Ask a Chemistry Uni Student!

Ask a Chemistry Uni Graduate :albertein:

Spoiler

Hi there I'm Cheese, I'm a recent 4th year MChem Chemistry graduate at the University of Southampton. I'm here to answer any questions you have about applications and life as a chemistry student!

Cool links and stuff to definitely check out.
Coronavirus: Impact on Schools and Exams
Chemistry and Chemistry Exams An article on how to find out which University Course is for you!
Applications, Clearing and UCAS
Revision and study tips
Thread for current 2020 Chemistry applicants
Megathread of Chemistry resources!
What Admissions Staff want to see in a Chemistry Personal Statement
Chemistry Personal Statement TSR Wiki (please remember not to copy or post your Personal Statement on TSR for it will get cache'd on the internet and flagged as plagiarism to UCAS)

Please refrain from asking for help with chemistry assignments or homework. There is a great study group here for A-level students and I've linked some :tsr2:

forums and resources for you guys to check out too!

Fire away :ahee:

Spoiler

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 1

username5233714

5

Hi! I'm currently in a gap year with a confirmed place at the University of Leeds. Currently, I'm a little panicky with how prepared I need to be for my course. I am keeping up with not forgetting absolutely everything from A-Level, but do I need to expand on that? Do you recommend any prereading sources? Thank you!

Reply 2

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by maribakebox

Hi! I'm currently in a gap year with a confirmed place at the University of Leeds. Currently, I'm a little panicky with how prepared I need to be for my course. I am keeping up with not forgetting absolutely everything from A-Level, but do I need to expand on that? Do you recommend any prereading sources? Thank you!

Hi there!

Awesome stuff, congrats on your place :woohoo:

Please don't panic! More is sometimes less ahead of a chemistry degree. If you want to read anything, read for fun. I would definitely recommend something like the very short introductions OUP books. They have volumes in the periodic table, general chemistry and physical chemistry and are a great little snippet into what you're going to look into!
have you been up to anything cool in your gap year?
Cheese :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 3

username5233714

5

Original post by CheeseIsVeg

hi there!
awesome stuff, congrats on your place.
please don't panic! more is sometimes less ahead of a chemistry degree. if you want to read anything, read for fun. I would definitely recommend something like the very short introductions OUP books. they have volumes in the periodic table, general chemistry and physical chemistry and are a great little snippet into what you're going to look into!
have you been up to anything cool in your gap year?

Hey thanks for the reply! I picked up a couple of very short intros and they were actually such a good read, even just for fun. I think I need to calm down a bit more and tell myself it will be fine haha.
I've been working on my baking skills during this gap year (a hobby I'm way too into) and was working as a pastry chef for a restaurant till we got shut down because of the virus :frown:

. On the bright side I'm still getting paid so I can bake at home and get fat... Did you take a gap year or go all in?

Reply 4

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by maribakebox

Hey thanks for the reply! I picked up a couple of very short intros and they were actually such a good read, even just for fun. I think I need to calm down a bit more and tell myself it will be fine haha.
I've been working on my baking skills during this gap year (a hobby I'm way too into) and was working as a pastry chef for a restaurant till we got shut down because of the virus :frown:

. On the bright side I'm still getting paid so I can bake at home and get fat... Did you take a gap year or go all in?

Ah that's great to hear! :jumphug:

If you have any worries about the degree or want a chat about Uni life - I am your Cheese! Feel free to send me a message if you like :smile:

Which A levels did you do if you don't mind me asking!

If there is maybe anything you're not so confident on you could always try and find an online textbook to go through. This is only if you really want to. I genuinely hold the view that before starting a degree one should make the full use of their free time and have some fun!
However, many of my coursemates found the physics/maths side more difficult (physical chemistry) and so if you maybe aren't a fan of this then I'd recommend the Atkins Textbook on the Elements of Physical Chemistry.

Ah that's so lovely - sorry to hear about the shutdown though.
I did not take a gap year but went straight in. Sometimes I wish I did though, no real rush to do anything really. If it takes you a year or two longer to reach your dream job it doesn't matter so much :tongue:

Reply 5

username5233714

5

Thank you so much! Definitely expect some panicked message at 2am when my mind goes rampant aha :cool:

At the moment it only feels like the right thing to do since I have been so focused on my job - I am definitely shaky with the physics side of things. My boyfriend currently does biochemistry at the University of York and so I have been (illegally?) raiding his library for maths in chemistry textbooks and sort of having a look at it. It does not look good. I will have a look to see if I can find that book!
My subjects were chemistry (A*) biology (A) and physics (C), alongside a chem-related EPQ (A*). As you can see physics is not the strong point so I know there is work to be done.
Honestly I'm loving the gap year, a year of having no homework does wonders for the mental state :wink:

Reply 6

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by maribakebox

x

aw haha

it's all good!
there's loads of support maths wise so please don't worry!
It goes up each year. First year will be chilled out but still lots of new content. Feel free to go up to lecturers if you need a hand, they're super understanding and legit paid to help you :borat:

Ah very nice, I did an EPQ too :five:

