Chemical Engineering Applicants - 2017 Entry

I hope so, it depends on my A-level results on results day. I'd apply via the NatSci route - general engineering doesn't really interest me and I think I'll enjoy doing a year of physics and chemistry.

I hope you get the grades you need. What are you planning on doing during your gap year?

Thank you, tho it won't be the end of the world if I don't hahaha. I've got an industrial placement that will last for pretty much the whole year and I'm also gonna take the time to learn some new skills like playing the violin and learning to code. Gonna try save up the money this year so I can do some volunteer projects abroad in the summer.

What about you? Are you going into year 13?

That sounds like a good plan. I've also been learning to code, haha.
And yeah, I'm honestly not looking forward to it though. It just seems stressful.
In all honesty, a gap year is looking more and more appealing. I never considered it before but you get an unconditional offer (I believe) and some work experience as well.

Which other unis have you/ are you going to apply to?

Yeah I admit I didn't really enjoy year 13 much haha, there was just so much going on at once. I never considered a gap year until around halfway through the year tho but I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I would say if you get the chance to; do it! There's way less pressure knowing you've already got the grades especially as less and less people would have AS grades to show the universities. You're correct in saying that you'll have an unconditional offer if you met the target grades and work experience before uni is excellent for your CV and and future career. Cambridge even actively encourage their Engineering applicants to defer their entry to get some relevant work experience for a year. There's also the added bonus of finally not having to take any exams for a whole year which is a welcome relief.

The other unis I'm looking at are Imperial, Bath, Birmingham and Leeds/Edinburgh. I'm also going to apply to the University of Singapore which would probably be my 3rd choice behind Cambridge and Imperial. I'd apply to places in America like MIT as well but no way am I gonna spend time writing essays on community spirit or something along those lines 😂 what about you?

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't really had a chance to get on tsr. I think I might start saving up; just in case I do decide to do it. However idk if my parents would want to keep me around for another year- they seem too excited that I'm going to live out haha. Although, not taking exams for a year is kinda appealing 😂

I was considering Cambridge through natsci of course, however for our year, they've introduced a pre interview test since they don't have AS grades to go by. I have been looking at Bath too, but didn't get the chance to go to the open day. I live in Birmingham, although I'd definitely apply if I didn't. Edinburgh is looking more and more attractive, although, at first I didn't really want to move that far out.

Singapore sounds amazing, I'd love to go there sometime.
Have you written your personal statement?

If you do decide to do an industry placement via a YINI or something, chances are you'll need to move out anyway and you'll be paid a salary so you can survive on your own for a year. It'll be very good practice for when you get to uni and you'll also be able to save a bit of money for uni as well. I'd say it is a win-win situation but I don't really like the idea of going to uni a year later than most people and being a year older than most people in the year.

Yeah, curse my luck that they have to introduce an "entrance exam" this year hahaha. I've had a look at it and the questions themselves don't seem too bad (then again, I've done my A2's ) but I think timing may be an issue especially in the multiple choice. I think if you prepare yourself well, then I'm sure you'll be fine! Bath is a very good uni and I also love Birmingham as a city as well. Ironically Edinburgh is becoming less and less appealing to me; I think I'll apply to Leeds instead but it'll end up being my last option anyway (this is where I jinx things and get B's in my A-levels hahaha).

Signapore looks like a really nice place! On that note, I'd also highly recommend you pick a course that has an Industrial Year or a Year Abroad (or both). It'll open up so many more opportunities and allow you to broaden your contacts and experiences. Looking further ahead, if you want to be making it big, opportunities abroad such as in America and Australia have massive markets needed to be filled by Chemical Engineers.

Yep, I've pretty much finished most of my PS. It just needs to be refined and I'll need to edit it to talk about my Gap Year stuff but I can't do that until I've started my Industrial Placement. What about you?

I'll definitely have a look into it, it seems like it'd be valuable. Like you said, though, I don't know if I'd want to be a year older than everyone else. A year in industry during my course might be a good compromise for me, but I feel like I'd want the experience before starting the course.

Haha I'm hoping the entrance exam will make me look like a better candidate; I don't think I worked as hard as I could have for my AS levels and my chemistry exams went awfully (the more I think about it, the worse it seems; I can't wait for results day). I could do all of the sample questions, however, there are a few things in the spec that I haven't touched since GCSE, so I need to brush up on those.

