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How hard is the Oxford Chemistry course?

How hard is the Chemistry course at Oxford both in terms of the Chemistry itself and the Maths involved? Perhaps an answer relative to the difficulty level at A-level would be most useful. Thanks.

Reply 1

Nymthae

[Not at Oxford] generally from what i've seen, the one main comment is: further maths is very, very helpful.

I think that's the only real Oxford specific thing i've seen mentioned. I'm at a red brick, and some elements of further are indeed useful but the majority of departments just teach them in first year alongside the other bits. It seems with Oxford moving a bit quicker over things it's much more helpful to have a better grounding in the maths elements before/when you start. Not 100% sure which parts of further (complex numbers, matrices and determinants... can't recall too much else).

There's a couple of guys knocking around though, i'm sure they'll be along shortly :wink:

I can't imagine too much of the chemistry is different, as there's a lot of fundamental concepts that need addressing initially. Usually the only thing I noticed between universities is the order in which the modules are taught, so some stuff I did in first year they do in second year at Oxford, some stuff in their second year is in my third year etc.

Reply 2

alexoxlade

I believe the chemistry course at oxford is more maths based than elsewhere. I did a year of chemistry at manchester and the maths was very easy to be honest.

Reply 3

Ocean7

I did further maths and the level of maths was similar to what I had done already. Vectors, matrices, differentiation and integration by various methods is the core of it. You do an exam on it in 1st year and then it's normally a part of a question after that with 1 lecture course in Fourier transforms in second year.

Oh and some complex number stuff

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(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

admissionshost

sytner9

Chemistry has three branches - Organic, Inorganic, and Physical. The majority of students tend find one branch harder than the others (which one varies). The course though is well organised and the results are good - relatively few students drop out or obtain a lower-second degree or worse. It is like all the sciences hard work - lots of morning lectures. You have to be industrious and a strong Maths background definitely helps.