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Imperial / Oxbridge Interview Questions...

Hi,

It seems to me that there are few 'real' interview questions out there on Chemistry. As others who are applying to Imperial know, the Chemistry interview is this Wednesday - good luck!!! (oxbridge) = later.

However, to get things rolling, heres a few interview questions that I found quite interesting:

Discuss the nature of bonding on Chlorine as well as the interaction of chlorine atoms in NaCL.

What is the average interatomic distance between two molecules at room temperature pressure (or, in fact the room you are in)? tricky question.

Tell me something I don't know about the Haber process.

How many molecues are in an 18g glass of water.

Discuss the periodic table and the members within it, noting their internal structure briefly (i.e. what they made of, energy levels).

That's it - add more if you know any!!

Reply 1

Collingwood

Principally they will be expecting you to know what you've been studying in your school courses and most importantly what you wrote about on your personal statement that is relevant.

I really doubt they will say anything like "Tell me something I don't know about the Haber process."

Reply 2

DeanK2

Collingwood

I thought it was a fair question - although I doubt there is anything I know about the Haber process that the tutors are unaware of.

However, all these questions wwere asked at Cambridge (pre-interview sheet), or elsewhere at actual interview.

Reply 3

Quady

Huh all chemistry applicants are interviewed on the same day?! all 600 of them!? :s-smilie:

dude there are many others.

Describe the change in entropy in the universe to time infinity.
'So what do you like about chemistry' - interviewer sits back
How many pentagons are there in a buckyball?
What happens to the soul when you die?

Add this to this, what happens...

yea there are many

Reply 4

DeanK2

To be entirely honest, I am a bit stuck on the average atomic distance question. Using SPT, and pV = nRt, I obtained 1 mole of gas takes up 0.024 m^3 (well, I cheated and just divided 22.4 by 1000).

I then said that 0.024 is approximately 27/1000, as the cube root of this is 0.3.

I then had a cube, with sides 0.3, and 6.02 x 10^23 points I wanted to arrange the furthest apart as possible.

I then said 1 mole = 6.02 x 10^23 which is apprximately

10*64*10^21. I then cube rooted this to obtain:

4*(10^7)*2.5 = 10^8.

So each side of the cube of 0.3 m has 10^8 evenly space points.

0.3 / 10^8 = 3 x 10^-9 apart. However, this is of course incorrect, as atoms are at his scale.

What should you do to approach this?

Reply 5

EierVonSatan

DeanK2

That value is fine each atom is about 0.1 nm in diameter and so the space between is around 3 nm :smile:

my calculation (for reference) ~10^24 atoms occupy 22 dm^3, 22 x 10^24 dm => cube root ~ 3 x 10^8 dm = 3 x 10^9 m

Reply 6

Kyle_S-C

I suspect they're more likely to ask you about something they can walk you through...for instance they might talk about some sort of mechanism you've covered at A level and what interesting stuff it might lead to. Asking "how many molecules of water are there in 18g of water" would be looking for the response "Avogadro's number, which is about 6.023 x 10^23", which isn't really demonstrating much in the way of knowledge of chemistry.

The interatomic distance one seems pretty good, as does talking about bonding. If I were doing it, I'd probably go for something like infrared spectroscopy, talk about bending atoms and what happens when you swap hydrogen and deuterium. Something you can do with intuition and some knowledge from A level, plus something that can develop to challenge the best interviewees if necessary.

Reply 7

DeanK2

EierVonSatan

That value is fine each atom is about 0.1 nm in diameter and so the space between is around 3 nm :smile:

my calculation (for reference) ~10^24 atoms occupy 22 dm^3, 22 x 10^24 dm => cube root ~ 3 x 10^8 dm = 3 x 10^9 m

What does this imply? (BTW what does the 3x10^9 m refer to?).

Reply 8

EierVonSatan

DeanK2

What does this imply? (BTW what does the 3x10^9 m refer to?).

sorry, that's full of holes :s-smilie:

[22/10²⁴]^1/3 = 3 x 10^-8 dm = 3 x 10^-9 m

which is the spacing

Reply 9

LurkerintheDark

Well I had my Imperial Chemistry interview last Wednesday on the 19th Nov..
The first question they asked was the inevitable 'So, why Chemistry...?'; I led myself down the biochemical route, and mentioned proteins (fortunate as one of the interviewers was a professor of Polymer Chemistry or something), which then led to me drawing the peptide (or amide) link on the white board and talking about the intermolecular relationships between two different amino acid chains. I then had to discuss a bit about the equilibrium when two amino acids react.

So generally, it was pretty much syllabus material, with a bit here and there which I hadn't really done before; so no really outlandish questions.

Oxford may be another deck of cards though...

Reply 10

Ben.S.

I think "what is the concentration of pure water?" is a pretty standard getting-you-to-think type of interview question.

Reply 11

Cyco

Quady

Huh all chemistry applicants are interviewed on the same day?! all 600 of them!? :s-smilie:

Nope, every wednesday, a hundred or so applicants appear (I think), and this will continue into late january.

My questions were more along the lines of:
"What happens with a mix of X + Y, and what would you need to do to react them together ?"

"How many proton environments are there in this molecule - what do the 1-H NMR peaks look like?"

"What is your favourite element?"

I've just realised there's a new shipload tomorrow - time to get the candy and white van ready. :ninja:

Reply 12

Quady

That makes more sence :smile:

Which gas causes the greatest contribution to global warming? (not interview but Imperial prsentation question to the group)

Reply 13

Zygroth

Hmm, I'll be expecting something along the lines of "explain xxx" to someone who doesn't know too much about science. Apparently it's a good way to show if you've really understood the concept or not.

Reply 14

Justice †

i got asked about the structure and synthesis of luminol at imperial yesterday.

Reply 15

DeanK2

Justice &#8224

i got asked about the structure and synthesis of luminol at imperial yesterday.

Tricky. I son't even know what luminol is.

I thinkn yesterday''s interview was very much on what you put down as your course. I was speaking to people who had put chemistry down, and they seemed to stay quite within the syllabus.

Myself: applied for chem with molec phsyics. The first question I got was to sketch a graph, and we kind of focused on maths.

Reply 16

Justice †

they only asked me about it as I was talking about my work experience for the sutton trust where I had to design an experiment for making 'glow sticks'