Oxford Chemistry Students and Applicants

Original post by .Serenity.

Is the personal statement an important factor when it comes to making decisions about who to give an interview/offer because there's no admissions test?

One of my tutors told me he didn't read any of our personal statements, but that might be more indicative of how much he likes words rather than whether personal statements are generally important. :s-smilie:

The interview rate is extremely high, so clearly not too many can put themselves totally out of contention with their personal statements. I would reckon that the interviews are easily the primary point of interest.

Reply 1305

Original post by BJack

One of my tutors told me he didn't read any of our personal statements, but that might be more indicative of how much he likes words rather than whether personal statements are generally important. :s-smilie:

The interview rate is extremely high, so clearly not too many can put themselves totally out of contention with their personal statements. I would reckon that the interviews are easily the primary point of interest.

Ah that was helpful! Thanks!
Sorry to butt in but I was wondering what sort of questions they ask in the interview?

Reply 1306

.Serenity.

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Original post by BJack

One of my tutors told me he didn't read any of our personal statements, but that might be more indicative of how much he likes words rather than whether personal statements are generally important. :s-smilie:

The interview rate is extremely high, so clearly not too many can put themselves totally out of contention with their personal statements. I would reckon that the interviews are easily the primary point of interest.

Oh wow that's shocking. Do you have any idea why they interview such a high proportion of candidates? Also, I'm often told that a prospective Chemist should be very passionate and dedicated to Chemistry (obviously) so are the admissions tutors hoping that this will come across at interview/ in the personality of the candidate?

Reply 1307

Original post by .Serenity.

Oh wow that's shocking. Do you have any idea why they interview such a high proportion of candidates? Also, I'm often told that a prospective Chemist should be very passionate and dedicated to Chemistry (obviously) so are the admissions tutors hoping that this will come across at interview/ in the personality of the candidate?

The high interview percentage is due to a number of factors. Chemistry doesn't get too many applicants per place so it's not a huge ask to interview them all. Generally subjects interview around three applicants per place, and for chemistry this equates to almost all the applicants. There's no pre-interview test to cull people with, either. Since the interview is the main selection tool, it's best to interview as many candidates as possible.

As far as passion is concerned.... Well, I'm interested in chemistry but not particularly passionate about any of it. I certainly couldn't have claimed a passion when I went up for interview. Primarily, it would seem, they're looking for competent, interested scientists. Passion is a strong emotion to expect from a young student with relatively little experience of the subject they're applying for. Curiosity is probably more the word I would go for.

Original post by chignesh10

Ah that was helpful! Thanks!
Sorry to butt in but I was wondering what sort of questions they ask in the interview?

It's hard to be specific because there can be a real mixture. Some things to think about would be:

• basic mechanistic chemistry (arrow pushing);
• properties of gases (e.g. how many molecules are there in this room?);
• basic energetics;
• bonding in molecules (e.g. why is the bonding in F₂ so weak? why do we say that an octet is stable?).

Anything you've covered in A level chemistry could potentially be asked about (well, not colour tests or other stupid things like that). They might throw some basic first year material at you too (the octet rule question might be an example of this) to see how well you can absorb new material and apply it to an unfamiliar problem, or perhaps to shed new light on a problem you might have thought about more simply before.

Reply 1308

Original post by BJack

It's hard to be specific because there can be a real mixture. Some things to think about would be:

• basic mechanistic chemistry (arrow pushing);
• properties of gases (e.g. how many molecules are there in this room?);
• basic energetics;
• bonding in molecules (e.g. why is the bonding in F₂ so weak? why do we say that an octet is stable?).

Anything you've covered in A level chemistry could potentially be asked about (well, not colour tests or other stupid things like that). They might throw some basic first year material at you too (the octet rule question might be an example of this) to see how well you can absorb new material and apply it to an unfamiliar problem, or perhaps to shed new light on a problem you might have thought about more simply before.

