hey, I just finished my MChem at hull! I can't say if my opinion of my time there will be reflective of what it is like now, as I started the year they brought the £9k a year tuition back and hull seemed to take everyone who could even spell the word chemistry that year. maybe it was the same in unis across the country, but it seemed hull wasn't prepared to take on so many of us. between lab space and resources, the department seemed to struggle to cope with us. I don't believe they made the mistake of taking on so many new students since, though, so it is likely we just got a badly timed deal. I'll do my best to answer your questions!
1) I believe starting September 2016 lectures at hull start on the hour? at the very least, 9.15 has become 9.00. if the timetable is unchanged from my time, first year has you in labs one day a week from 9-5pm. in third/fourth year this becomes 10-5pm and two days a week. lectures can vary and aren't necessarily 9.00 starts every day.
2) the biggest hurdle to asking lecturers for assistance is being determined to get a solution to your problems and giving them enough information (ie. what you've attempted, what you actually do understand) to help them help you. I felt in my earlier years I was quite low on the pecking order when it came to coming to ask for help and found it difficult sometimes for the less approachable lecturers. as the years went by and I got to know the staff better it became much easier, and I had gained enough clout by the time fourth year rolled around to demand answers when I needed 'em. some of the staff like Dr Prior are excellent teachers while some are not that great at teaching huge rooms of people but excellent at teaching smaller groups or individuals.
3) being more of a 'pint and a natter in the pub with my mates' kind of person than a clubber, I can't say an awful lot on the nightlife. I know for sure this year that the uni will be pushing the campus nightclub onto freshers quite a bit (which has deteriorated a lot in the past four years) and may even have excluded every other club from the freshers fair this year? you have many options available to you though, both near and far! I personally liked Piper, which is not far from uni, while Spiders is a bit further out and requires a taxi but is definitely where every hull student has to go at least once. cool atmosphere and aesthetic compared to the typical club dross, and the drink is dirt cheap! so cheap they don't actually sell singles, only doubles and onwards!
4) quite a few friends and colleagues managed to get part-time jobs okay, but chemistry is a very demanding course and not everyone is able to balance both a job and the course. the main thing that makes it steps above A Level isn't the difficulty, rather the amount of content they expect you to know for exams. it's quite a lot more than what has been expected from you before; you will find this most particularly come second year, and the amount you need to know only increases from there. at any rate, even getting a 2.1 requires a hell of a lot of hard work, let alone a 1st.
good maths skills will do you well on the course, and you will find people that didn't do maths since GCSE level will struggle a bit with some of it. in your first year they should make you sit some sort of maths test if not outright make you take some additional maths lessons by second year at the very latest. maybe a more recent student could confirm that? these are honestly all the maths techniques aside from basic addition, multiplication etc. I can remember using the most throughout this degree:
- there's a lot of algebraic equations to work with. be really good at rearranging equations- following on from that, logarithms and natural logarithms will come up very often- some statistical analyses for data, such as standard deviation- you'll be converting units a LOT, but by the end of the course you should be quite familiar with SI units, be able to work out the units of a value you calculated using the equation you just used, and know how to convert say between cm^-3 and m^-3.- simultaneous equations; I don't recall it ever being to three unknowns, so I think you are only expected to be able to work with two- physical chemistry in particular uses a lot of linear graphs, so you will be looking for equations that fit the form y = mx + c quite often, often you will need to manipulate them until they do!- (mostly optional) basic calculus; knowing how to integrate and differentiate equations will help you understand some equation derivations, particularly in kinetics and physical chemistry. I believe it's only been expected from us for one or two kinetics derivations
going by what I've heard from those who did the placement year (I signed up initially but didn't feel personally ready to do it when the time came, having only started living in england when uni started with no family here. plus very few actually were offered placements), it'll be very hard work. might need to prepare for a lot of late nights. but getting experience is almost essential to netting you a job later, so it is definitely worth considering. I wish you luck regardless of where you go! if anything, hull is super cheap for both rent and living, and it's not at all a bad city to spend a few years in. I was quite happy here.