Advice for Year 12 applying for Oxford chemistry

Reply 60

Unfortunately this wouldn’t be allowed as per TSR rules.
You can however access a TSR personal statement review system
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4237154
Read the first post of the above thread in full and very carefully.
Please don’t randomly PM your personal statement to anyone or randomly put it on the internet anywhere as this will result in it being flagged as 100% plagiarised and put your application at stake.

That’s fine, I’ll have a look at the link
Thanks for your help!

Reply 61

ganime_15

9

Hi,
I am in year 12 thinking about applying to Oxford for chemistry.
At GCSE I achieved:
English lit -8
English language -8
Maths-9
Biology-9
Chemistry-9
Physics-9
Computer science-9
Spanish-8
History-9
GCSE PE-9
Further maths-9
I am taking maths, biology and chemistry for my a levels. Currently, I help out with year 7 science club, I do my own external tutoring in the science for GCSE and I am a science mentor in school.

What can I do this year to enhance and better my chances of being accepted? What sort of careers can chemistry lead me to in the future? What xan I do to prepare for the interviews and what would be considered a strong personal statement?

Thanks

Reply 62

Muttley79

20

Original post by Anonymous

Please can you give me some advice on what to include in my personal statement- it’s really stressing me out!
Can you give me some examples of how you analysed your supercurriculars? Also, do you need to write about the facts that you learnt and explain what you learnt? Or would it be more beneficial to say what you found interesting?

Are you in Year 12? If so the PS is changing next year ...

Reply 63

Scotney

20

Original post by ganime_15

Hi,
I am in year 12 thinking about applying to Oxford for chemistry.
At GCSE I achieved:
English lit -8
English language -8
Maths-9
Biology-9
Chemistry-9
Physics-9
Computer science-9
Spanish-8
History-9
GCSE PE-9
Further maths-9
I am taking maths, biology and chemistry for my a levels. Currently, I help out with year 7 science club, I do my own external tutoring in the science for GCSE and I am a science mentor in school.
What can I do this year to enhance and better my chances of being accepted? What sort of careers can chemistry lead me to in the future? What xan I do to prepare for the interviews and what would be considered a strong personal statement?
Thanks

Are you at a state school ?If so look into the Lucy Cavendish academic Programme which is open for applications for the next week or so https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/aap-apply&ved=2ahUKEwjVsP6Wid-IAxU-RvEDHSqyAHoQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1o2bvjd9QTyKRf9HJVfglf
Doubles your chance of being accepted to Oxford and completely free.

Reply 64

ganime_15

9

Original post by Scotney

Are you at a state school ?If so look into the Lucy Cavendish academic Programme which is open for applications for the next week or so https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/aap-apply&ved=2ahUKEwjVsP6Wid-IAxU-RvEDHSqyAHoQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1o2bvjd9QTyKRf9HJVfglf
Doubles your chance of being accepted to Oxford and completely free.

Any advice on how to be a successful applicant?

Reply 65

TypicalNerd

18

Original post by ganime_15

Any advice on how to be a successful applicant?

For that, you need to at least get to the interview stage.

Given you are taking chemistry, maths + another science and have what admissions teams would typically consider perfect GCSE grades with no resits, I’d be surprised if you weren’t shortlisted. However, given how many applications there have been per place in recent admissions cycles and how much that has slashed the interview shortlisting rate for chemistry, getting an interview is anything but certain.

First of all, finish off your UCAS application if you haven’t already. Your reference will fall to your sixth form to do and so your personal statement will be the biggest part. I’m not sure when exactly they are implementing the new format of the PS, but I do believe you may be able to use some of the old style personal statements regardless to get ideas of the sorts of ways applicants wrote about their supercurriculars etc and how these helped them academically / helped develop their interest in chemistry. Of course, copying any part of them word-for-word is a stupid idea and should be avoided entirely.

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/personal-statements/chemistry/

When it comes to doing well in your interviews for chemistry, you will need to be able to think out loud. Try explaining concepts in chemistry to people less familiar with them (i.e try discussing them with less confident classmates and/or family members) and see if you can explain them in such a way that makes it digestible and without disregarding any of the essential points.

You will also need to be good with all the pure maths covered throughout the ordinary A level maths syllabus and able to use A level chemistry knowledge in unfamiliar contexts. As such, you can use the old A level maths C1 - C4 past papers (just ignore the vectors and volume of revolutions questions on C4), C3L6 past papers and RSC chemistry olympiad past papers. Whilst new spec A level maths papers also work, it’s better to keep these for when you are revising for your exams at the end of the year and I think the old papers offer perfectly decent practice for each topic that is likely to come up.

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/a-level-maths-papers/c1-edexcel/

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/a-level-maths-papers/c2-edexcel/

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/a-level-maths-papers/c3-edexcel/

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/a-level-maths-papers/c4-edexcel/

https://www.c3l6.com/downloads

https://edu.rsc.org/uk-chemistry-olympiad/chemistry-olympiad-past-papers/1641.article

Edit: you really don’t need to do every past paper under the sun. You can maybe pick a few questions from the old style maths papers to complete every so often based on topics you feel you are weaker at. Don’t overwork yourself as that won’t leave you in good shape for your interviews.

(edited 8 months ago)

Advice for Year 12 applying for Oxford chemistry

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