*UNI REVEAL* + All things A - Level: STEM/Engineering Courses (Tips and Tricks)

 Hello readers! 

I hope you are all well and making the most of your summer. For many, it is drawing to a close as back to school time quickly approaches. Relish the remaining time you have left!

And if you are like me then you received your A-Level results last week. My own uni reveal will come at the end of the blog post, so keep reading if you want to find out where I am going. But before I do that, I just want to say a HUGE congratulations to everyone who received A-Levels and GCSE results over the past couple of days. The entire week was riddled with fiasco, and was nothing short of a shambles - what's good Gavin Williamson?, but we got through it in the end. And if the result was not what you wanted, please remember that you can never fail exams that you never sat, and that you are not your results. Especially if your university admission was relying on your grades, please know that this is not the end, and although it is easy for me to say, there are other pathways for you to achieve the same goals. We can do it!

With that over, let me tell you the purpose of this post: to give you information about applying for STEM related courses (especially engineering) at University. I applied to 5 Russel Group universities to study (Electronic) Engineering and got 5 offers. If you want to know how, I am going to break it down over a number of subheadings, so please scroll through to find out more info. This is going to be a very comprehensive post so take notes, and please SHARE with anyone who you know will benefit. And do not forget to subscribe to get post notifications (button in top right corner when you scroll up!).

And let me just say, before some people start screaming (no tea no shade) that this is all MY EXPERIENCE. This is pretty generic advice for those applying from the UK, so please if this does not all apply to you, take the meat and spit out the bones. With that said, lets get into it :)

 What A Levels should I take? (STEM +ENGINEERING)

For two of my universities, it was a requirement that I studies Further Maths, as it would place me in great stead for the engineering courses there. If you can study Further Maths in your sixth form, PLEASE DO! I cannot overstate its importance to the entire admissions process.

If you are trying to study engineering, aim to follow this list of what to study, try to:

• Maths
• Further Maths
• Physics
• (Chem/Computer Science/Something you *loveeeee!*) 

If you want to take a more general science route or STEM route, then ensure you are doing Maths as a minimum requirement, but the other subjects should be science based (Pick your fave 2).

Personally I studied Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science (deathly combo), but you don't have to. You don't even have to take a fourth subject! My school required me to take a fourth subject to do Further Maths, but if yours doesn't, don't feel like you have to put the extra stress on yourself unless you can bear it. 

How many A Levels should I take? (STEM +ENGINEERING)

If you can, take three. I promise you, it is not worth the extra hassle to take a fourth, UNLESS you are gifted with amazing time management. I took four A Levels, and although I was able to manage, it was not without its problems, and if you want to find out a little more, I talk about that *here*.

If your fourth is something that you love or something that you really feel will help you with your course (such as Chemistry for Chemical Engineers) then by all means take it, but remember that taking 4 A Levels is not as easy as taking 10 or 11 GCSEs. 

What grades should I be aiming to get? (STEM +ENGINEERING)

IN MY EXPERIENCE Universities never required more than 2 A*s (although bear in mind, they will want the A*s in Physics, Maths or Further Maths if taken). Depending on where you apply the grades change. The minimum offer I received was ABB (A in Maths of Physics) and the max was A*A*A (In any order between Maths, Further Maths and Physics). Do bear in mind that I applied to 5 Russel Group Unis so my grades would have had to be high for this. My best advice is to choose where you want to go and to work so that you are exceeding your offer - in the wake of the recent A Level fiasco this is especially important. 

This is not a rule of thumb thing and it depends. Some require 3 or 4 A*s. Not my experience but it does depend. 

How did you prepare for interviews? (ENGINEERING)

Unfortunately, most universities don't want to find out as much about you as a person as they want to find out about you academic ability. If you are doing STEM/Engineering, it is ESSENTIAL that you brush up on these topics:

• Entire First Year Maths A Level Content (+any second year maths you know)
• Pure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PURE!!!!!!! Please, revise and learn pure until you can integrate and differentiate in your sleep. You do not want to look like an egg when the interviewer sits in front of you and expects you to buss out one simple integration  and you are staring at the page in confusion. 
• Mechanics too. This should reinforce what you already learn in physics 
• Trigonometric identities, double angle formulas - at this point, just learn the formulas by heart. The interviewer will not give you a formula sheet. 
• Graph sketching for random graphs + identifying key points
• Sin, cos, and tan for key angles: you don't get a calculator. Learn it. 
• Again in MY EXPERIENCE Stats is not as important but keep tabs on it, just in case. It is unlikely you will be asked anything relating to stats though at interviews. 
• Entire First Year Physics A Level Content (+ any second year physics you know)
• Mechanics, forces, electricity, the entire lot.
• Force diagrams for a range of situations
• Learn the equations off by heart if you can, and their derivations if possible
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• This is more training your mind to piece out key information in a question to get the answer. If you can break a wordy question down into the numbers you need, and a formula for the answer, then you can answer the question. 
• Key thing to do is to circle all the numbers in the question, look at the dimensions of each quantity (Which will help you to figure out the kind of equation you need, more on that click *here*) and work that way.
• Any + extra Further Maths you know
• Speed and Accuracy
• This sounds rigorous but when I was really going at it, I would do a past paper a day. This could be in any one of your subjects (maths, physics, f-maths) as long as it was related to your interview. Do it in time conditions and try to get better at keeping within the time constraints. 

