Oxford Chemistry Students and Applicants

I may be applying for an Msc at Oxford before my PhD for my experience. Wanted to know if anyone as applied and could offer some advice.

Out of interest, why are you thinking of doing a MSc before a DPhil? I think it’s pretty rare, especially as there’s not much funding for MScs as its expected you go straight for the DPhil. If you’re wanting more training before you start the project, the CDTs might be of interest

Is this the MSc in Physical and Theoretical chemistry? Tench has been accepted for the CDT programme, so it might be worth sending him a PM – the application process seems to be pretty much identical.I agree with KombatWombat that (particularly if this is the MSc you're looking at) applying for the CDT instead might be a better idea.

I agree with both of you. Most people do go straight from the MChem to a PhD or DPhil however I was actually planning to do my Msc instead of my MChem. So I'd do my Bsc now (at a high RG uni) and do my Msc at Oxford. As the CDT's still require an MChem or Msc.

Considering this for several reasons, 1. Really want to go to Oxford (didnt apply in my Undergrad because I didnt think id get the grades). 2. Cost around the same price. 3. Msc is worth a lot more than an MChem (Masters vs Undergrad Masters). 4. Hopefully an Msc at oxford should open more doors when applying for my PhD.

What do you guys thing? Btw thank you BJack, ill send him a PM

Oh and its in Organic.

Oxford don’t do any taught MScs other than the theoretical one (and that’s a really small programme) so your only option would be a MSc by research (at oxford), which I think would take ~2 years (might be wrong on this one though!). Surely sticking with your MChem would be cheaper and more sensible?

Can anyone explain how the extra 1% works if you get a 1st (for supplementary subjects)? Do you literally get 1% added to your final score or is it nuanced than that? I'm close to the boundary between classes so I'm wondering if it'll be worth taking another supp in my fourth year.
Thank you to anyone who can help!

Yeah, just 1% added on. So if you were on 68% you'd go up to 69%. A fourth year supp's a good idea – you'll hopefully be able to spend more time learning the material and if you're lucky, it can overlap nicely with your project work. I can't see any reason why somebody doing a Part II in crystallography, for instance, wouldn't take the crystallography supp for a very good chance at an extra 1%.

Anyone have any advice for third year? Dos and don'ts, how not to get overwhelmed, general routines that have helped people in the past etc?

I got a decent 2.1 for 2nd yr (but did v badly in organic :// )
Would love to be able to get a 1st this year but is that being realistic??

Any advice would be welcome!

x

Get labs out of the way so that you can focus on third year material. It's definitely possible to improve from second year to third — in third year there's actually enough time to revise everything (!), so make revision plans early on and don't let the seeming distance of finals let you relax too much.

I'm afraid I can't give you any advice for organic because I did pretty badly in the third year papers. I don't know whether I needed a better theoretical understanding of organic chemistry or a better knowledge of standard mechanisms but I definitely didn't know enough about either.

Remember that finals are not everything, even though they are a significant part of your degree. Getting a solid 2.1 in third year might be enough for a first, depending on how your Part II goes. Having a bit of a cushion would be nice, though – I understand that. You can take a supplementary subject in fourth year to try for extra credit towards your final classification if you think it will be a close thing.



I saw in the course handbook that the credit for a good supplementary performance seems to start at 60% now, rather than 70% as it used to. I don't know how this has affected the reward, so I'd recommend checking with a tutor (or someone more senior in the course arrangements) if you want to be certain.

Anyone have any advice for third year? Dos and don'ts, how not to get overwhelmed, general routines that have helped people in the past etc?

I got a decent 2.1 for 2nd yr (but did v badly in organic :// )
Would love to be able to get a 1st this year but is that being realistic??

Any advice would be welcome!

Get labs out of the way so that you can focus on third year material. It's definitely possible to improve from second year to third — in third year there's actually enough time to revise everything (!), so make revision plans early on and don't let the seeming distance of finals let you relax too much.