York is lovely! Yes the biochemistry side of thing may be more of the thing you enjoy maybe?
All I would say is be prepared to revisit thermodynamics, equilibrium and a few physics things like the wave-particle quality, de Broglie wavelength and the photoelectric effect :smile:

stuff like that

Reply 7

8472

21

do you feel bad if you break equipment or is it all part of the experience? :beard:

Reply 8

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by 8472

do you feel bad if you break equipment or is it all part of the experience? :beard:

personally I don't feel bad because you pay £9k a year and my uni has their own glass blowers that fix undergraduate glassware
for banter some of the things I remember breaking myself include many glass pipettes, a sinter, my friend legit dropped a desiccator lol as well

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 9

8472

21

Original post by CheeseIsVeg

personally I don't feel bad because you pay £9k a year and my uni has their own glass blowers that fix undergraduate glassware
for banter some of the things I remember breaking myself include many glass pipettes, a sinter, my friend legit dropped a desiccator lol as well

That's good to hear!

Reply 10

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by 8472

That's good to hear!

yiss :bhangra: tysm for your question young chap, I'm sure you'll make a fine chemist

Reply 11

Ðeggs

22

What is your favourite acid? :biggrin:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 12

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by Deggs_14

What is your favourite acid? :biggrin:

gonna go with phosphoric acid because it is triprotic which catches people out and also I used it as a liquid NMR standard when calibrating the instrument I used. :smile:

Reply 13

Ðeggs

22

Original post by CheeseIsVeg

gonna go with phosphoric acid because it is triprotic which catches people out and also I used it as a liquid NMR standard when calibrating the instrument I used. :smile:

Wow that’s awesome :biggrin:

haha thanks for answering my silly question

Reply 14

Bismuth83

12

What do you plan to do once you've graduated? And what made you choose chemistry?

Reply 15

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by Bismuth83

What do you plan to do once you've graduated? And what made you choose chemistry?

I think that I would like to get a job or do a graduate scheme sort of thing. I'll see how that goes and then if it's not for me I can fall back on a PhD place somewhere maybe :smile:

I chose chemistry because I really enjoyed the chemistry/physics crossover at A level. I was really good at it and further reading around the topic really interested me. Especially news at the time of the official completion of the final row of the periodic table. That inspired me to write an EPQ and from there I knew it was what I wanted to do!

Reply 16

Gayaalma

Original post by CheeseIsVeg

Ask a Chemistry Uni Student :albertein:

Spoiler

Hi there I'm Cheese, I'm a current 3rd year Chemistry student at the University of Southampton. I'm here to answer any questions you have about applications and life as a chemistry student!

Cool links and stuff to definitely check out.
Coronavirus: Impact on Schools and Exams
Chemistry and Chemistry Exams
Applications, Clearing and UCAS
Revision and study tips
Thread for current 2020 Chemistry applicants
Megathread of Chemistry resources!
What Admissions Staff want to see in a Chemistry Personal Statement

Please refrain from asking for help with chemistry assignments or homework. There is a great study group here for A-level students and I've linked some :tsr2:

forums and resources for you guys to check out too!

Fire away :ahee:

Hi there,
I’m a current year 12 (soon to be year 13 ahh) student and I definitely know I want to study chemistry at oxford (hopefully). Despite having this indescribable passion for the subject I struggle to actually find a reason to why I want to study it. I don’t know how to begin a personal statement at all. Did you ever feel like this?

Reply 17

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by Gayaalma

Hi there,
I’m a current year 12 (soon to be year 13 ahh) student and I definitely know I want to study chemistry at oxford (hopefully). Despite having this indescribable passion for the subject I struggle to actually find a reason to why I want to study it. I don’t know how to begin a personal statement at all. Did you ever feel like this?

Hey there

You got this :rave:

That's awesome you want to go for Chemistry at Oxford :ahee:

I have to admit that I did not, I think doing an EPQ helped me because I read news articles, watched documentaries etc. and it really showcased to me what I enjoyed about the subject and made writing the PS quite easy.
I would recommend thinking about which part of chemistry you super enjoy. Do you like lab work? Did you particularly enjoy watching something about upcoming research? Have you read any interesting books, what really caught your attention?

Check out the wiki that I linked in the first post in my thread. It's full of chemistry PS examples. Remember you can't copy them because it would get caught by UCAS but may help you write yours. Below is a link to what Chemistry Admission Tutors say they like to see. Remember it's Oxford so that means you will be wanting to focus it on the science side and less-so on your Extra Curricular activities.

Best wishes,
Cheese
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=26229-Writing-a-chemistry-personal-statement-what-admission-staff-want-to-see

Reply 18

5hyl33n

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Hi @CheeseIsVeg,

How important would you say your GCSE grades were at the universities you applied to? Did they play a significant role in your application or were your A-Levels and PS more relevant?

Thanks,
5hyl33n

Reply 19

CheeseIsVeg

OP

22

Original post by 5hyl33n

Hi @CheeseIsVeg,

How important would you say your GCSE grades were at the universities you applied to? Did they play a significant role in your application or were your A-Levels and PS more relevant?

Thanks,
5hyl33n

hi there

very little unless applying to Oxbridge. I think they helped me understand chemistry was the science I was best at and more interested in, definitely practically. I always did best in it at GCSE!
I hope this helps. PS and A levels (especially) more important than the GCSEs.
have a wonderful evening,
Cheese

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