Chemistry Interview

Hey everybody,
I've got my chemistry interview on the 10th of February and was wondering if anyone who has been to one could share his experiences? I'm applying as an international student and I sure am nervous already!

Thanks and it will be greatly appreciated!

Reply 1

username1854431

Original post by pat97

I've got my chemistry interview on the 10th as well! ARghhhh I'm stressing outtt

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

pat97

That's for sure! I'm really wonderning what type of questions they'll ask but according to their homepage the interview should be based on the personal statement..

Reply 3

Plantagenet Crown

Well it obviously hugely depends on the person who's interviewing you. My one asked me who had won the Nobel Proze for chemistry that year and what their research was about. They then asked me to explain more in depth about the book on Nanotechnology I had mentioned in my personal statement.

They also got me to go to the board and draw/explain hybridisation.

Reply 4

pat97

Had you mentioned hybridisation in your ps before? At least we haven't talked about this in school here in Germany

Reply 5

Plantagenet Crown

Original post by pat97

Had you mentioned hybridisation in your ps before? At least we haven't talked about this in school here in Germany

No, we hadn't learned about but I had read up on it. In most interviews they will at least ask you something about a topic you haven't covered. What would be the point in asking everything you already know?

Reply 6

pat97

Yes, I'm aware of that.. it would however not be the greatest idea to ask someone about sth. that isn't in some way connected to a topic you've at least heard of at some point, there would be no use for you which would be rather pointless as they want you to get a look into their teaching as well.

Reply 7

Plantagenet Crown

Original post by pat97

Of course there's a use for it. They want to see how you think on your feet and apply chemical knowledge to unfamiliar topics.

Reply 8

ericaoh

Hello,

I have my interview via Skype on the 17th of Feb and also am applying as an international student. I am surprised I got the interview since I was pretty sure I'd get rejected for some reasons. Also, I am really stressing out because it's beensome time since I studied chem and there is too much to start all over again and cover the materials.
I read in the other forum that this one guy was asked who the Nobel Prize Winner of Chemistry that year. So random... hopefully, I am not the unfortunate one who gets unusually tricky questions in the interview. Also, does getting an interview mean that you are likely to get the offer and that the tutor just want to see what you are like before you attend the university?

Reply 9

Minnie1998

I was asked why imperial and why chemistry and then basic questions like the isotopes of carbon etc. and they might also ask questions from your PS

Reply 10

Professor L

I'll go through how my interview went. First, have answers to the questions "Why chemistry?" and "Why Imperial?" already made. I used some bits from my PS to answer the first one as I've essentially already said this here :smile:

For the second, I basically talked about the type of degree they have.

They went straight into the questions next (one of the interviewers, yeah there were two, actually said we'll go straight into the questions next, I was like God help me XD ). They basically asked questions to do with some things I mentioned in my PS, although I heard in some others that they asked things like how do fireworks work! In this case, use your chemistry knowledge to come up with something! With my one, they asked me about optical isomers and there was a blackboard (some others had whiteboards, some just pen and paper, this is probably irrelevant :tongue:

). They told me to draw examples of chiral compounds, I chose amino acids to be safe. They asked about some similarities and differences between the two isomers like similar melting points and different directions they reflect plane polarised light (they had to tell me this, I had no idea!). They also asked me about something else I mentioned in my PS, which was basically using calculus to find the rate constant (k) and they went further by saying what the graphs will look like with different values of k. I needed so much help with this but eventually I got there :redface:

Overall, my interviewers used questions which stemmed from what is said in my PS and then delve deeper into the chemistry. They were really friendly! At first I was quite worried but when I sat down I just acted naturally, not too much eye contact to each interviewer :tongue:

Even when I was stuck on some of the questions they asked, their helpfulness lessened the tension. Maybe go over AS, A2 stuff you've done so far and things you said in your PS, think about further questions they may ask about on things in your PS and formulate answers for them.I hope that was informative enough, good luck in your interview!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 11

victoria98

The first question I was asked was 'why chemistry?' the very last question I was asked was 'why Imperial?' everything in between was based mostly on my personal statement. They asked about an article I mentioned (but nothing on books), I said I liked physical chemistry so they asked about rates and thermodynamics. I did a summer placement that involved enzymes and so they asked me a bit about proteins and then, from there, went onto amino acids and polymers. At the time I hadn't done anything on polymers but could answer most of their questions (I did, after a while, tell them that I haven't done it before and they were more than happy to move on). There were a few questions that went beyond A Level knowledge, I guess they want to see how you think? Overall it was a very nice experience (I know how that sounds), I walked in feeling extremely anxious (which they noticed and told me not to worry which obviously had me worrying even more) and walked out very happy- it felt like a conversation with a group of friends rather than an interview. The wait after interview was excruciating though! Worse than waiting for the interview (by far). They took 2 weeks and 5 days to reply after interview.

I think it's important to know everything in your personal statement and if you didn't lie/stretch the truth too much then you'll be fine. Just be able to talk about the things you've mentioned! Obviously every interview is different and depends on the interviewers also. I was very worried about my interview because during the tour we walked by the interview rooms and someone else who was interviewed by my interviewers was visibly struggling with some organic chemistry question (turns out it was because they mentioned its synthesis in their statement but didn't actually know it :s-smilie: