasn't already answered!) then feel free to ask!