queen mary university of london chemistry

Hi guys
For anyone who does Chemistry at QMUL, I am looking to study for a BSc there next year but I have a couple of question

1) Genuinely, what is life like at QMUL? Is a chem degree a big step from A-level and is it still interesting?
2) Are the lessons good and are the lecturers good at explaining? Do they actually reply to emails and do they help you out outside of lecturers when you need help?
3) Do you generally agree with the student satisfaction rate (it is currently 84%) and if so or if not, how come?
4) Would you recommend it?

Sorry to ask so many questions but I just wanna be sure about my uni choices
Thanks !

Hey!

I'm not a chemistry student but what I would suggest is to speak to a student on unibuddy! https://www.qmul.ac.uk/unibuddy/ It's a platform where you can basically dm with a current student studying a course at QM and it is a real person, not a computer, so you can ask as many questions, as specific or general as you want

At the moment we only have a student on there who is doing a masters in pharmaceutical chemistry but I'm sure they've had experience of a BSc chemistry degree and if not, they might know of people who have. I would also suggest speaking with other students studying science-related courses as well, as they're likely to share some modules with chemistry students or know some (particularly physics students as the academic school for physical sciences is partnered with chemical sciences).

I can try my best to give you general answers as well

Student life at Queen Mary is great, honestly. It's a campus university which is a rarity in London and that makes it so much easier to socialise and also do group work/study in general. Because everything is in one place - cafes, the library, academic buildings, social spaces etc - it saves you from having to travel all around London to get anything done! Also, QM is super diverse and inclusive and you will find that the cohort won't just be white cis middle class men, it'll be a very diverse range of people which is great to experience at uni!

Any degree is a step up from A-level, which makes sense because it's a higher level. Degree courses are a lot more detailed and cover more difficult material. As well as that, a lot of studying at uni is independent study (reading academic writing, completing assignments etc.) which makes it a lot different to A-level which is more guided and spoon-fed and that does also make it more difficult. However, first year is definitely a good transition period. Academic and lecturers know that you are new to university so they don't put too much on you straight away - they help you build up your skills and learn how to study with this new style of learning. It's common not to get the top grades throughout your first year because it's the time to make mistakes and be wrong (the final grade you achieve in your first year barely counts towards your final grade in your degree!) but you get really solid feedback from academics on how to improve and what you can change so that you are better prepared for later assignments and also to move further in your course.

I think something that is really important when doing a degree is actually being passionate about the subject and really enjoying it because then you will like studying it and you will find it manageable so then you won't see it as a huge step up because it's something you enjoy and are good at anyway so keep that in mind! For example, I am actually switching my course because the course I chose (geography) isn't something I was as passionate about as I thought and now that I'm switching my course (to psychology), I feel a lot more motivated and excited about it and I think I'll do better and find it a bit easier because of this.

I would say that lecturers do explain things well but there is definitely going to be times where your learning style clashes with their teaching style but that's okay! You can speak to lecturers after a session or you also have your peers around you and every lecturer does have office hours in their week outside of when they're teaching where you can book appointments to discuss material with them (or anything else, such as if you're interested in what they study or for feedback on assignments, literally anything!) and obviously they have emails too which I've found they respond to quite quickly. However, during busier periods like exam season you might find it a bit difficult to get through to them as they might be busy with marking or be fully booked up speaking to other students so be aware of this and maybe action any difficulties your having while teaching is still happening rather than leaving it to the last minute (and that way it'll also be fresh on both of your minds as they just taught it and you just learned it). In my experience, academics/lecturers have actually asked us to come and speak to them in their office hours because students don't make use of that opportunity enough and they have it free specifically for that so don't be shy about using it because it'll only benefit you!

Student satisfaction rates are based on real surveys and data and are updated frequently so it usually is a good indicator of the actual general opinion. Getting one person's view on this could definitely be biased as there is still a 16% that isn't satisfied so if you happen to speak to someone who is part of that 16% then you won't necessarily hear the views of the majority, if that makes sense!

Sorry for the essay but in conclusion, I would really recommend studying at QM. I can't speak for the chemistry course but I think a lot of student experiences at QM can apply to any course! Of course, it's important to hear from a variety of people because everyone has different opinions and different experiences but a lot of people I know do really enjoy QM (and wouldn't be going if they didn't!). And I promise I'm not just saying this because I'm an ambassador and a rep, I just wanted to give my honest opinion to help you out and honestly a lot of what I'm saying is things that I wish I heard when I was applying to university so I really do hope this helps

Please ask if you have any more questions!

Thanks

- Liv, Student Ambassador and Official Rep

Hey Liv

Thanks so much for getting back to me and for being so helpful.
I'm so happy to hear it's a good university, I recently went there for an open day, and it looked fantastic. One of the lecturers for Chem was incredible too. One question, did you ever get lost on campus becauses its HUGE !