I'm afraid I can't give you any advice for organic because I did pretty badly in the third year papers. I don't know whether I needed a better theoretical understanding of organic chemistry or a better knowledge of standard mechanisms but I definitely didn't know enough about either.

Remember that finals are not everything, even though they are a significant part of your degree. Getting a solid 2.1 in third year might be enough for a first, depending on how your Part II goes. Having a bit of a cushion would be nice, though – I understand that. You can take a supplementary subject in fourth year to try for extra credit towards your final classification if you think it will be a close thing.



I saw in the course handbook that the credit for a good supplementary performance seems to start at 60% now, rather than 70% as it used to. I don't know how this has affected the reward, so I'd recommend checking with a tutor (or someone more senior in the course arrangements) if you want to be certain.

Yep, it's an added 0.5% for 60 and still 1% for 70



Ditto on the labs- have them completely done in Michaelmas.
Have a look at the exam papers now and you'll see that half the questions are material from the previous two years; revise that thoroughly now so you don't have a load to do during Hilary :P
Don't leave your part II meetings last minute- as soon as you decide which lab (org physical inorganic) you want to go into (after the lab open days) start emailing supervisors They're so much nicer than you think :P
I went up around 10% from 2nd year to 3rd so a first for you is entirely realistic!

By looking at past papers now do you mean on all the 2nd year topics that aren't expanded on in 3rd year?
Did you do all the past papers available? And did you only stick to part1B papers for practice?

Also is it required to go over all first year material? I never understood the physics we did in first year :/

Do you have any recommended subjects for the options course and any recommended labs to do in third year?

I meant if you look at the Part IB papers, you'll see that half the questions are are on topics learnt in 1st/2nd year: thermodynamics, stat mech, quantum, liquids and solutions, spectroscopy etc for physical, ditto for inorganic and organic. The 3rd year material only makes up half the papers!

Tbh I was very lackluster with past papers since I left revision quite late and I needed to go over content first

But if you do start early, then definitely do all the past papers, you'll feel so much more confident. I looked at some older papers instead of sticking to just Part IB but only if I was sure that the entire question could be done with just required Part IB knowledge. The syllabus has changed quite a bit so there may be bits that we don't know in the older papers It's most useful to use the older papers for inorganic paper II, which is the essay paper. Make sure you start practicing writing essays early as well!

Not all the first year material is required, just specific parts. I also couldn't do the first year physics/mechanics and never did learn how to I don't recall much of it coming up in physical paper but I didn't do very well in those so I'm not the best person to ask

For options, it depends on where your strengths lie. Almost everyone does inorganic molecular spectroscopy because so much of it is similar to what you've done in the inorganic lectures already. Go to the lectures for this even if you don't do the option, it will help for the inorganic papers. I did Functional Organic polymers and Natural Product Chemistry. I quite liked Natural product chem since it mostly required memorisation of the reactions, but I've heard the inorganic ones are quite good because it again requires lots (massive amounts) of rote learning but otherwise the questions are simple.

I'll PM you which labs I've done/recommend

Thank you sooooo much for your reply!
Haha it's kind of annoying because I feel like all past years knowledge has just left my brain completely in the vac!!

Hi everyone!
I am nlt aire whether to choose biochemistry or chemistry. I was wondering if in chemistry you can specialise in organic chemistry or whethe rit is mainly physical chemistry

You have to do all three inorganic, organic and physical till third year. However there is some element of choice throughout the years:
- You can do a supplementary course in second year, completely optional. There are choices in each branch of chemistry, the organic being aromatic and heterocyclic chemistry. Doing this reduces third year lab hours by half.
- In the 2nd term of third year, you have some choice in which lecture courses/options to attend, so you can so purely organic/biological options if you wish
-For labs in 2nd year, you have to do 60 hours in each 3 branch of chemistry while in third year you are free choose which labs to do- 72 hours/36 hours depending on if you do a supplementary
- Fourth year is when you specialise and do a project with one of the research groups