How hard is the first year of a chemistry degree and the maths in it?

I got a strong A grade in A level Chemistry, but some people have said first year is about the same difficulty as A level and some said its harder. To be honest I didn't find A level Chemistry hard at all, (maybe that's because I was a serious revision freak). I want to know so I can prepare well for university.

On another note, I have barely touched upon any maths since GCSE!!!. A level Chemistry barely has any mathematical thinking but rather calculator button pushing. I am very bad at maths and I have no idea what differentiation and calculus is and I am obliged to take a module on maths to catch up!!! Are these maths topics hard or not???

Reply 1

BJack

I'd be rather concerned if first year was not harder than A level. :s-smilie:

The maths you need for a chemistry degree is not difficult. If you found GCSE maths straightforward, you should be fine.

Reply 2

ScottishShortiex

I've just finished my first year of a chemistry degree. I found that the majority of the things we learned was the exact same stuff we learned in Advanced Higher Chemistry (approx Scottish equivalent of A Level) but with a little extra detail. About the same level of difficulty as 6th year of high school :smile:

As for Maths, I did Advanced Higher Maths in school (so A Level) and first year maths was just a complete repeat of what I'd done in Advanced Higher. There was nothing new! Calculus (i.e. differentiation and integration) is quite difficult especially the more advanced stuff but if you start off with the basic calculus and understand what you're doing then you should be able to cope with the more difficult calculus as you just apply the same principles/way of doing it. :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

Ben Kenobi

You don't need to prepare for university. Just have fun for now. When you start university start studying and finish your assignments on time.

Reply 4

danny2014

I'm applying for chemistry this year, to start in 2014.

The closest thing I've gotten to maths is AS physics (C) and I'm also rather terrible at maths - I can cope with the maths in physical chemistry, in fact I enjoy it, and I could do the quantum mechanics in physics... However, I am genuinely concerned about it because I doubt the maths in a level chemistry even compares to degree level :confused:

Any help is warmly welcomed! :biggrin:

Reply 5

.snowflake.

Original post by danny2014

Any help is warmly welcomed! :biggrin:

If you can cope with the maths in physics AS, you'll cope with the maths in the degree. If you haven't got A level maths, your university will run a 'Maths for Chemists' module in first year, where you're likely to go from BODMAS to doing thngs with a 3x3 matrix.

Original post by goodnbad

The topics aren't particularly difficult, and you'll probably find that they'll be explained in a chemistry context, Your catch up maths module will probably take you from GCSE through to FP1/FP2, but missing out all of the bits where its just difficult stuff with numbers because we can. So you'll do differntiation and integration, sequences, matrices. If your lecturers are crap, then use Khan academy.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

ChemistBoy

You should be given support in maths during your first year if you haven't got A-level. I'd say the most important think to get to grips with is differential calculus at first. The matrices and group theory you encounter in a chemistry degree are quite applied so there really shouldn't be too much of a problem there.

Reply 7

jdxx

I got a C overall in AS chemistry, 7 ums off a B. Always been interested in studying chemistry at university, but after receiving the lowest AS result in it I'm having second thoughts. Would i find it too hard?

Reply 8

.snowflake.

Original post by jdxx

I got a B in Chemistry at AS. Another B at A2. Finished first year with a 2:1. If you really enjoy chemistry and it makes you happy and you love the idea of spending a full day in labs doing an experiment, rather than rushing around your tiny chemistry classroom at 6th form for an hour trying to get the experiment done in time, and want to know how NMR works, to interpret those spectra without a table telling you 'this peak means this' and learning loads about tonnes of stuff you've never done before, then stick with it.

Reply 9

.snowflake.

Original post by jdxx

Wow well done! I think i will stick with it, it was either this or medical biochemistry. Thank-you for your advice

Thank you

Seriously, a passion and a love for the subject is what will get you through the 3/4 years of your degree. There's been times where I've been in the library at 6am, wondering WTF am I even doing here. And then I remember why, because I want to do well, and essentially have a point to prove.

Reply 10

langlitz

Original post by BJack

I'd be rather concerned if first year was not harder than A level. :s-smilie:

The maths you need for a chemistry degree is not difficult. If you found GCSE maths straightforward, you should be fine.

That's simply not true. A chemistry degree involves significantly harder maths than GCSE hahaha

Reply 11

BJack

Original post by langlitz

That's simply not true. A chemistry degree involves significantly harder maths than GCSE hahaha

You will have to forgive my memory, as I made this post four years ago (!) and sat my GCSEs some time before that. I can see why you've misunderstood my point, as it's not well-phrased. I meant that a person who found maths at GCSE straightforward is likely to have the capability to learn the sort of maths that you need for degree level chemistry without too much trouble.

I think I would still say that the maths you *need* for a chemistry degree is not difficult. The problems are definitely conceptually more difficult, and you have to work harder to work out what the appropriate equations & formulas that you should use are. But this still means that a lot of the time you're trying to come up with an equation and plug some numbers in without making a mistake. The mathematical competency needed to do that is, I would say, not huge. Now, obviously, there are areas of chemistry that require stronger maths skills and I wouldn't expect somebody who doesn't like maths to pursue QM, for instance. But chemistry is very broad and you can do a lot that doesn't require you to be particularly maths-minded.

Reply 12

thenextchemist

'Maths for Chemistry' by Paul Monk is the basic maths you'll need for first year.
Chemistry does have quite a bit of maths, but it's mostly AS Maths.
I guess you need to go through differentiation and integration - Inorganic Chemistry has a lot of this. Having said that, you did do physics so I'm guessing you would be fine.
Your university would provide extra classes for students struggling with maths anyway, so there'll always be help

Edit: whoops, this post is 4 years ago

Reply 13

Turtlebunny

It really depends on the University. I'm starting at Durham to study Chemistry this October. Everyone has to have an A or equivalent in A level maths.
In your first year you are exposed to a lot of things that build on maths and further maths it seems - we have to explore partial differentiation, limits, groups, matrices, more differential equations. It sounds quite long really but since I've studied further maths it'll hopefully be manageable.

My recommendation is checking out module descriptions for your Chemistry course and see what's involved like I have.
When you start your course just take a look at the stuff and read up about it beforehand. There are plenty of a level resources that are applicable, especially from further maths which might help out and make any maths you do more accessible.

Edit : Also realised this is 4 years old! Oh well, I'm sure others will find it useful.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 14

hailey~~~

Thank you for the people replying 4 years late! The updated response is really useful.

I am applying to do Chemistry in uni as well and my mom keeps telling me that I will eventually drop out when it gets too hard, but I really want to do this,I really love Chemistry. I do have doubts as I'm the only person in my class applying to do Chemistry.

Also, I'm doing single maths rather than double maths like my other friends applying to do Physics and Biochemistry. I've been told that Chemistry in uni is really difficult because it involves the same amount of memorization as Biology and math skills as Physics. I don't know if I will be prepared for this by the end of the school year.

I guess what I want to know is if anyone feels/felt the same and should I really be doing Chemistry.

My subjects and prediction grades: Biology(A, I got the minimum for an A in the End of Year exams); Chemistry (A*); Math (A).

Reply 15

thenextchemist

Original post by hailey~~~

what do you mean by double maths? do you mean ur not taking further maths?

Reply 16

langlitz

Original post by hailey~~~

Chemistry, as with most subjects past A-level, is certainly not about memorisation!! It is about understanding! And there is also generally nowhere near the same amount of maths as in a physics degree