Olympiads!

Hi everyone!
I want to know a bit more about Olympiads and competitions in the uk. I had some questions that I’d appreciate if you help answer .
Does anyone know:
• How you sign up for the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads?
• Whether schools usually register students, or if you can apply individually?
• If there are other academic competitions or enrichment activities that are particularly valued for Oxbridge medicine applications?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences from people who’ve done them before!
Thanks

Hi everyone!
I want to know a bit more about Olympiads and competitions in the uk. I had some questions that I’d appreciate if you help answer .
Does anyone know:
• How you sign up for the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads?
• Whether schools usually register students, or if you can apply individually?
• If there are other academic competitions or enrichment activities that are particularly valued for Oxbridge medicine applications?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences from people who’ve done them before!
Thanks

(1. Ask your teachers in your respective subjects via email to sign you up.
(2. Not sure for the biology Olympiad, but for the chemistry Olympiad, your school has to enter you. This is why I advise emailing your teachers - both to ask to be registered and to ask for any information on how to register for the biology Olympiad.
(3. Not sure as I didn’t apply for med, but Cambridge has a list of supercurricular suggestions that may serve as a useful starting point. https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/super-curricular_suggestions.pdf#page31

Hi everyone!
I want to know a bit more about Olympiads and competitions in the uk. I had some questions that I’d appreciate if you help answer .
Does anyone know:
• How you sign up for the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads?
• Whether schools usually register students, or if you can apply individually?
• If there are other academic competitions or enrichment activities that are particularly valued for Oxbridge medicine applications?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences from people who’ve done them before!
Thanks

I realise now that I missed the final point of your post… oops!
I participated in the UK chemistry Olympiad twice (2022 and 2023) and secured gold awards in round 1 on both occasions - heck, I even finished joint 12th nationally in 2022 and went on to participate in round 2 (although I didn’t get further than that).
My honest advice to you (for the chemistry Olympiad) is as follows:
-Prioritise the four or five most recent past papers to complete and go over in depth. If you can do more, then that’s great - just don’t worry so much about anything before 2017 as the 2016 paper is generally regarded as badly written and most papers before 2016 are much easier than the more recent papers.
-Make sure you have a strong grasp of A level chemistry, in particular the organic and physical chemistry. It may be worth covering the transition metals topic, but otherwise, it’s unlikely the rest of the A level inorganic chemistry will be assessed in much depth given it is pure memorisation and doesn’t involve much aptitude.
-Organic synthesis ALWAYS comes up and is like 20+ marks out of 85ish. That usually is enough to score a comfortable bronze or even a silver, though ideally you want to score more than that if you want a gold or round 2 invitation. You may be asked a to work out the product of a post A-level reaction, so you may wish to learn some of the outcomes of some of these reactions (I’ll write a list later) or to get into the practice of working backwards through the synthesis trees.
-The most common inorganic chemistry topic that comes up is unit cells. These are a post-A level topic and I am happy to talk you through the important parts (e.g. empirical formulae from unit cells, densities and packing efficiencies) if you need.
-You also want to be comfortable with your maths, in particular rearranging equations and being familiar with straight lines (y = mx + c) as you are sometimes asked to calculate things graphically.

Oh ok! This is a very detailed and useful description of what I should expect! I am starting year 12 on Wednesday so I am yet to learn all these. Will the Olympia be in year 13?

The Olympiad can be sat in year 13 and it is generally recommended to sit it then, but there is nothing to stop you sitting it in year 12 - but bear in mind all of A level chemistry is assumed knowledge for the chemistry Olympiad.
If you find that off-putting, you may wish to consider the C3L6 challenge, which is sat at the end of year 12 and will require only the knowledge you pick up that year.

Ok thank you so much! I’ll see how I find chemistry in year 12 and if it’s ok I’ll consider doing the actual Olympiad! Thank you so much for your valuable information and advice.

No problem. Just bear in mind the Olympiad is sat in January and registration closes in December (if memory serves), so if you want to sit it this year, you will want to ask to be registered sooner rather than later. If you decide not to do it this year and then do the C3L6 at the end of this year and/or the Olympiad next year, that’s completely fair.

Ok thank you very much. Just one question is it really worth doing the C3L6? Like is it useful for oxbridge ? Or do they not care about it as much as the other olympiads. I just want to plan carefully and choose extracurriculars carefully.thank you again for your priceless advice