Ah ok, that really is helpful! Thanks a lot!
Although, I am unsure about the number of molecules, maybe you could help me with that, not only because it could help but I am genuinely itnerested to know how to work it out.

Reply 1309

Original post by chignesh10

Ah ok, that really is helpful! Thanks a lot!
Although, I am unsure about the number of molecules, maybe you could help me with that, not only because it could help but I am genuinely itnerested to know how to work it out.

What formulas relating to gases do you know?

Reply 1310

Original post by BJack

What formulas relating to gases do you know?

well moles= vol/24

Reply 1311

twin

well you look at the room, and say well its about 40*30*20 (dm) that makes the volume 24000dm^3.Then assuming it is rtp, you do 24000/24 which = 1000 mol (how convenient), so you have 1000 mol of molecules in the room, 1 mole is equal to Avogadros constant, hence there are 6.02*10^26 molecules in the room. :smile:

Is this right or have i screwed up the units?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1312

Original post by twin

well you look at the room, and say well its about 4*3*2 (m) that makes the volume 2.4dm^3 (2400cm^3).Then assuming it is rtp, you do 2.4/24 which = 0.1 mol (how convenient), so you have 0.1 mol of molecules in the room, 1 mole is equal to Avogadros constant, hence there are 6.02*10^22 molecules in the room. :smile:

ahhh ok that is really good! Thanks a lot, I didn't realise it was that simple :tongue:

. But still thanks a lot!

Reply 1313

Original post by chignesh10

well moles= vol/24

That's an approximation for certain conditions derived from a particular equation. Have you come across the ideal gas law yet?

Original post by twin

well you look at the room, and say well its about 4*3*2 (m) that makes the volume 2.4dm^3 (2400cm^3).Then assuming it is rtp, you do 2.4/24 which = 0.1 mol (how convenient), so you have 0.1 mol of molecules in the room, 1 mole is equal to Avogadros constant, hence there are 6.02*10^22 molecules in the room. :smile:

Does that look like a reasonable answer to you? Remember that a cubic decimetre is the same as a litre.

Reply 1314

twin

I think i've corrected my post

Reply 1315

Original post by BJack

That's an approximation for certain conditions derived from a particular equation. Have you come across the ideal gas law yet?

Nope, what does that state?

Reply 1316

Original post by chignesh10

Nope, what does that state?

Looks like it's not on your syllabus. The ideal gas law allows us to relate some fundamental properties of gases: the pressure, volume, quantity (number of moles) and temperature, via the formula*

PV = nRT

where R is the gas constant (=8.314 JK^-1mol^-1).

We have to make some assumptions about the gas when we use the ideal gas law: the particles move randomly; they don't interact with each other; and they are all point-sized.

So if you know how warm your room is, how big it is and roughly what the pressure is, you can make a decent approximation of the number of molecules floating around.

*You might also see PV = NkT, where instead N is the number of molecules and k is the Boltzmann constant.

Original post by twin

I think i've corrected my post

You've managed to lose some zeroes when doing the multiplication.

Reply 1317

Original post by BJack

Looks like it's not on your syllabus. The ideal gas law allows us to relate some fundamental properties of gases: the pressure, volume, quantity (number of moles) and temperature, via the formula*

PV = nRT

where R is the gas constant (=8.314 JK^-1mol^-1).

We have to make some assumptions about the gas when we use the ideal gas law: the particles move randomly; they don't interact with each other; and they are all point-sized.

So if you know how warm your room is, how big it is and roughly what the pressure is, you can make a decent approximation of the number of molecules floating around.

*You might also see PV = NkT, where instead N is the number of molecules and k is the Boltzmann constant.

You've managed to lose some zeroes when doing the multiplication.

Ah that is amazing, yeah it isn't in my syllabus and didn't it existed! Thanks a lot though, I think I understand it which is good. Also, the way that twin did it, can that be right too?

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