We currently are best able to help students planning to go to the UK and students who have arrived in the UK to study chemistry.
Try this diagnostic quiz. It is intended to help you by quickly assessing your confidence with some basic knowledge and understanding. Fill it in as quickly as you can and try not to look anything up.
Students arrive in the UK with a range of preparation. An offer of a University place does not mean you are ready. It just means you have been offered a place.
Two students from the same country can appear similar based on an application form, but worlds apart in preparation. Sometimes Universities get a good match between the programme and students. Often enough they get it wrong.
Dr Hanley used similar diagnostics during his time as an academic.
Some students arrive unable to say yes to any items on this quiz. If you struggled with this or said yes to many but without much confidence, you are not alone.
If you struggled to tick most items as yes, prepare first, no matter how much encouragement you are getting from agents or a university. Many places will allow you to defer entry for a period of time. Consider deferring. Find some who can help you prepare, even if it is not us.
Be aware that agents and universities have strong financial incentives to enrol you.
The financial incentives for agents are pretty clear from this story (here). Would you view an agent helping with your application the same way if you knew they were getting paid £3,500 by the university?
The financial incentives for universities are clear from the fees you pay. If a chemistry masters student pays £16,500/yr, then 100 such students bring £1.65 million.
Be ready. Make that fee worth it.
So much more to know…
Perhaps you have your degree but want to learn more. Maybe there are topics you want to learn (e.g. cheminformatics, PCA, PLS, multilinear regression, advanced fitting) but have not found where to go. Get in touch. Tell us how we can help.