How heavy is the workload at Oxford?

The basic workload structure is explained in the official university websites - a mixture of lectures, labs and tutes/workgroups. Broadly speaking, because of the short terms and weekly tutorials, most people find that they need to be self-disciplined to avoid falling behind because there is little room for manoeuvre in such a crowded schedule. Similarly, you need to be proactive in using the support structures to ensure a bad patch doesn't turn into a crisis - share work with your fellow students, don't be scared of letting your tutors know if you have a problem, etc. Once you have worked this out, though, it is generally perfectly possible to have a social life too!

Biochem has a reputation for being particularly heavy in the first year, and especially the first term, with a lot of maths. It does ease up after that though.