I think a year abroad would be great, but a huge challenge. I'd love to study abroad for a bit, get a sense of student life in another country and just explore the world on my own for a bit.

My personal statement is coming along, albeit very slowly. I've done 2 drafts but I'm not completely satisfied with them; I'll probably take it to my form tutor so I can talk through it.

Which subjects did you do at A2? I'm currently doing biology, chemistry, maths and further maths and I might have to stick with all 4 (since my school doesn't really count f.maths as a separate A level).

Yeah that's really the only major downside I think tho I'm sure there'll also be people that have taken gap years as well.

Well, I wish you luck on results day. I'm sure you haven't done as bad as you think. I think it's natural for everyone to think they've done badly. I've probably done badly in Physics cos I absolutely refused to revise for Physics Unit 5 but meh, I guess it'll work out in the end. I've only briefly glanced at the spec but I don't think there's nothing major in it; a lot of it is just the basic fundamentals that you needed for GCSE and AS.

A year abroad will no doubt be a great experience. A lot of character building. Personally, if I had the choice, I'd probably go to uni in America but it's just too expensive.

Don't worry about your personal statement too much. It'll come along nicely in the next few months; you've got plenty of time. The main part of the personal statement is to just convey your interest in the subject and you should be fine if you've got the grades to back it up.

I did the same A2's as you're going to do but Physics instead of Biology. I wish you good luck in those subjects - it's quite a fair amount of work in 1 year but definitely not too bad. I also had time to do an EPQ in the first half of the year. What do you think you got in your AS's?

Haha I think the reason I think I did so badly is because of all the damn unofficial mark schemes on here.

I'd love to go to uni in America, Caltech would be my university of choice over there. But you're right, it's so damn expensive and I think you have to do SATs, no thanks 😂

And from my intense brooding on how exams went + looking at unofficial mark schemes, I think I got an A in maths (with possibly full ums in S1 and C1), further maths (with possibly full ums in M1), and biology and probably a B in chemistry. Idk it doesn't sound too bad but I got As throughout the year and it was my predicted grade but I think I'll be upset if I get a B haha. I was going to do an EPQ but my school wouldn't allow it due to the fact I'm taking 4 subjects next year.

Next year's exams seem so much more intense, I'm definitely going to be working a lot harder.

You're right, I probably shouldn't be stressing too much over my personal statement, I guess grades and the interview will be the things which are more heavily weighted.

Out of curiosity, what did you do your EPQ on?

Comparing answers with the unofficial mark schemes can be misleading. Chances are you'll probably end up getting more marks than you initially calculated from them as a lot of marks can be gained from working out especially in Maths. I initally thought I got around 67-68 marks on FP2 from looking at the unofficial mark schemes but I've now seen the official mark scheme and I think I've got around 70-71. I would say it's even more lenient in Chemistry so I reckon your chance of getting an A is fairly high.

Yeah doing SATs is really too much effort, it's not necessarily hard but spending like 4 hours literally doing continuous multiple-choice questions...no thank you.

A2 exams definitely do require a fair bit more thought but by the end of the year, all the things you've learnt at AS will become second nature which will be important as all your AS knowledge will be assumed. As you're doing both A2 Maths and Further Maths next year, my best advice would be to make sure you put particular focus on the methods of integration that you'll learn in C4 such that it becomes second nature as you'll need it extensively in your Further Maths modules. For Chemistry, make sure you understand the basics of mechanisms and why arrows are drawn the way they are because if you know that, it'll make the Organic Chemistry so much easier and drawing mechanisms is very easy marks in my opinion if you know what you're doing.

I did my EPQ on water purification technology and how different methods of water purification can be used in developing countries. It happened to be very convenient that I could apply it to Chemical Engineering when originally it was meant to be focused around Chemistry.

I hope so, haha I hate thinking about results day but I'm not going on holiday until after results so I have nothing else to do.

I might start learning some C4 content, once I've finished C3 (trying to get ahead since with Further Maths, we were really pushed for time.. we finished FP1 2 weeks before the exam haha).

I sure hope AS becomes second nature since we get examined on the content..again. And instead of EMPAs, there's another exam which focusses on practicals and random parts of both the AS and A2 spec; should be fun to revise for.

Did you do Edexcel maths? Which modules did you do? I'm trying to decide which modules to take for next year. I was thinking of doing M2, FP2 and either FP3 or M3 (but leaning towards M3 since I don't do physics), and with maths, our school do stats so I'd be doing S2.

