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Chemistry - 4 years out, going back to uni

Hello,

I'm currently preparing myself to go to University in September, my place has been accepted and I'm all confirmed to do Chemistry. However, it has been 4 years since I did my A-Levels.

I've started relearning a lot of the Chemistry but I sometimes feel like I'm learning things that would stop at A-Level or are only specific to A-Level study and not relevant to degree level or beyond. Saying this, I don't actually know what is useful to learn and what is not.

Basically, are there certain topics that are better to focus on for someone who has had a gap in education? These are some of the topics that I'll be studying in my first year:

-Molecules: Structure, Reactivity, and Function
-From Bacteria to Plastic (based on lactic acid / polymer)
-Organic Chemistry 1
-Physical Chemistry 1
-Practical Course: Synthesis and Analysis
-Biochemistry
-Spectroscopy
-Inorganic Chemistry
-Introduction to Process and Product Technology


If it helps, I also studied with AQA.
Great! Well, you will need your A level chemistry - might as well relearn all of it; it's not that much in total. Just read through a current A level textbook, honestly.

The pre-university course for Oxford is designed to get everyone up to speed so you're definitely the right level to begin. It'll really help you, and it involves a wide variety of science like what you will be learning. It is very long, though.
Reply 2
Avatar for Nymthae
Nymthae
16
Original post by guvnataur
.


Pretty much all the organic chemistry from A-level is relevant. They will teach it assuming that knowledge so even where things are perhaps not the full picture it's the best place to start. Make sure you know functional groups, can name alkanes and other molecules, general mechanistic stuff (identifying electrophiles and nucleophiles), aromatics.

For physical chemistry: equilibria, rates, and any thermodynamics are definitely useful. You will probably go into stuff like quantum mechanics which you won't really have covered much of before so there's not too much you need to do to be on the same level as everyone else.

For spectroscopy: interpreting and understanding spectra (proton NMR, carbon-13, mass spec, and IR) - OCR syllabus definitely had some structure determination questions if AQA doesn't. Not usually too hard to pick up the basics if you do a few problems, should refresh quickly.

Inorganic chemistry: transition metals and complexes (electron counting!), lewis structures and VSEPR, bonding models, periodic trends (ionisation energies etc.), orbitals (may be covered more in the molecules segment rather than here) and hybridisation if you ever did any at A-level (I don't think I ever did, they will teach it assuming not).

Those are what I can remember being most central, although i've probably missed some bits as it's been a few years. I reckon things like biochemistry, polymer and process modules will start fairly basic as it's not core chemistry and it will not be assumed everyone has a sufficient biology background (unless it was mandatory for entry). You don't need to know specific organic reactions, it's just understanding how and why things react.

The Oxford primer books are very good for grounding in many areas and they tend to be fairly cheap so if you don't have any particular resources covering an area there might be something to help you there.

Oh, and a bit of maths. Basic differentiation and integration - useful for following some of the phys chem.

(If you go to the module website and look under 'Omschrijving' it will give you an idea of what you'll do so you can just work back to the A-level syllabus that way)
Reply 3
Avatar for guvnataur
guvnataur
OP
Thank you for that pre-university Oxford link, I've not had a proper look yet but from a skim it looks like it'll be useful - I don't mind long as long as it's all useful information! I'm not too worried about getting ahead of people so could always just skip those parts anyway.

Nymthae, thank you you've given me a lot to go from there. Would I need to learn how to do mechanisms, for example free radical substitution? Or is understanding the science good enough? It's mainly this sort of thing that seems very 'A-Level' specific.

Also with regards to the math, is it worth delving back into more complex forms of differentiation/integration if I have the time or would I be on good standing to literally just learn the basics? I know I have a maths test on arrival to determine my skills so it's something I'm concerned about as I'm a little unsure of what to expect.
(edited 8 years ago)
So long as you get the basic ideas of how to draw a mechanism (the very basics - what a curly arrow is etc), then every other piece of info will be explicit in the course. Learning the few mechanisms useful for A level won't stand you in good stead because you'll draw thousands of the things, and there's a focus on understanding rather than learning.

As for maths, that depends on the university so can't help you there. My uni (Oxford) was very maths-heavy in first year; A level maths and a basic knowledge of calculus were required, but I don't think that's typical.

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