Update 4: Week 1 and matriculation dayWeek 1 has now concluded - it has been a positive experience on the whole, though I will admit I have spent a bit of the week rather peeved at myself for being behind schedule with the work so far. I will just have to be more disciplined and use the time I have as sensibly as possible.
My tutors are all wonderful and I have found myself thoroughly enjoying the tutorials so far. They have been some of the most productive hours of my life and have proven to be wonderful opportunities to learn from both my own mistakes and the inputs of my coursemates towards the discussions.
The lectures have been rather variable. The organic, physical and mathematics lectures have all been rather unexciting as the content is largely just a recap of things I have done at A level or whilst preparing for the Olympiad - the lecturers themselves are wonderful and I imagine that they will deliver some fascinating lectures later on in the course once we begin to cover new content. Conversely, the inorganic chemistry lectures have been fascinating. Although inorganic chemistry is the area of the subject I consider myself the most well acquainted with, the current focus of the lectures (atomic structure) has made my understanding of the quantum model of the atom considerably stronger. Concepts such as the wavefunction make considerably more sense than they used to, but that was largely because my own approach to trying to learn how it worked was less than ideal.
The major highlight of the week has been the labs. Although it sounds utterly mad to enjoy 6-hour long sessions in the lab (on most weeks, you have two of these sessions), it can be genuinely really satisfying once you have got your results or have made an interesting observation in the midst of a practical.
Today was matriculation day. I am now officially a member of the university of Oxford and should presumably be able to access all the Bodleian libraries and all. Besides the ceremony in the morning and photos being taken of all of us in our gowns and subfusc, not a lot has happened.
I look forward to week 2 and seeing how much my time management and self-study technique improves from this point onwards.