Oxford Chemistry Students and Applicants

Does anyone have any idea when finals results come out

Obviously it varies year to year but I was just after a rough idea (ie, is it june or is it more like september)

much appreciated!

The date I was given by one of our examiners was the afternoon of Tuesday of 10th (so the Tuesday coming up!). Of course it might be later if things went wrong after I was told that, but should be accurate!

@periodicity hope it all went well

Thanks! Some better than expected, a couple of wobbles, large range of marks but overall i'm happy.

Hope they went well for you and that you are happy also!

Yeah really pleased! Inorganic 2 was my worst but seeing as I can't usually string a sentence together I was still pleased with it 🙂


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When at interview, are the tutors likely to gear their questions towards their own research topics/interests? Also would this be a good enough reason to choose one college over another? I imagine not but just for assurance

Not at all, mainly because if they asked questions specific to their own research literally no one of an A level standard would understand what they were on about!

The interview questions will be much more generic than that, eg discussing a mechanism from A level; working out oxidation states; or doing some differentiation, stuff like that

Hahaha yes I suppose so, thank you for your help! Yeah I was recently on uniq and had a mock interview which was very organic heavy because the admissions tutor was an organic chemist so I was just wondering but thank you

The actual format of the interview does vary from college to college, but generally you'll have roughly 1/3 organic 1/3 inorganic and 1/3 physical and the physical question is bound to involve some maths.

For my interview I had one general chemistry interview with some DPhil students and then a second interview with my three tutors who each asked questions for 10 minutes

That doesn't sound too bad but I'll guess it'll get more daunting closer to the time interview dates are already up haha. Thank you though! Any tips for choosing a college then?

Hey guys,

I'm a prospective student, but can't decide between chemistry and biochemistry.
I've seen the course and lecture descriptions for biochemistry but haven't found anything similar for chemistry.

Can someone help me out by telling me what sort of topics and modules are covered in the chemistry course? And basically anything in general about the chem course.

Thanks a lot in advance!

The course is 4 years, the first 3 years are taught (IE lectures and examinations) the fourth year is entirely research based. In terms of modules, Oxford is quite unusual in the fact it is not modular, Instead, each year you are examined on the whole contents of the course so far.

In the first year you study four areas. Inorganic, Organic, Physical and Mathematics. At the end of the year you sit an exam in each. Some topics covered in first year include: redox equilibria; intro to transition metals; atomic structure and periodic trends; nucleophilic substitution and elimination; core carbonyl chemistry; biological chemistry; Chemical kinetics; thermodynamics; physical basis of chemistry(physics); calculus of one and two variable; complex numbers; vectors.

I am losing the will to live writing out things included in the course, so I'll stop that.

In second year you no longer have a maths paper so you sit only 3 exams at the end of the year, these test both first and second year material. In second year you also have the opportunity to sit supplementary exams in one of Quantum mechanics, heterocyclic chemistry, crystallography........

In third year you continue with the general course for 1 term, then spend 2 terms on options (you choose 3 from roughly 15 options). At the end of the year you then have 7 exams (2 in each area of chemistry examining the entire course then 1 for options).

Throughout the first three years you also do undergrad labs. These are normally 2 days a week and happen from 11am to 5pm (lectures are 9am to 11am each weekday).

In fourth year you join a research group and carry out full time research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUPnSWY6UY

If you are entering upper sixth I would strongly recommend you attend the open day on 15th September

failed org chem prelims n feel like a failure because i spent first year just messing about
do i have any hope for 2nd yr??! is it really the worst year of the course

failed org chem prelims n feel like a failure because i spent first year just messing about
do i have any hope for 2nd yr??! is it really the worst year of the course