Mechanisms are alright so far, though some of the A2 ones look insane haha. I think the thing I struggled with most in chem this year were the redox calculations, but I practiced them until I found them super easy.

Your EPQ topic sounds interesting. I was actually going to do mine on techniques used to minimise air pollution (since I read an article about towers which filter carbon from the air, which is then used to make diamonds(!!) but, of course, we can't forget about our good old friend- the catalytic converter).

Were you originally planning to do a Chemistry degree?

It's a double edge sword in some aspects cos if you don't as well as you'd have liked, you won't enjoy a holiday after results day hahaha so I actually do prefer going before results day even if I might occasionally have bad dreams about results and stuff.

Yeah Ive been the new spec for Chemistry and stuff, are you doing AQA by any chance? On one hand, you do less exams which is good and overall there's more leeway in terms of there's more chance that specific topics won't come up seeing as it's more condensed if you get what I mean. On the other hand, I don't fancy sitting a "practical" exam - it just doesn't really sit right in my head but I understand why they did it instead of keeping ISA's and EMPA's.

Yep I did Edexcel for Maths and FM and I did C1-C4, FP1-FP3, S1-S2, M1-M2 and D1. Hmm, between FP3 and M3, I think FP3 will be slightly easier tho I'm a bit biased cos I never seemed to grasp M1 and M2 for some reason. However, M3 does cover topics like Circular Motion and SHM which are covered in A2 Physics so if you're applying for NatSci at Cambridge, that would be an advantage. I think Circular Motion is quite a significant topic that can be asked in both the pre-interview assessment and at interview. FP3 will mostly just expand your knowledge of Intergration, Vectors and Matrices. Topics like Matrices and Hyperbolic Functions in FP3 are really quite straightforward really. I think you'll enjoy S2, I personally hated S1 but S2 is much more logical and you can clearly understand why you're doing something instead of randomly putting numbers into formulas to calculate means and regression lines which is just a lot of bother and typing numbers into calculators.

I think Mechanisms make much more sense in A2 as that's when you fully understand what you're doing instead of memorising how to do it during AS but Organic Chemistry seems to be most difficult purely because of the amount of memorisation. Redox calculations will just come from doing questions but everything you do ultimately relies on knowing the mole ratio.

It's a shame your school won't let you do an EPQ, I think it's a really great opportunity to do some independent research. Honestly, like it takes maybe the first few months of Year 13 but then you won't have to worry about it once you finish it, I doubt it'll affect your revision or your grades at the end of year.

Yeah, I applied to do Chemistry this year and I actually still have Imperial firmed and Bristol as my insurance but I'm going to have to kindly reject them on results day once I find out my grades.

Agreed, I wish we could have gone before results, I'll definitely do that next year. Right now, I feel like I'm just waiting for results day; there's nothing else to do. Are you going on holiday this year?

Yeah, I'm doing AQA. And that's true; fewer exams mean some content is less likely to come up but I think that'll make me feel like I've done all of that revision for nothing. The worst part of the new spec is having all of these "required practicals" which we have to learn the results for, safety hazards etc.

Same here! M1 was so difficult for me at the start, I got something like 12/75 in a mock lmao but I worked so hard to understand it. I did D1 this year as well, I hated it haha. I also hated S1- it just didn't really make sense- like WHY do the formulas work? I hope S2 is better. Hmm, I guess I'll just have to ponder over it; both M3 and FP3 sound really interesting haha.

I hope the mechanisms make more sense, tbh the ones right now are okay- it's just figuring out the movement of electron density; it seems pretty logical. I felt like there was some memorisation at AS, however, and there looks like there is more to do. The new exams, though, make it harder to just pass by memorising; there's so much application.

I asked them a few times but they declined each time The thing is we have dedicated EPQ sessions once a fortnight so the project runs to Easter, rather than earlier in the year.

That must be kind of bittersweet- having to reject both universities. However, you'd definitely be better off applying for a degree that you actually want to do. I was originally going to apply to chemistry before I found out about chemical engineering.

I hated mechanics at the start of the year first mock got a D but with consistent practice I began to get certain topics I was struggling on like vectors it was still my worse maths exam but I think I still handled it well and yeah the new spec exams were so weird looks like they are even more focused on the application than content im also doing aqa so were in the same boat

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