Biochemistry applications 2020

They do interview the majority of candidates, don't give up hope just yet! Oh thats great your college has organised mock interviews, is that with a biochem tutor or a student?

agree, especially this year they said they were planning on interviewing a higher proportion of applicants!
i didn't manage to do the interview workshop today, by any chance could you run me through what kind of questions they asked?

Of course! so the tutor gave us some examples of how the interview questions would be presented, they were all kind of on a template - so the conversation always starts with simple knowledge, so going through something you are familiar with from a level , e.g haemoglobin structure/dissociation curve, and then they ask you questions to build upon, eventually asking you something you will not have studied from a level, but you can form a suggestion based on what you know and the new knowledge they present you with. I found it very useful personally as the example questions showed that they won't ask you something really hard and random out of the blue, its all about thinking about what you know, and then making some educated suggestions when they try to challenge you further (at least thats what i got from it, others may have something different they found useful). hope this helps!

Thanks - trying to be optimistic! My mock interview is with a chemistry teacher (closest thing we could get to biochem lol) so I'm anticipating that it will be chemistry based, rather than biology/biochem based. Hoping it goes well otherwise my chem teacher is gonna think I'm dumb for the rest of the year lol. Does your college have any mock interviews to try and help you prepare?

oh ofc sorry i thought you meant your oxford college haha guess oxford is on my mind more than it should be...
Yh, I'm doing a mock interview with my chem teacher too, all the bio teachers were taken by the med students ofc
Let me know when you hear anything from oxford btw!

@lavoj002 what example questions did they use at the workshop?

Just got my first offer! Manchester biochem MSc, with AAA (without interview)

So he showed us a haemoglobin molecule and explained the idea of positive co-operativity, which he then asked us to use to explain what was going on in an oxygen dissociation graph comparing fetal and adult haemoglobin. The second example was a graph comparing the concentrations of 2 hormones against glucose concentration, and asked us to suggest which one might be the hormone that responds to glucose concentration and justify our suggestion. And finally he gave us two molecules and he asked us about the bonding between certain atoms and which would be the strongest. @Neha5 let me know if ive forgotten anything! Sorry that sounds a little vague without the graphs and diagram, but hope it helps

Omg congratulations! Long awaited and well deserved! At least you can relax a bit now!

Thank you!! I’ve also applied to exeter, oxford and bath. I received an offer from exeter today which I also wasn’t expecting haha.
Best of luck with your oxford application, fingers crossed we both get interviews.
Yeh tbh I always assumed it was just oxbridge and medicine that did interviews but now i’ve heard that loughborough do for biological science related degrees im not 100% sure, maybe just keep checking the main offer thread?

Hey guys! I applied for Biochemistry at queen marys, warwick, exeter, liverpool and southampton! received an offer from liverpool yesterday and one from queen marys today!! good luck guys! also im really scared for exeter and if anyones received any offers from there then pls let me know when you applied and when you got the offer so I can know roughly the timeframe ?? thanks sm xx

omg omg i applied to exeter too!! havet received anything yet cus i think my application got sent on wed 11th nov. when did u send ur application and when did u receive an offer?

Just had my first offer from St Andrews! Can finally stop worrying that ive got no offers lol