1. Chemistry Applicants – the PS
Why do you want to do Chemistry?
How do you know?
2/3 of page
Have you looked around the subject? THIS is what
Tell me about chemistry… school, news, society determines if
we make an
offer
Work experience – did you use it effectively?
Other stuff you do...
Gap year – a plan please
On Gap – what you are doing
No is accepted /
Re-sitting – say so please. we know anyway so tell the truth rejected on this stuff
What you do outside of school – DoE etc.

2. Chemistry Applicants – what we don't want
“I like chemistry” but “I like rugby/rowing/whatever a lot more”
“I want to do chemistry because it’ll get me into the City”
(it may be true but here you can lie to us)

3. Chemistry Applicants – the interview
Rare for a chemistry department not to interview.
Some universities will be using it to decide:
•If an offer is to be made
•What the conditions of an offer will be
Purpose of the interview:
•to make sure you want to study Chemistry Here
•to make sure you are capable (we don’t set people up to fail)
•to make sure you understand what you already know
•to see if you can work stuff out

4. Chemistry Applicants – the interview
If for selection then: vast majority will be technical aspects
Questions asked? Starting point is the PS.
Looking for understanding not memory.
“haven’t done that yet” / “long time ago” is not a good answer
We’ll get off syllabus quickly.

5. Chemistry Applicants – the interview
How do I prepare?
Know some chemistry!
Know what you wrote about in your PS
Remember what you did last week
Have a good understanding of recent
experiments
Be enthusiastic! Do you really want to do a degree here?
Remember: we know what you are supposed to know…

6. Chemistry Applicants – the interview
Will everyone be asked the same questions?
No
Why not?
You are an individual
You have different interests
You are doing different qualifications
Is it fair?
Yes
We all understand you can have a bad day…

7. Chemistry Applicants – the interview
What kind of questions?
Depends on your PS to a large extent
Project on bleach?
Expect questions on titration, on oxidation-reduction
“love organic chemistry”?
Expect to be asked to do a mechanism of something and then
have it modified (e.g. HBr + ethene)
“DNA”
Expect questions on why it’s a helix
Expect to be asked questions that check you understand core principles:
estimate moles in….?
length / strength of bonds?