What resources did you use? (STEM + ENGINEERING)

I am going to list a few that worked really well for me. You do not have to of course, but if you use all of these, you will be pretty much set.

• Isaac Physics  - has Physics and Maths help, ranging from AS level to university admissions level
• Physicsandmathstutor  - which funnily enough does not just have physics and maths, but has all sciences, maths, further maths, and even some humanities subjects eewwwww. They have flash cards, past papers and practice papers. They also have admissions assessments for oxbridge, with their own mark schemes, which have been cross checked.
• i-want-to-study-engineering -Made by Cambridge for wannabe engineers, it is a database of past question, plus interview style questions that are useful for Oxbridge applications as well as interviews for engineering generally.
• Maths Made Easy - just has the best database of past questions for maths, and I believe you can search through topic by topic to go through ones that you found hard and get specific practice for it.
• Hyperphysics - This has info on all the physics you need, plus extra if you are really pushing for beyond A-Level.

How did you write your personal statement? (STEM+ENGINEERING)

I wrote my personal statement over the summer of year 12 (which was when I started taking uni things seriously loooool). Lemme say this...YOU WILL make loads of drafts. YOU WILL have the cringiest first draft. My first draft was so messed up, and my tone was way off. I will give you some tips on it now so you don't end up sounding like a pompous yet uninformed wannabe professor of nothing (year 12 me is quaking)

• You are 16/17/18 years old. I will say it again. You are 16/17/18 years old so you do not need your personal statement to sound like Wikipedia. It does not need to look like a body of post graduate research. It is about you and your interests. 
• I am passionate about...From when I was a little boy/girl I was fascinated by...All my life I have wanted to be a...At that point I knew I wanted to be a...
• Don't try to have a flashy starting sentence. A simple, "I want to study engineering because I..." is fine. Concise and punchy.
• Although it is not a research paper, it is a summary of you and your academic interests, so the bulk of it needs to be about things that you are interested in, or have researched, or have built, or are doing that RELATE TO YOUR COURSE. Try not to overdo it on just one thing - leave something to talk about in the interview. And when picking things to talk about, do not be generic. Please. Everyone knows everyone loves Elon Musk. Let get new inspo and keep it stepping.
• The last paragraph can be about you and your interests. Just mention them briefly, and let them be things that show the character traits you have, rather than you listing that you are motivated, driven and pAssIOnatE. 
• Please...don't lie. Not every interview will mention your personal statement, but if they do and you mention quantum physics and you cannot back it...that's peak. 
• Do not send it to too many people. At a certain point you will know whether it is good enough or not, and it will just be refining the tone/changing sentence structure. Do not overdo the editing. It should be perfect but if you get too many opinions you will be paranoid. 
• Do not make it clear that you are favouring one university - it will be sent to all 5, so make sure it generic enough that all universities are getting a good glimpse of you. 

When + How should I prepare for admissions assessments? (STEM +ENGINEERING)

Now.

 I'm not kidding. If you are in year 12 and going into year 13, you need to start now. Admittedly, this is most important for Oxbridge admissions, but from the people around me who were applying, I can confirm, Oxbridge do not play! Get good at time management, multiple choice, quick Maths and Physics/any other science you do. Most science papers have a section where you can do multiple choice, so make sure you are banging that out, and aiming for accuracy and speed. Try to do 15 multiple choice questions a day, but don't do too many near the time of assessment, to avoid burn out. 

The list from the interview resources are just as good for pre-interview assessment.

AND WELL DONE READER, YOU HAVE REACHED THE END!

As promised, I will now do my university reveal. 

I applied to Manchester, Warwick, Imperial College, UCL for electronic engineering and University of Cambridge for Engineering, and got back all five offers. I firmed University of Cambridge with Imperial College as my insurance (to the disapproval of my teachers). Half a year later, I have 4 A*s and will be attending the University of Cambridge!

I haven't talked about it too much on this blog because it has always been my private dream but now that it has been actualised, I will be talking about it a whole lot more! 

This post in particular has so much information on admissions assessments, so please, share this with anyone you know who would benefit from it. And do not forget to SUBSCRIBE (check out the button in the right hand corner of the page when you scroll up). I can't wait to talk to you all soon!

EO