We Are Chemistry Blog: The Lab Notes

Welcome to Warwick

First of all, I must give you (a belated) massive congratulations and welcome to Warwick! Finally, you have made it through the battles of A levels, accomplishing the huge achievement of being accepted into one of the UK’s top universities.

Milestones

For me, university felt like the final goal, the one thing that my life up to that point had been spent trying to reach. That once I had made it to this big milestone, the major trials were behind me. Despite this naïve belief, I discovered very quickly, as you inevitably will, that being accepted into university is only the first of hundreds of milestones you will touch throughout the next few years. Achieving goals becomes a common occurrence rather than a final climax after years of preparation, as you have experienced in secondary and sixth form. Exams are annual, assignments are always on the go, every week at university will hold many little and big goals for you to accomplish. The whirlwind of uni life sweeps you up, time will fly, and in three years’ time, you will look back and realise how much you grew without realising.

The culture shock of moving into university is very intense at first. Learning how to thrive independently, rushing to find friends whilst juggling such an intense course like Chemistry. However, despite all these challenges, I can confidently tell you that the past two years for me have been some of my best. It is not always a linear path at university, but if you keep working towards the little goals, the bigger ones will be achieved on their own.

The Jump

One comment everyone repeated to me before I started university, which I later found out to be a complete lie, was that the jump from A-level to university was far smaller than the jump from GCSE to A level. I am sorry to break the news to you, but nothing could be further from the truth. The content you learn in undergraduate Chemistry is overwhelming to begin with. You will soon discover you almost have to relearn the subject. The important thing to remind yourself is that all those people sitting in the lecture hall with you are in the exact same boat, just as confused, and will have the exact same questions you do. The most difficult challenge I experienced in my first year was having faith in my own intelligence due to the jump in difficulty in the content I was learning. Every single one of you sitting in the lecture hall is just as worthy to be at Warwick as anyone else. Even if you struggle with the content or feel behind, I can assure you, as someone who sat in lectures believing I was the only one out of my depth and falling behind others in my course, your struggles are normal and common, even if your peers don’t reveal their own struggles to you. You will come to grips with the content/software and will have the best professors there to support you and answer any questions.

The Experience

Labs

Laboratory skills are an extensive part of the Chemistry course, which people either really enjoy or dread. You won’t be thrown out of your depth, with half day intro labs to rehash or tweak skills you’ve already learnt at A level and learn new techniques to turn you into a professional (and most importantly safe) chemist. Labs can be overwhelming due to the new equipment and techniques, but over the year you will become more confident. It just takes time and practise and a lot of mistakes. The key is to find the humour in these mistakes if you can. Many other students and I definitely have our fair share of embarrassing mistakes and funny stories from labs that we laugh about now. As long as you complete your prelab, show up and engage you will be fine. I will be writing a whole post about labs and our embarrassing stories at a later date so keep an eye out for that!

Lectures

Getting used to just sitting for one or two hours is a skill you'll develop overtime. Although most people skip a lecture every now and then (I have my share of sins in this as well), I urge you to resist the temptation and start your uni life on the right foot. The contact hours as a chemistry student will be higher than that of your friends on other courses. But your free time is the price you pay for choosing STEM, I’m afraid.

As a fresher I found that that while you may be given the odd task or question, lectures are less interactive than your classes in college, so it can be easy to switch off. Although it can be difficult to pay attention for such a long period of time (especially at 9am), bring a coffee, and try to engage. You will thank yourself while completing your tutorial work and later, in exam season.

You won’t always understand everything off the bat, but show up to your workshops and tutorials where you can query anything you don’t understand with your lecturers or tutorial leaders.

Professional Skills

The Warwick chemistry course is a lot broader than you may initially think. You will not just be learning quantum mechanics and lab skills, but also key transferrable skills to boost your professional appeal. Excel, graph software, coding, and to everyone’s dismay, presentation skills, you will be gaining more strings to your bow then you expect. You will be taught to use all the software by your lecturers, and if you’re struggling, I urge you to not be afraid to ask for help! Drop your professor an email, ask your peers or go to ChemCafe to ask Chemistry students in the higher years. However, if you are too shy (or in my case too stubborn) to seek help, I found YouTube to be an incredible resource for step by step tutorials or advice.

Explore!

Although officially I should say that your course is the most important thing on your plate, I would be lying to you as a past social sec by saying your degree should be your only focus. Your first year, especially the first term is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the vibrant social life at Warwick. This is the time to experiment, join a society, try a sport or try a new hobby, enjoy the nightlife and most of all find the friends that will make your time at Warwick even more colourful! I can say from personal experience that most of your personal growth and development will occur outside of the classroom. There are so many important skills outside the world of academics which are just as important to learn. You will grow so much more if you submit yourself to the experience, both in your course and in other parts of university life. Warwick has a wonderful and vibrant social sphere, so make sure to explore it!

ChemSoc run loads of amazing social events! So make sure to check out their Instagram to see what they have planned for the term! We Are Chemistry also runs events, usually on a Wednesday afternoon, so keep an eye out for those as well.

The main thing to keep in mind throughout your time at Warwick is that mistakes are inevitable, so don’t be afraid to make them. Your mistakes will be your teachers, especially during the growing pains of your first year.

If any of you reading need any insight or advice that a humble 3rd year like myself can give, my email Evelyn.Winton@warwick.ac.uk is always open :)

Good Luck with your first term and have fun!

By Evelyn Winton